COMPUTE!’s Kids and the Commodore 64 by Edward H. Carlson, illustrated by Paul D. Trap, is a revised 1984 beginner’s guide that teaches children—especially ages 10 to 14—how to program the Commodore 64 in BASIC through 33 short, illustrated lessons. It starts with the basics of using the computer, entering and running programs, screen colors, keyboard commands, variables, input, loops, conditionals, random numbers, and saving to disk, then builds toward more creative topics such as graphics, sound effects, string handling, action games, music, arrays, sprites, user-friendly programs, and debugging. The book is structured for self-study or classroom use, with notes for parents and teachers, exercises, review questions, assignments, answers, a glossary, error-message explanations, and indexes, making it both a programming course and a hands-on path for kids to create their own games, school tools, and simple applications.

COMPUTE!’s More Machine Language Games for the Commodore 64 is a 1987 collection of seven fast arcade-style machine-language games for the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 in 64 mode, originally published in COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!’s Gazette. The book includes Space Arena, Saloon Shootout, Prisonball, Q-Bird, Bump-N-Run, Ringside Karate, and Eagles and Gators, offering two-player space combat, shooting-gallery action, Pong/Breakout-style competition, grid-based survival, ball-stealing arena play, joystick karate fighting, and a technically impressive split-screen game with 16 animated sprites. Beyond the games themselves, it provides MLX-formatted machine-language listings for easier typed entry, instructions for loading and playing each game, an Automatic Proofreader, and complete assembled source code plus a “Fast Assembler” section, making it useful both for players and for Commodore programmers who want to study how compact, high-speed arcade games were built.

COMPUTE!’s Personal Accounting Manager for the Commodore 64 and 128 by Roland A. Frechette is a 1985 book/software package that turns a Commodore 64—or a Commodore 128 running in 64 mode—into a menu-driven personal finance and small-business accounting system. Built around the PAM program and 13 supporting routines, it uses cash-basis accounting to track income, expenses, adjustments, account balances, investments, property, unpaid bills, planned income, planned expenditures, balance sheets, and income/expense statements. The book walks the user through setting up personal data, income categories, expense accounts, bank/cash codes, monthly data disks, backup disks, reports, and printer output, while also including full BASIC program listings, typing instructions, and the Automatic Proofreader. Its goal is practical financial control: enter data once, generate organized reports, compare planned versus actual spending, monitor assets and liabilities, and better understand where money is going.

COMPUTE!’s Second Book of Commodore 64 is a 1984 anthology of programs, tutorials, utilities, games, and reference material drawn from COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!’s Gazette for Commodore 64 users of many skill levels. It includes practical applications such as SpeedScript, a machine-language word processor, plus a mailing list manager and spreadsheet; games such as Spike and Martian Prisoner; educational programs including Wordspell, Munchmath, and The Note Name Game; sound articles and tools for working with the SID chip; graphics tutorials on custom characters, sprites, and motion; programming lessons on function keys, arrays, and adding new BASIC keywords; and utilities such as SuperBASIC 64, Copyfile, program merging, and a program recovery tool. The appendices add typing guidance, screen/code tables, keycodes, MLX, and the Automatic Proofreader, making the book both a software collection and a practical Commodore 64 programming reference.

COMPUTE!’s Second Book of Commodore 64 is a 1984 anthology of programs, tutorials, utilities, games, and reference material drawn from COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!’s Gazette for Commodore 64 users of many skill levels. It includes practical applications such as SpeedScript, a machine-language word processor, plus a mailing list manager and spreadsheet; games such as Spike and Martian Prisoner; educational programs including Wordspell, Munchmath, and The Note Name Game; sound articles and tools for working with the SID chip; graphics tutorials on custom characters, sprites, and motion; programming lessons on function keys, arrays, and adding new BASIC keywords; and utilities such as SuperBASIC 64, Copyfile, program merging, and a program recovery tool. The appendices add typing guidance, screen/code tables, keycodes, MLX, and the Automatic Proofreader, making the book both a software collection and a practical Commodore 64 programming reference.

Computer Games Micromasters is a 1984 beginner-friendly programming book by Patricia Grady that teaches readers to type in and experiment with simple computer games, originally written for the ZX Spectrum with conversion lines for the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, and Commodore 64. It contains thirteen games—including Meteor Storm, Alien Invaders, Bananas, Spider’s Web, Target Practice, Fortune-Teller, Grand Slalom, Laser Locksmith, Blockbuster, Mu Torere, Cops and Robbers, Sorcerer’s Steps, Parcel Drop, and Forgery—with each section providing a playful scenario, instructions for playing, BASIC program listings, machine-specific variations, and notes explaining how the program works. The book encourages young programmers to alter colours, messages, difficulty, and speed, making it both a collection of type-in games and an accessible introduction to BASIC game programming on 1980s home computers.

Computer Projects by Malcolm Neave is a 1985 beginner-friendly programming book containing five practical BASIC projects for the BBC Micro, Electron, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum: An Intelligence Program, Quiz Writer, Secret Files, Word Power, and Adventure. The book explains how to type, adapt, save, and load programs and data files, while teaching foundational programming concepts such as variables, strings, arrays, ASCII codes, and program logic. Each project includes operating instructions, line-by-line explanations, and machine-specific alterations, allowing readers to create useful and entertaining programs while learning BASIC programming techniques.

Computer Spy Games by Jenny Tyler and Chris Oxlade is a 1984 Usborne/Scholastic collection of type-in BASIC spy-themed programs for the Commodore 64, VIC-20, Apple, TRS-80, BBC Micro, Electron, and ZX Spectrum. Its games and activities include Spy Eyes, Searchlight, Robospy, Spy Q Test, Secret Message Maker, Rendezvous, and Morse Coder, allowing readers to test observation skills, avoid guards, track agents, decode messages, navigate an illustrated spy mission, and learn Morse code. Each program includes explanations, adaptation ideas, conversion lines for different computers, and puzzle answers, making it both an entertaining spy-game book and an accessible introduction to BASIC programming.

This book aims to provide something for everybody from 6 to 96. There are games to play on your own, and others to play with your family and friends. You will find fast action games to test your reflexes and your ability to control many moving objects on the screen; puzzles and brain teasers to get you thinking; board games where you pit your wits against the computer; and, of course, some wonderful arcade-type games which combine aspects of all of these. There are also ,orne very intriguing games which are in a class of their own.

Many people who play arcade games take them for granted. But when you try to program such a game on your 64, you quickly learn to appreciate the amount of work and creativity behind every game.  Characters and sprites on the screen, movement, collisions, sounds, and screen displays must be fit together into a complex, yet complete, whole. All this can be rather intimidating, especially if you're just starting.

This book takes you step by step through the process of designing and then programming a game. The principles and techniques of writing arcade games are outlined clearly and in detail, including examples from the six complete games provided in the book. The 64's sound, graphics, and sprite capabilities are fully demonstrated, and are shown in actual programming situations which you can duplicate.

You'll see how to develop a game from an idea and, using examples from successful arcade games, you'll learn what makes a good game. Techniques of setting up a playing field for your game are shown, as well as how to create the figures that will move across the screen. You'll even learn how to make the computer control game opponents while the player moves a figure with the keyboard or joystick controls. And the
extras—such as sounds and graphic title displays—are not forgotten. As you read through the book, you'll actually create your own arcade-style game.

Your personal computer is a powerful machine. It can calculate faster than any clerk, print documents faster than any typist, and play chess with the masters. Your software library is probably full of such applications, along with games, utilities, and educational software.

But a computer can do a lot more than run software. It can be a sophisticated controller which turns lights on and off, monitors your home's windows and doors, and makes robot limbs move. To accomplish these tasks, however, you need sensors, motor circuits, and other electronic devices. That's why you need Electronic Computer Projects.

This book is a step-by-step guide to building a variety of electronic devices, from the simple to the sophisticated. With complete and concise instructions anyone can follow, and accompanied by detailed photographs and figures, Electronic Computer Projects is the book with which you can teach your Commodore or Atari personal computer valuable new tricks.

This book is for anyone interested in the world of adventure games on the Commodore 64.

Whether you like to play them, write them, or write about them, this book has been written with you in mind. More specifically, it is aimed at the person who loves to get absorbed in a game for hours on end. has always wanted to write one of his own, but has taken one look at a listing of someone else's game and thought 'There is no way that r could write something like that!'.

This book shows you how to write a fully fledged adventure game, with unique sections on room mapping, data structure, input routines, verb handling, and everything you'll need to know to write an adventure
of your own.

Learn how to control and customize your Epson printer. Make it do everything you want it to do. Produce professional, good-looking documents quickly and easily. This complete guide will show you how. And if you're a first-time buyer, l will help you choose the Epson dot-matrix printer that's exactly right for your microcomputer and your kind of work.

Adventure games add a playful dimension to owning a home computer. This book gives examples of action-filled video games that bring you hours of fun; soon you will be writing your own original games for fun - and profit.

These games were written on a Commodore 64 microcomputer but can be easily adapted to any comparable home computer. While you need not be a programming whiz to understand and enjoy these programs, beginners will want to become familiar with BASIC programming.

NOTE - The disk that accompanies this book is included inside the PDF and can be saved out as a .D64 image.

Home Energy Applications on Your Personal Computer by David E. Pitts is a 1983 collection of practical type-in programs designed to help homeowners analyze and reduce household energy costs using a personal computer. Supporting systems including the Commodore 64, VIC-20, PET/CBM, Atari, Apple, TI-99/4A, Radio Shack Color Computer, and OSI, the book provides tools for maintaining an energy-use database, plotting utility consumption and costs, estimating electricity usage, auditing heating and cooling efficiency, studying heat conduction, comparing air conditioners, evaluating window heat loss and solar gain, assessing window shading, and estimating the benefits of ceiling fans. Rather than offering generic conservation advice, its programs use information about a home, local climate, utility expenses, and potential improvements such as insulation, storm windows, weather-stripping, or thermostat changes to project savings and help readers make informed energy-efficiency investments.

Welcome to Info World's Essential Guide to the Commodore 64. This book will help you get the most out of your Commodore 64. Whether you already own a Commodore system or are trying to decide which computer to buy, we think
you'll find this guide essential.

This book will show you how to write computer programs using your Commodore 64, but what is a program, and why do you need one? The simplest answer is that a program tells acomputer to do something, and you need it because without it the machine can do only very simple things.

This is the first of the Itty Bitty Bytes books in the Creative Pastimes series for the Commodore 64 Computer. Each book in the series is designed to bring you twenty fun programs and, at the same time, teach you something about BASIC. Typing in the programs is hard work. Often it will be necessary for you to translate the directions on the printout in order to know what keys to press on the keyboard. You must be careful to number the lines exactly, spell the words correctly, and put in all the required punctuation. But you will feel extra good when your program runs smoothly!

Joe's 2nd Book for the C64 by Joseph E. Gordon - This book is a collection of tips, reviews and type-in programs from various sources.  I'm not so sure this should be considered a book in the traditional sense because what it covers is so broad and really not in much depth.  It seems more like a diary of things Joe has worked on or played with since his 1st book.  All the same, it has some good information and references some interesting and useful software.

Here's a link to Joe's First Book for the C64

Joe's First Book For The C64 by Joseph Gordon - As quoted by the author:

"I had a Commodore 64 as a kid and had a few books, games, magazines, disk drive, printer and a tape drive. I typed in many programs from the books and magazines and even created my own programs. When my C64 broke, I sold everything. When I heard about the C64 Maxi, I got nostalgic and starting using VICE 3.3, a Commodore 64 emulator. Even though working with my C64 taught me that I didn’t want to be a programmer, I wanted to re-create some of the programs I wrote long ago and share them. This book is the result."

Here is a link to over 150 Commodore related YouTube videos Joe has created.  There are some nice videos on setting up VICE and using GEOS amongst others.

Looking for strategy games that provide both challenge and entertainment on your Commodore 64?

Here are six intriguing games you can play with a friend, your computer, or all by yourself! A potpourri of intelligent games for the entire family, Mind Moves includes:

• AEROJAM: A resource management game. Try to control the arrival and departure of strange spacecraft in an unfamiliar world.
• ESCAPADE: An adventure game. Can you explore the mysteries and survive the dangers, and still manage to remove the treasures?
• HOTSHOT: A cushion billiards simulation. Line up your shots and try to outscore your opponents.
• QUICKWIT: A trivia/quiz game. Answer multiple choice questions faster than your opponent.
• QUICKWORD: A fascinating twist to the classic game of anagrams. Unscramble your opponents word list faster than they can unscramble yours.
• VERTIGO: A dizzying board game. The first player to line up the helium balloons wins .

This book is full of clearly explained instructions and examples to help you begin playing your mind moving games right away! You can either buy the book/software package and have a disk with the
programs ready to run on your Commodore 64, or you can type in the programs yourself for disk or cassette .

Q-Link Public Domain Software Directory 1990-1991 is a neat listing of all the public domain software available on the Q-Link service back in the days.

If a COMMODORE 64 dies after the warranty expires the owner has the option of finding a local repair shop or sending it off to Commodore.

Another option and the subject of this manual is fixing it yourself. How useful the tips found here will be depends on your electronics experience and resources. Even the most  experienced technician can save a lot of time with repair history on a machine he has not worked on before. On the other extreme, some people may have great difficulty with the simplest repairs. Where you fit will determine how far you want to troubleshoot. This manual will be of use to electronic repair centers by bypassing some of the learning curve that goes with taking on any new line of equipment, in this case the Commodore 64.

The Best of The TORPET was difficult to edit. Not because the material was difficult to understand, or poorly organized, or of poor quality, but simply because there was so much good stuff to choose from and squeeze into 320 pages. I started out with nearly 1500 pages of material and squeezed, squeezed and squeezed.

Link - Program Disk

Programming tips and tricks are timesavers that make a programmer’s life much easier. The Big Tip Book For The Commodore contains some of the most popular and useful shortcuts ever designed for the Commodore 64/64c/128 —tips and tricks which have been developed and used by other users and programmers.

THE BLUE BOOK IS THE ESSENTIAL REFERENCE FOR EVERY COMMODORE COMPUTER USER!

This New Premiere Edition Contains:

• Over 1,650 Software and Hardware Products For Commodore Computers!
• Programs in 47 Different Categories, Including 3 Brand New Categories!
• A Complete Index Of More Than 700 Software Sources With Names and Addresses
• A new “Key-Word” Index that Helps You Find Programs For Your Application — Fast!
• New Reader Action Cards!

The Blue Book Is The Ultimate Software Shopping Guide For The Commodore 64,The VIC-20, And The Commodore Pet. No Commodore Owner Or User Should Be W ithout The Blue Book, Your Best Commodore Accessory!

What can we learn from the computing pioneers of the 60's that will help us today? Perhaps most important is the discipline of thoroughly analyzing a problem, breaking it down into manageable steps, and solving it a step at a time. It is also important to determine what can be done "off line" and what must be done on the computer.

That is what this book is all about. While it has more than 50 ready-to-run programs, the main thing you should look for from the book is an approach to solving problems-big and small. Some of the problems demonstrate the capability of the computer; others identify its shortcomings. It is important to be familiar with both the strengths and weaknesses of your tools so you can recognize the types of jobs for which they are suitable (and not suitable).

This book focuses primarily on mathematical and educational applications for the computer. There are many other excellent sources of information about other applications and for  making best use of your personal computer.Using the approaches described in this book should enable you to easily convert programs and use applications from other books and magazines such as Creative Computing.

This book is designed to be read with a working computer at hand. While there is textual material to be read, the most important things are the experiments and problems to be tried with your own computer. The book raises many questions for which you should try to find answers. There are no answers to these questions and problems in the back of the book; you should be able to discover the answers as you work the problems out on your computer.

You will be able to incorporate many of the routines and approaches in the book into programs of your own as you use your computer to deal with "real world" problems. Other programs will simply point you in the right direction. And some of the programs in the book are just plain fun. Learn. Experiment. Have fun!

THE COMMODORE 64 USER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA is the complete ready reference book that is a must for every Commodore 64 owner.

This comprehensive book will answer your questions, give you "inside" information, and greatly increase your use and enjoyment of your computer. It covers every aspect of using the Commodore 64.

• Explains programming lang~es, including BASIC
• Guides you through DOS, CBM ASCII. the KERNAL, etc.
• Simplifies operating procedures
• Describes hundreds of softWare packages and halbware accessories, with detailed vendor information
• Lists publications. users' groups, and other information sources
• Clarifies general microcomputer terminology and concepts and much more.

This is the book that will show you how to use your Commodore 64 in a matter of hours. Right away you will become familiar with the keyboard, video screen, and add-on devices.

You can learn how easy it is to write your own BASIC programs. Or, if you prefer, you can skip programming and learn how to get started with commercially available software.

You will quickly learn to:

• Create video graphics
• Use your disk drives
• Make forecasts and simulations
• Customize pre-recorded programs to your needs
• Expand your system with useful accessories
• And much more

Everything you need to know to get started with your Commodore 64 personal computer is revealed in a friendly, jargon-free style.

This book will answer all your questions about your Commodore 64, and the world of computers. It is both a machine specific handbook concentrating on one machine alone and a general computer book of real practical use if you have a Commodore 64.

The Micro Enquirer explains all the important aspects of using your computer, with useful listings to act as a practical guide.. Topics covered include:

• Printers
• Communications
• Floppy disks
• Programming languages
• Memory
• Software design
• Bulletin boards
• Cassettes
• Games
• Wordprocessors
• Home control
• Modems
• Programming techniques

This book does not just concentrate on the peculiarities of your machine, but also puts the technology in perspective by looking at its development, history and influence. It is a reference book too, with a full index offering rapid access to the information you need; lists of codes, instruction sets, interface pin functions and explanations of technical terms.

The Micro Enquirer is the book for anyone with a Commodore 64 and an enquiring mind.

The Modern Commodore 64 - by Payton Byrd.  This is a neat little book that Payton wrote back in 2014.  It would be neat to see this updated for 2023.  Here follows the authors introduction:

The Commodore 64 personal computer is still the best selling model of personal computer of all times. Introduced in January 1982, the Commodore 64 was the successor to Commodore Business Machine's wildly popular VIC-20. The Commodore 64 built on the architecture of the VIC-20, but was not backwards compatible beyond simple BASIC games that did not utilize any hardware-specific features of either computer.

In 1982, the world had never seen anything like the Commodore 64 at anywhere near the Commodore 64's price. The closest thing to a competitor for the Commodore 64 was the Atari 800 which was significantly more expensive and lacked the incredible sound capabilities of the Commodore 64. The heart of that sound prowess of the Commodore 64 is the 6581 SID chip, which to this day makes the Commodore 64 a sought-after machine by the Electronic music crowd as well as modern sceners who create incredible arrangements using a single SID chip. You should really listen to this You Tube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azgZ5Qw8ass) to get a sense of what sceners are accomplishing on the SID and C64 today.

This book is written as an information guide for those who wish to learn about and experiment with software protection and duplication methods.

Here's a link to the disk that accompanies the book.

Here is the perfect source of ideas and expert guidance for getting the most out of your Commodore! Well-known Commodore authority Louis F. Sander has put together this compendium of over 600 hints and bits of advice taken from his popular Commodore Magazine column "Tips and Tricks." It includes valuable information on virtually every aspect of computing, from
simple hardware tips to machine language programming to designing your computer room, and includes over 150 programs.

This book is designed for those who would like to do a little more with their Commodore 64 than draw pretty patterns on the screen, or make it speak to them in a collection of weird and wonderful bleeps and burbles.

This book will show you how to do those things, but I hope that the information contained here, along with the many example programs, will help and encourage you to go further in your exploration of the Commodore 64.

We commence with a swift gallop through Basic and Machine Code programming, before looking at colour, graphics and sound in some detail.

After considering the more common peripherals that can be linked up to a 64, we then move on to the four major chips within the computer, namely the 6566 Video Interface Chip, the 6581 Sound Interface Device, the 6510 processor itself, and the 6526 Complex Interface Adaptor.

Finally, the comprehensive appendixes should tell you all you need to know about Basic, Machine Code, and the inner workings of your machine. They also include a number of useful charts and a complete listing for an assembler/disassembler for the 64 (thanks Jim!).

USING THE COMMODORE 64 IN THE HOME offers 20 exciting, original, and easy-to-use programs which can be entered into the Commodore 64 computer directly through the keyboard, without any extra disk or cassette equipment.

These programs cover the whole range of home uses for the Commodore 64: there are programs for financial management, such as checkbook balancers, family budget managers, and loan calculators. There are nutrition planning programs, data management programs which (with storage media) will let you throwaway all of your index cards and file cabinets, and educational programs which will catapult your family to the top of their class. There's even an astrology program to entertain friends with, and help you see the future.

And there are games! Ten unique, captivating, amazing games which make use of the astonishing graphics and sound capabilities of the Commodore 64 computer. You can create your own ecological simulation, supervising a whole animal world where only the hardy survive. You can defend a kingdom, travel the outer reaches of space, track down a deadly arsonist, create alien forms of life, and pilot your own plane with a real flight simulator. There are magic mazes to thread your way through, and a program which will teach you more about the sound synthesizing capabilities of the Commodore 64 than you ever thought possible.

And, USING THE COMMODORE 64 IN THE HOME is a highly effective learning-by-using user's guide. Each of the 20 programs is complete with a simple, but extensive, discussion of the programming techniques which went into making up the program. Most BASIC commands are used. By the time you have reviewed and run each program you will be familiar with them. Major concepts are explained, and interesting twists which make especial use of the Commodore 64's unique design are described. All the means are there so that you can modify or elaborate upon the listings to make your own original games.

USING THE COMMODORE 64 IN THE HOME is a long step towards fulfilling for you the promise offered by the new, exciting world of home computing.