45GS02 Quick Reference mousepads and posters now available, and a new way to support my work on the MEGA65 and the Digest!

Hey all! I hope you’re all having good holidays and a good time with your MEGA65.

We’ve all received a lot of email in the last week, so here’s the super-short version with two links to save some time:

1. New MEGA65 45GS02 Quick Reference mousepads and posters now available! Order this week and get 25% off! Use code ZCYBERDEAL23 during checkout.
2. Support my work on the MEGA65 and the Digest with Ko-fi!

Continue reading for photos and details!

New MEGA65 mousepads and posters!

During my recent experiences learning about MEGA65 assembly language, I’ve been wanting some kind of quick reference for all of the instructions supported by the 45GS02 CPU, something that sits on my desk that I can glance at to remind me of how it works. I originally thought it’d be fun to make a coffee mug, but as I iterated on a design, it became clear that it’d take several mugs to fit all of the instructions! So I wondered, what about a mousepad?

After some careful layout work and a heap of technical troubleshooting, I landed on this design, and I think it’s pretty snazzy:

I tried the same design as a 20" x 16" poster, and it’s pretty good too:

I’m happy to announce that you can now get a MEGA65 45GS02 Quick Reference mousepad and poster of your own, just in time for the holidays! Get one for yourself, and one for that special someone in your life that writes MEGA65 assembly language programs.

Features of the design:

• Every 6502, 65CE02 (4510), and 45GS02 instruction and addressing mode, color-coded by CPU
• Status register side effects
• Branch instruction flag behaviors
• CMP instruction flag behaviors
• Q virtual register layout
• MAP register layout and call pattern
• A fun colorful design that’s a joy to have on your desk or wall!
• Mousepad is also a mousepad!

Most of the cost goes to printing and distribution, by Zazzle. All remaining proceeds support my work on the MEGA65 and the Digest.

This week only, use code ZCYBERDEAL23 during checkout and get 25% off! This is Zazzle’s holiday promotion. I think the code is applied automatically. You’ll figure it out.

Here’s the store link again: https://www.zazzle.com/store/m65digest

Support the MEGA65 Digest in 2024

I have been writing the MEGA65 Digest monthly newsletter since August of 2022, fifteen full issues to date, with one more planned for this calendar year. I’m extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to donate my time to the MEGA65 project in this and other ways in the last year and a half.

Some members of our community have reached out to me to inquire about supporting my efforts through patronage. Several folks even figured out how to contribute through Substack without my ever having asked! (I think Substack asks on my behalf without my knowing, but still, that’s amazing!) Huge thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.

I am humbled to announce that you can now support the Digest and my other MEGA65 work through ko-fi.com. Ko-fi supports PayPal and Stripe as payment methods, which includes Apple Pay and major credit cards. I’m at a point where a small monthly contribution can make a big difference.

Important note: The email Digest will always be free for all. I consider the newsletter to be an essential community resource, especially for project announcements. Your contributions will benefit everyone. (My open source code contributions will also be for everyone, but I assume that goes without saying. 😅)

I am considering what fun things we can do with supporter exclusives or early access. In particular, I might re-tool the audio version of the Digest as a bonus feature, or as something else entirely. We can discuss it in the Ko-fi comments.

I will continue to welcome contributions via Substack. That’s not everybody’s favorite option and I have considered migrating to another email newsletter provider. For now, I’ll try to mention anything supporter-exclusive in both places.

A huge thank you again to everyone who has supported my efforts so far, and to everyone able to offer support going forward.

The ko-fi link: https://ko-fi.com/dddaaannn

My to-done list

Wistfully reviewing my time here so far, here are some of the things (well, most of the things) I’ve been able to do in the last year or so thanks to everyone’s support:

• Wrote the MEGA65 Welcome Guide
• Wrote 15+ issues of Dan’s MEGA65 Digest, email newsletter and audio podcast
• Assembled and distributed the Real-Time Clock replacement part for batch #1 and batch #2 owners affected by the RTC issue
• MEGA65 documentation maintainer and author since late 2022
• Wrote the new Memory chapter
• Revised the User’s Guide for a 2nd edition, including all-new chapters and a revised and tested BASIC reference, to accompany the upcoming v0.96 release
• MEGA65 ROM maintainer since version 920377
• Tested and merged ROM contributions from the development branch
• Implemented the “undo Home” feature; blog write-up
• Implemented 27 ROM bug fixes and changes, several core and Freezer fixes and changes
• Completed the new hardware keyboard scanner in the MEGA65 core (originally started by Paul), and upgraded the ROM to use it from the KERNAL and screen editor
• Wrote a semi-automated integration test driver capable of running everything uploaded to Filehost on a real MEGA65 to test outcomes with ROM and core changes
• Implemented the MEGA65 Files bot, currently available via Mastodon and RSS
• Wrote additional tutorials on MEGA65 programming
• Wrote and hosted the MEGA65 Community Survey 2023
• Gave a talk about the MEGA65 at Pacific Commodore Expo Northwest 2023
• Other minor projects: symbols source generator, BF interpreter, Welcome FAQ, ROM FAQ, a weird detour I took with GNU Autotools that didn’t amount to anything, some unimplemented designs I won’t otherwise mention

Lots of ideas for 2024, looking forward to it! And thanks again!

— Dan