This book has never strayed more than a few feet away from my C64 since I got hold of it. It really is a goldmine, aimed particularly at the Machine Code programmer, and it's full of useful routines.

Half the book is occupied by a disassembly of the Basic and Kernal ROM. The disassembly is very well documented, and switches between hex, ASCII and disassembly as appropriate for jump tables, command word lists and programs. It is easily the best disassembly for the C64 I have seen; so good that I would have bought the book for it alone.

However, this book has more to offer. The first chapter deals with machine code programming on the C64, giving many useful tables of ROM calls, and devoting a lot of time to I/O from machine language. Other chapters deal with the advantages of assembly language as opposed to pure machine-code programms: the C64's hardware and memory configurations, and the workings of the Basic interpreter, including how to expand Basic - with working examples.

Three chips dealt with in individual chapters are the SID (mainly sound), the VIC (graphics) and CIA (I/O).

It's a pity that this book is so expensive, but it costs just as much to buy in the USA. Even taking the price into consideration, I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good 'anatomy' book for the C64. In summary, it's an expensive goldmine.