Pageof 4ZOOM
OVERVIEW
This lab is meant to provide a brief history of personal
Pageof 4ZOOM
OVERVIEW
This lab is meant to provide a brief history of personal computers by introducing you to
the “Commodore 64,” a personal computer that debuted in August 1982. The Commodore 64 is
credited with being the “best-selling desktop computer of all time” according to Guinness
World Records. The Commodore 64 was an 8-bit computer and had 64 kilobytes (yes,
kilobytes!) of RAM, hence the name “Commodore 64.” The Operating System (OS) was the
Commodore KERNAL/BASIC 2.0 and featured a simple deployment of the original BASIC high-
level programming language. The Commodore 64 CPU ran at 1 MHz and the computer was able
to host various peripheral devices (floppy drives, printer, modem, etc.).
OBJECTIVE
Given the following instructions, utilize an online Commodore 64 emulator and write a BASIC
program described below. In addition, research and answer the questions found after the
“Instructions” section. The purpose of your research and answering the questions is meant to
give you a longitudinal (time-based) perspective of system/software evolution, while
recognizing early contributions of personal computers that we may recognize today.
RESOURCES
• Computer, or laptop computer meeting College of Business, Information Systems &
Cyber Security Majors specifications: https://business.utsa.edu/laptop-policy/
• Internet access with an appropriate browser such as Chrome or Firefox
• Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint) with the ability to create a .PDF
EVALUATION
Your grade will be based on meeting the following criteria within the scheduled timeline:
• Complete all BASIC coding exercises. (40%)
• Supply screenshots of code and results in a PowerPoint presentation. (20%)
• Answer all questions at the end of the lab in your 500-word lab report. (40%)
INSTRUCTIONS
• YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEImfAielKo
• To complete this lab use one of these C64 online emulators:
• Make sure to use the “Virtual Keyboard” since some keys won’t be recognized in the emulator.Hello World
• Let’s start with a very simple BASIC program.
• When writing a BASIC program you must number your lines, so be sure to do so.
• Be sure to use the virtual keyboard provided to you on the website.
This program only requires one line of code:
10 PRINT “HELLO, WORLD!”
• Go to the next line and execute your code by typing “RUN” and hitting Enter.
• Take a screenshot of your code and results.
• Let’s take it a step further and add an input:
10 PRINT “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”
20 INPUT NAME$
30 PRINT “WELL, HELLO “; NAME$
RUN
• Take a screenshot of your code and results.
Celsius to Fahrenheit Conversion
• This is a little more involved so be sure to pay attention to your coding.
• Let’s start with printing a nice title for our new program:
10 PRINT “-TEMPERATURE CONVERSION-“
• We are going to take a temperature given to us and convert it either to Fahrenheit or Celsius
depending on the input of the user:
20 INPUT “ENTER TEMP”; TEMP
• Now we must tell the computer what to do with that input. We need a formula for if we are
converting to Celsius and a separate formula for if we are converting to Fahrenheit:
o Celsius:
30 X = (TEMP-32)*5/9
o Fahrenheit:
40 Y = (TEMP*9/5)+32
• Looks like we forgot an important part of our program. We need to get an input from the
user to know if we are converting the temperature to Celsius or Fahrenheit. This code needs
to go before our conversion formulas. We could rewrite everything, or we can take
advantage of our line numbering. We have been numbering in tens to leave space for
instances like this when we need to add code later.
• Let’s get the input from the user on what we are converting to:
15 INPUT “PRESS [F] FOR F TO C, PRESS [C] FOR C TO F”; C$
• The program might look a little funny now, but we will fix that later.
• Now we need to print our results depending on the input from line 15:
50 IF C$ = “F” THEN PRINT “CELSIUS : “; X
60 IF C$ = “C” THEN PRINT “FAHRENHEIT: “;
• Now to fix the order of your code you can input:
LIST
• Then hit Enter so your code will be in order.
• When you are ready to RUN your program, take screenshots of your code and results.QUESTIONS
1. What made the C64 so popular? Name at least two different reasons and explain why.
2. What is the significance of the number 64 in Commando 64?
3. What is the reasoning behind numbering your code lines in BASIC in increments of 10?
4. What were some of the C64’s competitors? Name at least two.
Lab Report: Explain the steps you took in completing this lab and provide your answers to the
above questions in a 500-word, single-spaced, 12 pt, Times New Roman font Word or .pdf
document and upload along with your PowerPoint presentation of the screen captures. No title
page is required. Use the naming convention of lastname_firstname_IS3513_Lab X.xxx
Leave a Reply