Commodore VIC-20 User Manual page 46

The first number (in this case, 36879) is the location in
memory (think of it as a Ifttle box labeled 36879} into which
you are going to POKE (ie, place) the second number, X. The
memory location 36879 happens to be where the VIC stores
its Information on what the screen's border and background
colors should be. Each value of "X" corresponds to a
different color combination the VIC can display. For this
example, "X" starts with the value 1, then changes to 2T 3,
and so forth, up to a final value of 255.
/
//
Memory
Location #
36877
/
/
//
/
Memory
Location #
36878
/ /
/
Memory
Location #
36379
/
//
/
Memory
Location #
36380
/
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AN EXAMPLE OF POKE 36879, 8
To assist you in your quest for the perfect color
combinations, here is a table of POKE values ("X" values)
and the background and border colors they produce. The
table gives you the POKE values to produce all combinations
of these colors. The POKE values are in sequence with skips
of eight (8) numbers. The missing numbers are the POKE
values that cause the reversal of displayed characters.
36
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