Guest Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 hi, As lot of people know. i wanted to do atari jaguar development. but i cant get the hardware. (see topic atari jaguar/just at the end of april) so i am thinking about using my good ol atari 800Xe again. Now i have been seaching for development tools for it on the web. but no succes. i really need to know some things. 1. the atari800xe has an keyboard (doh! ) and once i start it up i get an basic language. nice and all but. are games created in this? if so. how can i store them on cartridges. 2. What do i need to develop games for the atari 800Xe. 3. How much will it cost? I hope to hear from you guys soon, Greetz, Vyeyendra Ramnares Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 The Atari 800XL has a built-in Basic language that starts UNLESS you hold down the option key when turning it on. In itself, this "memo pad" mode is useless...and is actually intended to bypass Basic when loading a machine-language program. To actually create a 6502 program, you would need an assembler program (there are some on cart and disk)...but for speed and ease of use, most people choose to cross-assemble programs right on the PC (by using the program Dasm, for example...which is available at The Dig - check the links section). Basically, you create and edit a text file (called source code) and then run Dasm to convert it into the binary file. By using the PC, you can also quickly test programs by using an emulator like Atari800Win. With those, you can also break out of a running program and drop down into the Monitor mode (something you can't do with an Atari computer on it's own)...and make modifications, check registers, etc. You can also use a cable and adapter called SIO2PC to transfer files between PC and Atari...that cable is sold right here The Basic language can be used to create programs as well. But since Basic is a high-level language, you gain much more flexibility by using machine language...and all carts made must be in this format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelen Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 and it won't cost you $$ (only the sio2pc cable) Thelen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 ...at least not until you master ML well enough to burn an Eprom for a cartridge In fact, by only changing the controller scheme the same source code could also be made to work on the 5200 (as long as you manage the Ram correctly...the 5200 only has 16k of that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 hi, I want to say that i am from the netherlands. SO my english isnt really 100 procent. and as far as i can read. i understand...nothing actually. . i have no idea what you guys write. sorry. but i cant follow THAT. can you guys make it easier for me to read? like this: it is possible to create games with basic. but you will need an software named: ....... you will also need an cable which isnt free tough. and etcetc... Sorry that i cant really read it. but as far as i can read, it IS possible to create games for the atari 800XE (not XL)? can someone tell me what the difference between the atari 800Xl is and XE? it's so confusing. Greetz, Vyeyendra ramnares Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 First, your english is fine. Second, all the XLs, XEs and the original 400 and 800 are basicly the same with the 5200 being only slightly different. You can program in a number of lanuages with the XEs/XLs/400s/800s. The fastest language to write games in is assembly language. You can write games in basic but it is very slow. Luckily today you can write assembly with a cross-compiler on your PC or Macintosh and is a lot easier than on the XEs/XLs/400s/800s. Then you just port it over to the real machines or just use an emulator. Look on the net or hear on Atarage.com for Dasm or Tasm cross-compilers. Most of the documentation about the XEs/XLs/400s/800s hardware and operating system can be found at www.atariarchives.org and www.atarimagazines.com. Hope this helps a bit. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 OK You can create games and programs using Basic. Because the Basic language needs to translate everything you make, the programs written in Basic will be very slow compared to machine language. And if you really want to create actual CARTRIDGES in the future, learning Basic won't help you. Perhaps the mods should move this topic to the International Forum (?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 hi, As lot of people know. i wanted to do atari jaguar development. but i cant get the hardware. (see topic atari jaguar/just at the end of april) so i am thinking about using my good ol atari 800Xe again. Now i have been seaching for development tools for it on the web. but no succes. i really need to know some things. 1. the atari800xe has an keyboard (doh! ) and once i start it up i get an basic language. nice and all but. are games created in this? if so. how can i store them on cartridges. 2. What do i need to develop games for the atari 800Xe. 3. How much will it cost? I hope to hear from you guys soon, Greetz, Vyeyendra Ramnares You should contact ndary and TGX/MX quickly. They're both geniuses and will be able to help you with any technical questions that you may have regarding the 800XE and/or cartridge development for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 hi, As lot of people know. i wanted to do atari jaguar development. but i cant get the hardware. (see topic atari jaguar/just at the end of april) so i am thinking about using my good ol atari 800Xe again. Now i have been seaching for development tools for it on the web. but no succes. i really need to know some things. 1. the atari800xe has an keyboard (doh! ) and once i start it up i get an basic language. nice and all but. are games created in this? if so. how can i store them on cartridges. 2. What do i need to develop games for the atari 800Xe. 3. How much will it cost? I hope to hear from you guys soon, Greetz, Vyeyendra Ramnares You should contact ndary and TGX/MX quickly. They're both geniuses and will be able to help you with any technical questions that you may have regarding the 800XE and/or cartridge development for it. Thanx... I already got his e-mail and we gonna contact each other... TXG/MNX Ps. Next time spell my handle right please... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelen Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 dragonforce, if you have some questions about programming, feel free to ask, since I'm too from Holland. Thelen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Thomas Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 If you want to get busy making Atari computer games, then by all means, use BASIC. Sure, it is a slow language, but it works very well on the Atari, and there were loads of homebrew BASIC games back in the day. I've actually seen some terrific games (including a few I made myself) made this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 You have lots of options with the Atari 8-bit (BASIC, Assembly/ML, Action, C.) I personally like to program in C, so I really like cc65 (www.cc65.org) You can slap up something pretty quick in C for the Atari and then optimize specific sections of it with hand-tuned, or from-scratch Assembly. This is a cross-compiler, so you would use a platform such as Linux or Win/dos to write and compile your code. Then you can test it in Atari800Win, and finally bring it to your real hardware via SIO2PC (every Atari 8-bit owner should have/make one of these.) I've started writing a little graphics library in C for the 8-bit... I currently have a little routine to create display lists, screen bitmaps, text and plot functions for all the graphics modes (except MCS, HIP/RIP and other similiar "advanced" modes) It ain't fast, but then I haven't even looked at optimizing it yet.. I just banged out a bunch of C code. I've just started on the player missle graphics routines. All of it has been pretty fast to code up in C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 Ps. Next time spell my handle right please... Sorry, super-genius! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 a warm welcome... we in www.abbuc.de atari bit byte user club located in germany have many members from netherland... check it out... my advices: 1st play around in basic, like changing colors, different gfx modes, etc. get familiar with the hardware 2nd make your 1st simple games ("hello world" as game, f.e. like most of us... a space invaders clone... ) 3rd start later with assembler to get you really started and of course... get a nice book with a lot of examples...you will find a lot in ascii format on the net... simple? no it isn't... worth to try? yes... i never forget my 1st "BYE" typed in on a public atari 600xl in a store like walmart... and i switched to the sound test... and played that... poke 712,255 hve ps. some resources www.s-direktnet.de/homepages/k_nadj/main.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 lol I used to POKE 755,6 on those displays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t.skid Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 Ps. Next time spell my handle right please... Sorry' date=' super-genius! [/quote'] So, I'm not the only that made that mistake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 Ps. Next time spell my handle right please... Sorry, super-genius! So, I'm not the only that made that mistake Just had to fix that quote a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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