Framework Patterns

Game loops, state machines, interrupts

Patterns

Platforms

Commodore 64

1 pattern

Simple frame-synchronised game loop using the raster register. Foundation for all C64 games.

4 patterns

Frame-synchronised game loop using the HALT instruction. Locks to 50Hz for consistent timing across all Spectrums.

Draw a 1-cell border around the play area with title and footer bars. The standard game screen layout.

Organise game flow with distinct states (title, playing, game over). Clean separation of game phases.

Centre text on any row and clear rows — two tiny subroutines used in every BASIC game.

2 patterns

Frame-synchronised game loop using the NMI interrupt for VBlank timing and OAM DMA transfer.

Standard NES initialisation: disable interrupts, wait for PPU, clear RAM. Required boilerplate for every NES program.

2 patterns

Disable AmigaOS interrupts and DMA to take full control of the hardware. Required for bare-metal game programming.

Frame-synchronised game loop that waits for vertical blank using the VPOSR register. 50Hz timing on PAL systems.

2 patterns

Organise game flow with distinct states (title, playing, game over). Clean separation of game phases.

Linear Feedback Shift Register for fast, deterministic pseudo-random numbers.