Basic introduction to C64 Sprites

Old school.

Create your own SPRITE on paper. Download this PDF template to print. If you need to understand how the numbers add up, check this document that explains it well Sprite graphics C6 (PDF).

Example code that shows your Sprite creation on the C64 screen.

10 REM SHOW OF YOUR SPRITE
15 REM WITH YOUR C64
20 V=53248
22 PRINT CHR$(147): POKE V+21,0
25 POKE 53280,5: POKE 53281,1
30 POKE 2040,192
40 FOR Y = 0 TO 62
50 READ A: POKE (192*64)+Y,A
70 NEXT Y
75 POKE V+39,7
80 POKE V+23,1: POKE V+29,1
88 Y=50: X=24
90 POKE V+0,X: POKE V+1,Y
95 POKE V+21,1
100 Y=Y+1: X=X+1
110 IF Y = 255 THEN Y = 1: X=1
130 GOTO 90
10665 REM SPRITE DATA
10670 DATA 12,0,192,12,0,192
10680 DATA 3,3,0,3,3,0
10690 DATA 15,255,192,15,255,192
10700 DATA 60,252,240,60,252,240
10710 DATA 255,255,252,255,255,252
10720 DATA 207,255,204,207,255,204
10730 DATA 204,0,204,204,0,204
10740 DATA 3,207,0,3,207,0
10750 DATA 0,0,0,0,0,0
10760 DATA 0,0,0,0,0,0
10770 DATA 0,0,0

When done, type RUN and hit enter.

If you want to change color of the border or bacground
you can change the numbers at "25"

25 POKE 53280,5: POKE 53281,1

POKE 53280 is the screen border
POKE 53281 id the screen background

Try change it to 

25 POKE 53280,2: POKE 53281,6

if you want to change the color of the 
sprite, change "75"

75 POKE V+39,7
Try changing to ,1 (White)
75 POKE V+39,1

When testing use the RUN/STOP and RESTORE keys together to get your screen back to normal again.

Commodore 64 color codes

0   $00 black
1   $01 white
2   $02 red
3   $03 cyan
4   $04 purple
5   $05 green
6   $06 blue
7   $07 yellow
8   $08 orange
9   $09 brown
10  $0A pink
11  $0B dark grey
12  $0C grey
13  $0D light green
14  $0E light blue
15  $0F light grey

A little memory map overview for addresses, which can change colors using the BASIC-command POKE:

646     Textcolor
647     Color under position of cursor
53280   Color of screenframe (value of colors 0-15, 
        higher numbers result in repeating)
53281   Color of screenbackground (normal mode)
53282   Color of screenbackground 1 (used in 
        multicolor & extended color mode)
53283   Color of screenbackground 2 (used in 
        multicolor & extended color mode)
53284   Color of screenbackground 3 (extended color mode)
53285   Sprite multicolor 1 (only in multicolor mode)
53286   Sprite multicolor 2 (only in multicolor mode)
53287   Color of sprite 0
53288   Color of sprite 1
53289   Color of sprite 2
53290   Color of sprite 3
53291   Color of sprite 4
53292   Color of sprite 5
53293   Color of sprite 6
53294   Color of sprite 7

55296-56295 Color-RAM - With these memory addresses 
            the individual color of all 1000 chars 
            within the screen matrix (25 lines by 40 
            columns) can be controlled; 
            for example: POKE 55296,1 sets the first char 
            at line 0 and column 0 with the color white.

Sprite Registers

Take a look at the code for the sprite earlier and then the SPRITE #0 column in this setup. If you want to take a deeper dive and understand what every line does, please check out this document.