the BASIC 8 package was provided, and the BASIC 8.0 disk lacked any sort of copy protection, but this was before the Open Source Initiative; it was done as a courtesy. Instead of threatening legal action, Walrusoft simply asked users not to copy the software in the documentation. It worked; BASIC 8.0 became one of the best selling expansions for the C128. Sample commands In BASIC 8.0, all added commands were prefaced with the @ mark, which was not normally used in Commodore BASIC, to distinguish between the original and the new keywords. The use of this character would allow the developer to extend BASIC 7.0 without having to re-tokenize the commands as it was done on the C64. It was accomplished by trapping the syntax error generated by the command. @CHAR – Displays a text string on a bitmap field (similar to the BASIC 7.0's low-res CHAR command) @MODE – Switch between one of up to 32 high-res screens @PAINT – Fill a closed area with a color or a pattern @PIXEL – Returns the color value of a pixel @STASH – Copies part or all of a screen for later usage @WALRUS – Displays the Walrusoft logo and the type/size of video RAM used (16K or 64K) @WINDOWOPEN – Define part of the screen as a 'window' for purposes of drawing References notes and citations References Notes The VDC was programmed by writing commands to and reading status messages from a single control register and transferring data between system RAM and the chip's dedicated video RAM (16 or 64 KB, depending on C128 version) via a single data register, following a relatively complex protocol a laborious and slow procedure compared with the straightforward use of the several discrete, memory mapped control/status registers the shared system/video memory setup of the VIC-II. Many programmers took advantage of a VDC control primitive buried deep within the part of the KERNAL that controlled the 80 column video display, rather than writing their own primitive. Citations External links (270-KB text file) From the Project 64 documentation project BASIC extensions Commodore 128 software