UPDATE 2014-12-29: The contents of this post is now available and updated on this page.

Here is another little guide for setting up a simple and free development environment for c64 coding. This one works on both OSX and Windows and uses the Sublime text editor, Kick Assembler compiler and Vice C64 emultor.

Download and install (OSX)

1. Download Kick Assembler and extract to folder KickAssembler in your Applications folder (*)
   Folder /Applications/Kick Assembler/ should now contain KickAss.jar and some other files/folders.
2. Download Vice c64 emulator and extract to folder Vice in your Applications folder (*)
   Folder /Applications/Vice/ should now contain x64 and some other files/folders.
3. Download Sublime Text and install
4. Install Sublime package Kick Assembler (C64) in one of the following ways:
   1. Using package control: Install Package Control for Sublime and install package Kick Assembler (C64)
   2. Manual Install: Download SublimeKickAssemblerPackage.zip, extract and copy extracted folder KickAssembler (C64) into folder ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/
5. Continue with the Develop, build and run section below

^{* If you want a custom path for Kick Assembler, add the full path to KickAss.jar to the CLASSPATH environment variable
** If you want a custom path for Vice, edit file ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/KickAss.sublime-build with the correct path to Vice (install option 4b only).}

Download and install (Windows)

1. Ensure Java Runtime Environment is installed on your system, if not, download it from here
2. Download Kick Assembler and extract to folder c:\C64\Tools\KickAssembler\ (*)
   Folder c:\C64\Tools\KickAssembler\ should now contain KickAss.jar and some other files/folders.
3. Download Vice c64 emulator and extract to folder c:\C64\Tools\Vice\ (**)
   Folder c:\C64\Tools\Vice\ should now contain x64.exe and some other files/folders.
4. Download Sublime Text and install
5. Install Sublime package Kick Assembler (C64) in one of the following ways:
   1. Using package control: Install Package Control for Sublime and install package Kick Assembler (C64)
   2. Manual install: Download SublimeKickAssemblerPackage.zip, extract and run the file InstallSublimePackage.bat

^{* If you want a custom path for Kick Assembler, add the full path to KickAss.jar to the CLASSPATH environment variable
** If you want a custom path for Vice, add the path to the Vice folder containing x64.exe to the PATH environment variable}

Develop, build and run

1. Open a Kick Assembler code file in Sublime text. Example code file here.
2. Hit the F7 key to start Build and Run
3. Hopefully watch your lovely code execute! (*)

^{* If you get error saying java is not recognized as an internal or external command, ensure java is installed and add the path to your java binaries folder to the PATH environment variable}

In step 2 above you can select other Build Variants, by instead pressing Super+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P and selecting desired build variant, or by using the associated key (see below). Here follows a description of the available build variants.

Build and Run (F7)

Compiles the current file and runs it using the Vice emulator.

Build and Debug (Shift+F7)

Compiles the current file and runs it using the Vice emulator. This variant allows the creation of a file containing breakpoints, which is sent to the Vice emulator for debugging.

Build and Run Startup (F5)

Compiles a file with name Startup.asm in the same folder as the current file, and runs it using the Vice emulator. Handy if you have several code files included in a main runnable file (Startup.asm).

Build and Debug Startup (Shift+F5)

Compiles a file with name Startup.asm in the same folder as the current file, and runs it using the Vice emulator. Handy if you have several code files included in a main runnable file (Startup.asm). This variant allows the creation of a file containing breakpoints, which is sent to the Vice emulator for debugging.

Build Startup (Super+Shift+B / Ctrl+Shift+B)

Cmpiles a file with name Startup.asm in the same folder as the current file. Handy if you have several code files included in a main runnable file.

Comments

The syntax coloring and language configuration for Sublime Package Kick Assembler (C64) can certainly improve, hopefully i will update and post here some day. If you like to participate there is a GitHub-repository here. The language files were originally downloaded and modified from here. For more information on debugging and breakpoints, see documentation for Kick Assembler.