Dave Van Wagner has brought the familiar snake game to the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. This version sticks closely to the spirit of the original, delivering simple gameplay through a BASIC program that reads directly from the screen and color memory using PEEK and POKE. It’s about as low-level and hands-on as BASIC gets—no frills, just the mechanics that matter.
Controls are straightforward but flexible. Players can steer the snake using the keyboard Z and / keys for left and right turns relative to the snake’s direction. Shift combined with the cursor keys will also do the trick. Prefer a joystick? That works too—just point where you want the snake to go. If things go sideways or you want out, hitting STOP + RESTORE will reset the system and return the keyboard to normal.
This isn’t a flashy port or some reinvented version of snake. It’s a lightweight build for classic hardware that shows what can still be done with a bit of BASIC and a lot of patience. PRG and D64 files are available on GitHub, along with full source under the MIT license. It’s a solid example of BASIC programming on vintage systems, built with a clear purpose and shared freely.
GitHub Link: github.com/davervw/c-snake
