C64 Basic: Game Map Overhead "Camera View"

This article explains how to implement an Ultima-style overhead camera view in Commodore 64 BASIC by separating the concept of a full world map from a smaller visible viewport that follows the player. The author provides a first-draft, unoptimized code example that demonstrates the core logic: tracking the player's position in the world, calculating which portion of the map to display, and rendering an 11×11 tile window centered on the player while clamping the camera to map boundaries. The article is part of a series that will progressively optimize this approach for better performance on the C64.