Show HN: Rendering Chinese text on a Commodore 64
A new GB2312 Chinese text renderer for the Commodore 64 has been developed, allowing for the display of over 2500 Simplified Chinese characters. The renderer utilizes an 8×8 bitmap font and features dynamic character caching to optimize performance. Future updates are planned to include a Pinyin input method and enhanced rendering capabilities.
- ▪The renderer supports 2501 Simplified Chinese characters using GB2312 encoding.
- ▪It employs dynamic character caching with 256 character slots to improve efficiency.
- ▪Future versions will introduce a Pinyin input method and support for multiple character sets.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
C64 GB2312 Text Renderer (han64) A GB2312 Chinese text renderer for the Commodore 64, using 8×8 bitmap fonts with dynamic character caching. Scope v1 (Rendering) 2501+ Simplified Chinese characters (GB2312 rows $B0-$D7) 8×8 pixel bitmap font (8 bytes per glyph) GB2312-encoded text display from binary files Dynamic character caching (256 character slots) Rank-based GB2312 → glyphID lookup Offline table generation in Python Runtime rendering on C64 in 6502 assembly (ACME) Scope v1.5 (Current: multiple charsets) Dual charset support (512 character slots) using raster IRQ 8×7 pixel bitmap font (7 bytes per glyph) to save space Scope v2 (Future: IME) Pinyin input method with candidate selection Interactive text editing Cursor movement and scrolling See "Future Work" section below Core…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at GitHub.