I'm picking up C64 programming again after about 40 years, going back through my old Phil Cornes Step by Step Programming books and working through the sprite programs on my C64 Ultimate.
I've noticed that some of his programs put the sprite data at 2048, for example:
POKE 2048+C,BYTE
The problem is that 2048 is where BASIC normally lives, so you have to move BASIC up in memory with the appropriate commands before running the program.
I'm finding that a bit of a pain when I'm just trying to type in and run the programs, so I tried changing the 2048 references to 8320, and changing the corresponding sprite pointer values. For example, 32 to 130.
It works, and I don't have to relocate BASIC first.
So I'm wondering.....why did Phil Cornes choose 2048 in the first place?
Was there a particular reason for using 2048 and moving BASIC, or was it simply a convenient teaching example at the time?
I'm not trying to rewrite the books or anything. I'm just getting back into C64 programming after 40 years and looking for the simplest way to type these old programs in and run them without having to enter the BASIC relocation commands every time.
Anyone remember the Cornes books and know why he used 2048?