Coding for the 64 with Visual Studio

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new blog.

Today I ask the question: Can modern tooling be purposed in such a way to make coding for retro platforms easy?

Now I know many retro coders already have their full on setups - they code in assem, use modern cross platform assemblers, test against emulators like VICE etc, then can auto push code to a real 64 and debug within seconds...

Sounds great. But pulling all this together sounds tough. It takes time. These people are elite - and I hold them in high regard for their dedication to the platform. Their abilities are a testimony to the time and effort they have all put in to their craft.

But for me - I'm a modern coder with a 40 year old head on my shoulders. I code in things like Visual Studio 2010 - but my memories go back to when I was a young boy coding 8-bit...

For me, it's not about authoring cool retro 64 games. It's about that simple question I posed earlier. I want to try something silly. I want to code for the Commodore 64 using Visual Studio. I want an assembly editor with highlighting. I want a debugger/machine code monitor IN the VS application - connected to my c64 emulator.

Better yet, I want a .NET port of either frodo or VICE to be highly integrated into Visual Studio itself...

Why?

I mostly don't know. But I guess one thing is clear. Coding for older 8-bit platforms is mostly a lost art. To be honest, I've forgotten how to code assembly. I can't remember the fine details of the c64 memory map - because I was never really a great coder when I was younger anyway. But I want to change that. I want to become good now! And to do that, I really want to see modern tooling target older platforms because it makes them re-discoverable. Back in your face. Younger coders don't know 8-bit at all, but modern computing is still founded on the basic principles that underscore these platforms of old.  

Let me know what you think! Leave a comment below if you've got any views on this. Am I mad? Can it be done? What would be your perfect development set-up?