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VIC-20 in the Avalonia apps

VIC-20-specific features in the Avalonia Browser and Avalonia Desktop apps. The two runtimes share almost all of this; differences are called out inline.

For the emulated system's capabilities and current limitations, see the VIC-20 system overview.

ROMs

The VIC-20 needs the Kernal, BASIC, and character generator ROMs. The configuration dialog can download them after a license acknowledgement. See Systems / VIC-20 / ROMs for file names and other details.

Upload the ROM binaries through the VIC-20 configuration dialog, or use the auto-download option. The browser stores loaded ROMs in local storage.

Point the app at a directory containing the ROM files, or use the auto-download option. The default directory is ~/Documents/Highbyte/DotNet6502/roms/VIC20 on macOS/Linux and the corresponding Documents directory on Windows.

Display and input

The Avalonia apps provide the full VIC-I rasterizer display path, including the 22-column NTSC screen, borders, color RAM, and custom character data. A lightweight command-stream renderer is also selectable in the configuration dialog.

Keyboard input uses the shared host-agnostic VIC-20 keyboard matrix through Avalonia. The Information tab in the running app shows the host-key mapping.

Audio, joystick input, PAL mode, and RAM expansions are not currently implemented. See the VIC-20 system overview for the full list.

VIC-20 menu

The VIC-20 sidebar shared by both runtimes exposes:

  • Copy / Paste — copy the current BASIC listing to the clipboard or paste text into the running machine.
  • Load / Save — load and save BASIC .prg files, load and start a binary, and load bundled assembly or BASIC examples.
  • Configuration — choose the CPU compatibility profile and render provider, and manage the required ROMs.