Curriculum map

How the whole course fits together.

Code Like It's 198x is not a pile of disconnected lessons. It has layers: foundations before languages, primers before full tracks, Craft before repeated cross-machine technique, and reference once an idea has somewhere real to point.

01Before a language

Foundations

General programming, numbers, bits, and the idea of translation from source to running program.

02First concrete route

Language primers

Meet BASIC, assembly, AMOS, Blitz or another route as that machine actually speaks it.

03Cross-machine technique

The Craft

Game-making ideas that transfer: cheap maths, visible rules, timing, state, collision and feel.

04Actual application

Machine tracks

The registers, screen memory, sound chips, ROM calls, frame loops and complete games for one machine.

05Reference shelf

Pattern Library

Reusable recipes and distilled patterns once an idea has been taught somewhere concrete.

Core route

For a new learner

  1. Foundations if the programming ideas are new.
  2. Pick a machine route: BASIC, assembly, AMOS, Blitz, or whatever that system supports.
  3. Use The Craft when a game-making idea should transfer across machines.
  4. Build the machine-track games in order; each turns general ideas into real code.
  5. Return to the Pattern Library when you need a compact recipe.

How lessons repeat

Not everything appears once

A primer teaches the first vocabulary for a route. Later games can pause for mid-language modules when they need a new idiom or feature. Craft modules teach transferable technique, then machine tracks show the version that survives a real screen layout, CPU, toolchain and frame budget.

Shared layers

Things taught once, then reused.

Foundations

General ProgrammingThe ideas every program is built from — sequence, variables, loops, decisions, and how to debug — taught language-neutrally and shown running in Sinclair BASIC. The universal first step, before any machine or language.Numbers & BitsHow computers count — binary, hex, and two's complement — and the bit logic that reads and combines them. The language-neutral foundation the assembly on-ramp stands on, shown running in Sinclair BASIC.From Source to SiliconHow the program you write becomes something a machine can run — interpreting, compiling, and assembling — and why that one choice is the difference between a game that keeps up and one that can't. The last foundation before you meet a machine, shown running in Sinclair BASIC.

The Craft

Maths for GamesThe handful of arithmetic tricks every game leans on — movement, direction, distance and chance — on machines with no fast multiply, no fractions, no square root and no sine. How to get the answer the machine hates to compute, cheaply, by trading a little exactness or memory for a lot of speed. Shown in Sinclair BASIC.Game FeelThe small rules that make a game feel fair, readable and finished: visible feedback, grace windows, ending dwells and clocked prompts. How to make the rules legible before each machine turns them into timers, branches and sprite writes.

Machine routes

Where the ideas become code.

These are the active system routes on the site today. The map shows entry paths, not every planned game.

C64

live
  • BASICMeet C64 BASIC · 8/32 games complete
  • AssemblyMeet the Machine · 1/16 games complete

Amiga

live
  • AMOSMeet AMOS · 0/10 games complete
  • BlitzMeet Blitz · 0/7 games complete
  • AssemblyMeet the Machine · 1/16 games complete
Trust layerSources & Standards

What counts as checked, cited, built, run and real.

Context layerThe Vault

The people, companies, games, hardware and culture around the lessons.

Practical layerSetup Guide

Emulators, toolchains, ROMs and the first run on a real old machine.