what to do with no prior knowledge

[DarQ Massacres]

so, I want to try and make an atari game, I have an entire idea set in my mind, but I have one major problem, I have absolutely no idea what to do. My programming knowledge is limited to an hour a day for 6 months doing 5 projects in a grade 11 visual basic computer programming course last year. so I need some help if I want to figure this out, does anyone have anything they can give to help me out. programs I should use? knowledge I should know? tech I should buy? anything would be very helpful

[Osgeld]

useful pre programming exercises

 

flowchart the game

draw a rough map on a graph

 

see if those two makes since, if not fix the issues cause its 10x harder to start a game from ground zero, if the game doesnt make any logical sense ... and computers require very specific instructions to make logic work

[tokumaru]

Making the game of your dreams while learning to code at the same time is really tough to do, unless the game of your dreams is surprisingly simple.

 

If your main goal is to get the game ready to ship ASAP, it's better to pay someone to code it for you. If you can wait until you get better at coding, start with simpler projects. Follow some beginner's tutorials, read a lot of tech documents, try some of your own ideas, and eventually you'll feel confident enough to start a bigger project without feeling so lost.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

I'll second that.

 

If the game you have in mind is what you described over in the HSC thread, start with something simple and work your way up from there. Tackling something big and complicated while you're trying to learn programming is a sure way to get frustrated. Figure out if your game can be done with batari basic or if you'll need to learn assembly.

 

The only tech I could recommend buying is a Harmony cart to test your game on real hardware.

[DarQ Massacres]

yea, I was planning on working my way up to it either way, I was just wondering what the best software to program on would be, so what is batari basic?

[+KaeruYojimbo]

Batari basic is a language that was developed to make Atari 2600 programming more accessible. There's a whole subforum devoted to it here: http://atariage.com/forums/forum/65-batari-basic/. There's a really good help guide for it here: http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html. There's also Virtual World basic, which I don't have any personal experience using, but might be a good fit for your game. It can be found here: http://relationalframework.com/vwBASIC.htm. Both of these will be more similar to what you've done before than assembly.

 

Assembly coding will give you more freedom and control, but it's a much steeper learning curve.

[+SpiceWare]

You can do a lot more with assembly language than basic, though it'll take a bit more effort on your part.

 

I recommend you check out the Easy 6502 tutorial first as that'll help you decide whether or not assembly is an option for you. If it is, then check out my 2600 tutorial. The source code in my tutorial has way more comments than I'd usually use, which may also aid in understanding assembly language.

[G-type]

Kirk Isreal also has a good tutorial.

http://alienbill.com/2600/101/

I found his code to be very well documented for a newbie to understand. I was going through his "thin red line" code today and was able to add a few lines to get a second missile moving in the opposite direction with a different speed and color. I was quite proud I could figure it out.