SharpNinja.CbmEngine 0.5.0

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 --recurse-submodules 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 where the VICE ROMs come from 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
external/vice-sharp          The ViceSharp emulation core (git submodule)

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.