To practice, I decide to attempt building the X16 Commander Sprite demo.

If you are following along, be sure to start with setting up the X16 Emulator on Raspberry Pi

I love that we're working with Python data conversion tools called from Makefiles.

This must be how Superman felt the first time he stepped foot in the Bottle City of Kandor. I have never set foot here before, but I am at home.

Here's what we need to install.

apt install make python3-pip python3-numpy
pip3 install pillow # Python Image Library

Be sure to install numpy via apt to resolve the C dependencies on Raspberry Pi.

git clone https://github.com/commanderx16/x16-demo.git
cde x16-demo/cc65-sprite
make balloon.inc
make 

The commands that get run by the Makefile are:

python3 ../tools/png2sprite.py -n balloon $< $@
cl65 -t cx16 -O -o demo.prg demo.c

So the interesting files are:

• balloon.png - A modern image!
• balloon.inc - A C include file with the converted image.
• demo.c - The program
• demo.prg - The machine readable file for X16 Commander, if all went to plan.

Now let's give it a try!

x16emu -prg ./demo.prg -run