Inside The Commodore 64 is for the machine-code addict, as it consists of a complete disassembly of the C64's Basic and Kernal ROMs.

If you've completed Machine Code Master and want to understand more about how the C64 functions, this book is probably the best way. Although Using The 64 has a list of ROM entry points, Inside The 64 is much better documented (almost each line): and it is complete within itself too.

The disassembly is in two parts - the Basic and the Kernal. Each is fully cross-referenced, so that all references say to location $7A can be identified. All subroutines, branches and jumps are also cross-referenced: tracing program flow is that much easier like this, and it lets you find out where subroutines are called from - no mean task in 16K of machine code.

Incidentally, through reading this book I think I've actually found a bug in Commodore's programming. The OPEN and CLOSE file statements call the same subroutine to evaluate parameters; so OPEN 1,3,8, "FRED" and CLOSE 1,3,8, "FRED" will both work. But CLOSE 1,2,3,4 gives an error and CLOSE 1,2,3 only closes channel 1, not 1, 2 and 3.

My complaints about this book are that it is badly bound and very expensive (it's a US import, available in the UK at just under £13) - my own copy has been extensively thumbed and several pages are now loose. Nevertheless, if you are into serious C64 machine code programming, it is a must! A must for serious machine code programmers.