Monthly Archives: May 2022

Zolatron 64: a bug hunter’s diary

It’s always a good day when you get a package from the fab. There’s something simultaneously exciting and daunting about unwrapping a shiny new batch of PCBs. On the one hand, there are the possibilities promised by the new device. On the other, you’re wondering whether you made some kind of mistake in the design and if the thing will… Read more »

Zolatron 64 roundup

      1 Comment on Zolatron 64 roundup

This is the 300th blog post on this site, and I thought it would be appropriate to mark the occasion with a summary of what’s happening with my Zolatron 64 6502-based homebrew computer project. You see, the thing is, I’m feel like I’m about to announce ‘mission accomplished’ for this project. And that’s not something I get to say very… Read more »

Zolatron 64: 6502 bare metal random

There’s a problem when you build your own computer and therefore have to write your own operating system. All the things you rely on when coding in other environments – such as maths functions – are not there. You have to write them yourself. The Zolatron 64, like most homebrew computers, is effectively a bare metal project. I’m writing all… Read more »

Zolatron 64: being persistent

      1 Comment on Zolatron 64: being persistent

In an earlier post, I described how I can now load software on to the Zolatron 64 6502 homebrew computer. The LOAD command was pretty basic – you couldn’t specify a file. Instead it just loaded the same file (zd.bin) which I’d have to overwrite if I wanted to load different code. Well, those days are over, and the Zolatron… Read more »