Downloaded Batari Basic. Need help activating

[John Chubb]

Hi, I'm new to the scene. I just downloaded Batari Basic along with Crimson Editor as well as the Stella Enabler.

 

Batari Basic is on my Samsung laptop, but I am having trouble getting it installed so it can run. I'm also wondering where it would actually run, or Crimison Editor or on Stella itself. This last statement shows my computer knowledge....which is probably not much....but willing to learn especially as I have game ideas I want to make reality.

 

Can anyone give me some pointers?

[SeaGtGruff]

The following is a bit involved, so I hope it isn't too difficult to follow. You might want to print this post so you can refer to it as you follow the steps.

 

You can install batari Basic and the other programs wherever you want-- it doesn't matter, as long as set up your scripts and tools so they look in the necessary folders.

 

If you want to keep them together in a common folder, you can create some folder with the name of your choice (e.g., "C:\Atari2600," or "C:\batariBasic," etc.).

 

Note: It's a little simpler if you make sure your folder names have no spaces in them, but it's okay to include spaces if you really want to, as long as you modify your scripts so they can handle the spaces.

 

Then when you install Crimson Editor you can change its default installation directory from whatever it is (probably something like "C:\Program Files\Emerald Editor Community\Crimson Editor 3.72") to wherever you want to install it (e.g., "C:\Atari2600\CrimsonEditor," or "C:\batariBasic\CrimsonEditor," etc.).

 

Likewise, when you install the Stella emulator you can change its default installation directory and install it in a subdirectory under your main folder (e.g., "C:\Atari2600\Stella").

 

After you've installed batari Basic itself in your main directory, you might want to create some additional subdirectories for it so you can move some of its files into the subdirectories to help organize things. For example, there may be some .C files in batari Basic's main directory, and you can create a "Source" subdirectory and move those .C files inside it if you want, along with the .H and .SH files.

 

For the remainder of this post I'll assume you've already installed everything, and not necessarily under some common folder.

 

First of all, you need to realize that you can't just "run" batari Basic by double-clicking on the EXE file, because it doesn't work that way-- it uses command-line parameters.

 

There should be a 2600BAS.BAT file in your batari Basic directory, and you'll probably need/want to customize the BAT file a bit to make sure it's looking for stuff in the right places, as well as to make sure some of the command lines are using a proper Windows syntax.

 

To customize the BAT file, right-click on it and select "EDIT" (if you double-click it or try to "OPEN" it, Windows will try to run it instead of opening it for editing).

 

After you've got the BAT file opened for editing, look through the command lines for places where there's a slash ("/"). Some of these are okay, but the ones that are part of a directory path should be changed to backslashes ("\"), because Windows uses backslashes in its directory paths. For example, in the line that says "if exist %bB%/sed.exe goto havesed" the slash is part of a directory path, so it should really be a backslash ("if exist %bB%\sed.exe goto havesed"). Likewise, in the DASM command lines there's a slash that should be a backslash ("dasm %1.asm -I%bB%/includes" should have a backslash in it rather than a slash). However, all of the slashes that are inside quotes should be left alone, because they do need to be slashes (e.g., "/Label mismatch/d" should have slashes, so don't change them).

 

In addition to changing some of the slashes to backslashes, you should look through the command lines for places where there are redirection symbols-- ">" or "<"-- and make sure that each of them has a space on either side of it. For example, "preprocess <%1 | 2600basic.exe -i %bB%>bB.asm" needs a few spaces added to it so it looks like "preprocess < %1 | 2600basic.exe -i %bB% > bB.asm." (If you're wondering why you need to make these changes, the BAT file works fine as it is in UNIX-- I think-- and some of these edits might not be absolutely necessary in Windows, but different versions of Windows can be quirky about these things, and I've found that it's best to edit the BAT file in this manner just to be on the safe side.)

 

Likewise, check for the pipe symbol ("|") and make sure it has a space on either side of it.

 

After you've made the edits decribed above, you may want to add a couple of lines near the top of the BAT file, just after the "@echo off" line. The BAT file expects you to have an environment variable defined, and you can either add it to your Windows environment variables (if you know how to do that), or simpy define it inside the BAT file. I personally like to define it inside the BAT file, because that way you could have multiple versions of batari Basic installed under different folders and set up each one's BAT file to define the environ variable as needed. So assuming you want to define it inside the BAT file, add a blank line just after the "@echo off" and type the following on the new line:

 

set bB=whatever

 

where "whatever" is the full directory path to your main batari Basic folder. For example, if you've installed batari Basic in a folder named "C:\Program Files\batari Basic," then the line would be

 

set bB="C:\Program Files\batari Basic"

 

(the directory path needs to be typed inside of quotes if it contains any spaces, and the quotes are okay even if the directory path doesn't contain any spaces).

 

Then press ENTER again to make another blank line just below that one, and type the following on the new line:

 

set Path=%Path%;%bB%

 

This will add your batari Basic directory path to Windows' search path.

 

Now you can save and close the 2600BAS.BAT file.

 

Next, you'll need to set up two user-defined tools in your Crimson Editor program-- one for compiling your batari Basic game programs, and one for running your compiled games with the Stella emulator.

 

Start up Crimson Editor, click on the "Tools" menu, and select "Conf. User Tools..."

 

In the "Preferences" popup window, click on the first line inside the "User Tools" list box (in the upper center of the window). This will select the first user tool so you can configure it.

 

Below the list box are five entry fields:

 

Menu Text

Command

Argument

Initial Dir

Hot Key

 

Click inside the "Menu Text" field and type some descriptive text of your choice that will remind you what this tool does-- for example, "Compile batari Basic Program."

 

Then click inside the "Command" field and type the directory path and name of the 2600BAS.BAT file. This will vary depending on where you installed batari Basic. For example, if you installed it inside "C:\Program Files\batari Basic" then the command would be "C:\Program Files\batari Basic\2600bas.bat" (you can put quotes around it but they aren't necessary in this instance). There's a browse button ("...") to the right of the field, so if you need to you can simply browse to wherever the 2600BAS.BAT file is and "open" it to populate the entry field with the correct command.

 

Next, click in the "Argument" field and type the following (put quotes around it as shown, just to be safe):

 

"$(FilePath)"

 

Finally, click in the "Initial Dir" field and type the directory path where your batari Basic include files are located. (The batari Basic installation process should have created an "Includes" folder for you.) For example, if you installed batari Basic in the "C:\Program Files\batari Basic" directory, the initial directory would be

 

C:\Program Files\batari Basic\Includes

 

(you can put quotes around it, but they aren't necessary in this case).

 

Below the fields are some check boxes. Check the box that says "Capture output," as well as the box that says "Save before execute." Uncheck the other two boxes if they're checked ("Close on exit" and "Use short filename (8.3)").

 

Then click on the "Apply" button to save the setup.

 

Next, click on the second line in the "User tools" list box to select it. (By now the first line should have changed to say whatever descriptive text you entered for the first tool.) You want to set up the second tool for running your compiled programs.

 

After selecting the second user tool, click in the "Menu text" field and enter some descriptive text of your choosing-- for example, "Run Stella."

 

Click in the "Command" field and enter the command line for starting Stella. Again, the simplest way to do this will be to click on the "..." button to the right of the field, browse to the folder where you've installed the Stella emulator, and "open" the STELLA.EXE file, which will populate the "Command" field with the correct command line.

 

Next, click in the "Argument" field and type the following:

 

"$(FilePath).bin"

 

(put quotes around it as shown, just to be safe).

 

Click in the "Initial Dir" field and enter the directory path to wherever Stella was installed.

 

Check the "Close on exit" box and uncheck the other three boxes.

 

Then click "Apply" and "OK" to close the popup window.

 

Now you're ready to try out your installation. After you type in a program-- or load an existing program (e.g., the "default.bas" program)-- click on "Tools" and select the one you configured for compiling. After the program has been compiled successfully, click on "Tools" and the select the one you configured for Stella to run your program.

[+Random Terrain]

Are you able to use Visual batari Basic?

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-vbb.html#install_vbb

[John Chubb]

I downloaded Visual Batari Basic but I think I've been able to install Batari Basic onto Crimison Editor.

 

I will be trying some of the 'Programs for Newbies' over the next few days to see if I got it right. If not.....I'll look to see what went wrong.

[+Random Terrain]

I downloaded Visual Batari Basic but I think I've been able to install Batari Basic onto Crimison Editor.

 

Just remember that VbB isn't the same thing as Crimson Editor. Besides the Code Editor, VbB has a Sprite Editor, a Playfield Editor, a Score Editor, a Music and Sound Editor, a Sprite Animator, a Title Screen Kernel Editor, and a lot more.

[John Chubb]

Main VbB file is in my Atari 2600 folder as is the sound file. Trying to determine how best to activate and open.

 

Not saying anything is wrong with Crinison Editor yet, but it would be nice to have another writing option. Geek Squad gave me Google Chrome when I had a problem with Internet Explorer once.

[+Random Terrain]

Main VbB file is in my Atari 2600 folder as is the sound file. Trying to determine how best to activate and open.

 

Have you looked at this yet:

 

How to 'Install' Visual batari Basic on a Windows PC

 

 

There's also an out-of-date introductory video tutorial that might be helpful to look at with the knowledge that the guy who did it made some mistakes:

 

How To Make Atari Games

[John Chubb]

Files wouldn't extract. It said check to see that folder doesn't already exist.

[+Gemintronic]

Files wouldn't extract. It said check to see that folder doesn't already exist.

 

What flavor of Windows you you run?

[John Chubb]

Windows XP is what I have.

[SeaGtGruff]

Files wouldn't extract. It said check to see that folder doesn't already exist.

Did the folder already exist?

[jwierer]

Files wouldn't extract. It said check to see that folder doesn't already exist.

What are you using to unzip the files?

[John Chubb]

Just using standard extraction command.

[John Chubb]

And the message said 'Compressed (zipped) folders was unable to create the specified directory. Ensure that the directory does not already exist, and that the path entered is valid.'

 

Was trying to open the folder in the Atari 2600 folder I have on my system.

[John Chubb]

I think I got it now.