Emulators for Programming

[Homeland]

Hi Guys,

 

Please feel free to move this if its in the wrong section, I am looking to enhance the children's experience within programming

from the norm i.e. scratch and tynker etc. So I want to get the children interested and intend to start by teaching them simple programming

with a ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 Emulator before moving on to Raspberry PI etc.

 

Does anyone know the best place to acquire the emulators from as the only ones I have found at the moment need paying for and I know it's tight

but don't want to pay for them if possible :-)

Edited April 22, 2015 by Dos_Box
Thread title edited. Please give threads relevant titles!

[LosOjos]

It's certainly different, but I can't see the point personally? Teaching them in such a restrictive environment (by today's standards) seems like it could only lead to frustration to me... the reason languages like Python are so popular is because they're easy to pick up, have a wealth of libraries to help you do almost anything with them and literally thousands of peers online to help if you get stuck.

 

Am I totally missing the point?

 

EDIT: also, I don't think I've ever come across an emulator you have to pay for! Unsure about linking to sites where you can find them given the legal grey area they live in, but Google "free Spectrum/Commodore emulator" and I'd be amazed if you don't find something on page 1.

Edited April 22, 2015 by LosOjos

[Zourous]

The one of the best one's I can remember is here > CCS64 - A Commodore 64 Emulator - By Per H?kan Sundell for the C64. It was free a few years back and would hope this is still the case.

[tmcd35]

If you want BASIC then grab a CPC emulator like WinAPE. Locomotive BASIC was easily the best of the 8-bit BASICs and Amstrad have given the ROMs away for free so it's all legal and above board. BBC BASIC is a little more powerful but not as easy to do some of the graphics stuff. Commodore BASIC is great if you want to learn 6502 machine code, lots of PEEKs and POKEs to do anything.

 

Another option is an Amiga Emulator (Amiga Forever) and AMOS if you want to try some clever but reasonable easy games programming. Or better still Dark BASIC on Windows if you're gonna go down that route.

 

Personally, I'd ignore BASIC and look at PHP.