SharpNinja.CbmEngine 0.7.1

CbmEngine

CbmEngine is a .NET 10 game and media engine for the Commodore 64. Unlike a sprite framework that merely looks like a C64, CbmEngine runs a real, cycle-level VIC-II / SID / 6510 emulation (via the ViceSharp core) and gives you a C#-friendly surface over the actual hardware: real screen RAM at $0400, real sprite registers at $D000, a real SID at $D400, and real .CRT cartridges assembled with ca65/ld65.

If you already know the C64, you already know most of this engine. You write game logic in C#, but you write it against the machine: poke the registers you know, lay out the memory the way you always have, and let the emulator do the rest. The engine adds the conveniences (sprite/tilemap/music services, a windowed host, a SID-backed MIDI synth, and a custom full-motion video format) without hiding the hardware from you.

What you can build

• Native C64 games rendered by a real VIC-II, hosted in a resizable MonoGame window with point-sampled (crisp) scaling, keyboard input, and live SID audio.
• Bootable .CRT cartridges (16K standard carts) that run in VICE or on real hardware: bitmap splash carts, PSID music-player carts, and full captured-screen-plus-sprites carts.
• SID music playback from standard .sid (PSID/RSID) files, driven either per-frame from C# or by a native CIA-timer IRQ on the emulated 6510.
• MIDI-to-SID synthesis: load a standard .mid file and hear it played through the three SID voices with General MIDI patch mapping, velocity response, and pitch bend.
• CbmVid full-motion video: encode any video, animated GIF, or PNG sequence into a stream of VIC-II bitmap frames (.cbmvid) and play it back through the emulated VIC.

Documentation

Start here, then dive into the subsystem you need:

Quick start

# Prerequisites: .NET 10 SDK, and (for cartridges) the CC65 toolchain on PATH.
git clone https://github.com/sharpninja/CbmEngine.git
cd CbmEngine
dotnet build CbmEngine.slnx

# Run the Frost Point demo (assembles a PSID cart, boots it, opens a window):
dotnet run --project src/CbmEngine.Game.Sample

# Play a MIDI file through the SID:
dotnet run --project src/CbmEngine.Game.Sample -- --midi=fixtures/midi/fur_elise.mid

# Play a CbmVid video:
dotnet run --project src/CbmEngine.Game.Sample -- --video=assets/video/intro.cbmvid

See Getting Started for the full setup, including how the VICE ROMs are downloaded and cached on first run and how to install the cbmvid content tool.

Solution layout

src/
  CbmEngine.Abstractions     Interfaces and value types (IGame, ICommodoreMachine, ...)
  CbmEngine.Systems          The engine: machine, memory, sprites, tilemap, SID, cartridges, video
  CbmEngine.Pipeline         Content pipeline: VIC palette, bitmap encoder, MIDI reader, CbmVid format
  CbmEngine.Host.MonoGame    The windowed host (window, blit, input, audio, threaded pump)
  CbmEngine.Game.Sample      The runnable sample (Frost Point demo, MIDI, video)
tools/                       cbmvid CLI/GUI, fixture builders, capture analyzers
tests/                       Unit and integration tests

The ViceSharp emulation core (VIC-II / SID / 6510) is a NuGet dependency (ViceSharp.Core); there is no git submodule to initialize, and the C64 ROMs are downloaded on demand and cached per-user on first run.

License and credits

CbmEngine is built on the ViceSharp emulation core. The C64, VIC-II, and SID are trademarks of their respective owners; this project is an independent, educational engine for the platform.