Mega 65 - Recently Added Features; New Features

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CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

RECENTLY ADDED FEATURES

The MEGA65 batch #1 shipped from the factory with ROM version 920287, and a User’s Guide printed in late 2021.

The MEGA65 team has been enhancing the ROM with new features and improvements. As of 2022, the ROM is still

considered a work in progress, and MEGA65 owners are encouraged to update to the latest ROM.

Below is an incomplete list of new features that have been added since the factory ROM, or may exist in the factory

ROM but were not included in the User’s Guide. I can’t possibly keep this list up to date, but I wanted to describe a

few so you know what you’re getting with the updates. I’m leaving out the many bug ﬁxes that have also been included

in new ROMs.

Tip: MEGA65 documentation writers are keeping the downloadable PDF version of the User’s Guide up to date with

new features. Be sure to download this periodically along with ROM updates.

14.1 New features

Some of the new features that have been added since the factory-installed ROM was delivered in batch #1 include:

• Holding RUN/STOP during boot immediately enters the machine language MONITOR.

• Filename pattern matching supports # to match a single number character, and $ to match a single letter character:

DIR "ME$$*"

• To toggle between 40-column mode and 80-column mode, press ESC then press X. To go directly to 40-column

mode, use ESC then 4. To go directly to 80-column mode, use ESC then 8.

• BASIC supports arithmetic shift operators: << and >>. PRINT 7<<3

• Single-letter BASIC variables are “fast” variables stored in ﬁxed memory addresses $FD00-$FEFF.

• The PLAY and SOUND commands have improved background playback and use of SID voices, so BASIC games

can sensibly have both background music and sound eﬀects.

• Some disk commands can access ﬁles on the SD card directly (and not via a mounted D81 disk image) using the

virtual device U12. DIR U12 lists the ﬁles on the SD card. DLOAD "FILE.PRG",U12 loads a PRG ﬁle.

• BASIC programs can access screen and color memory via special byte arrays T@&(COLUMN, ROW) and

C@&(COLUMN, ROW). Screen coordinates are intuitive in both 40-column and 80-column modes.

• If you accidentally hit the HOME key, you can press ESC then HOME to return the cursor to its original position.

• You can load a program from disk by using DIR to view the directory listing, moving the cursor to the program

name, pressing / (forward slash), then pressing Return. You can load and run a program in a single step using

the up-arrow character (next to the Restore key) in the same way.