Commodore 128 Becomes Marine Vessel Tracker

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a maritime radio communications tool used to allow different vessels to identify each other and communicate their movements and other telemetry. Commodore 128 Becomes Marine Vessel Tracker. You can readily view a variety of AIS trackers online.

Alternatively, you could build your own, and display the data on a retrocomputer from 40-plus years ago. The concept is straightforward enough—it’s a Commodore 128 displaying vessel tracks from AIS data. The team behind AIS4CBM implemented this with assembly code to receive data over serial, parse and decode the AIS reports, and manage vessel data.

Meanwhile, the front end is coded in BASIC 8, which provides useful graphic routines for plotting vessels on a map. There’s also a BASIC 7 text interface if you prefer to view the vessel data that way. It’s worth noting that you can’t just run this on a barebones C128.