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Atari 2600 BASIC IDE


attendo

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Okay here it is..

 

From the first time i find out about Batari's wonderfull 2600 basic language i thought of making an Integrated Development Environment for it and now after 2 days of programming it is finished and released as version .01 It is available for windows only and tested on XP Pro but will most likelly work on other win. systems.

 

Usage: Download and unzip 2600IDE into the same directory as where you have Batari's 2600bas.

 

The first time you run 2600IDE it will ask you for an Emulator like Stella or Z26, locate the Emulators executable, for example stella.exe and press Open.

 

Here is a beginners guide to the IDE:

 

. Open a file, lets say "sample.bas" (from the menu: file>open locate sample.bas press open)

. you can customize 2600IDE the way you want, make the window larger or smaller, position it somewhere on the screen, change font type and size. 2600IDE will all remember it the next time it starts up.

. now lets continue, youve got sample.bas loaded so why not try it out and see what it does. Just select "Compile" under "Actions" in the menu and wait for the procces to complete then and then click "run compile" and the emulator window will pop up.

 

You can also just "Compile" or run any 2600 bin by choosing "Run a Compile". With the sprite editor under tools you can easilly create 8x8 sprites.

 

If you have any comments, suggestions, free atari games, questions or found some bug feel free to mention it.

 

nice.

 

Update:

Download, extract and just replace 2600IDE.exe with the new version.

 

Important:

- the new IDE works with the Batari's Basic_Alpha 0.35 version which you can find in the Alpha 0.35 Official Release thread!

- Old code probally needs to be converted with batari's Alpha 0.2 to 0.3+ code converter.

- If you have problems like the dos console window stays open just select action > Create default batch from the menu and try again.

 

-09-09-05 V0.4.1 released

enhanced sprite editor, added playfield editor, changed locate stella in locate emulator since newer versions z26 also work, added compile window, choose from menu file>new to start a new project. Needs the latest version of bB.

 

-07-16-05 V0.3 released

changed default font to courier, removed "clear" clipboard option, added dasm output message after a compile, it now doesnt try to run a bad compile with Stella, added a last file opened option at the bottom of "File" in the menu.

 

-07-11-05 V0.2 released

added sprite maker

2600IDEV04_1.zip

Edited by attendo
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Okay here it is..

 

From the first time i find out about Batari's wonderfull 2600 basic language i thought of making an Integrated Development Environment for it and now after 2 days of programming it is finished

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This is really nice! If you'd like, we'll put it up on the home page that Kirk has created. I'm sure that people will really appreciate this, instead of always having to use DOS...

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This is really nice! If you'd like, we'll put it up on the home page that Kirk has created. I'm sure that people will really appreciate this, instead of always having to use DOS...

Sure thats ok.

 

When i have the time for it i might build a simple sprite editor that converts blocks into 0s en 1s and add it to the tools menu.

Edited by attendo
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Ah thanks,

 

You did had a valid basic program loaded right? I use stella-1.4.2 perhaps it needs a newer version. Ive attached it to this post, did you select stella.exe? because i also selected stellaX.exe once by mistake. To reselect an emulator just goto "Action" and then "Locate Stella" but the z26.exe also worked.

 

greets

stella_1.4.2_win32.zip

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I went to "Compile and Run" and get a blank error msg box coming up. It's Stella 1.1.3, is that ok?

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I'm not sure the binaries will run in 1.1.3 due to the illegal opcodes - I think you'll need 1.3.

 

Also, I don't think they will work properly in PCAE either - I strongly recommend Stella or z26.

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When i have the time for it i might build a simple sprite editor that converts blocks into 0s en 1s and add it to the tools menu.

889333[/snapback]

Yes, any tools that you can come up with would be helpful. Looks like you and batari will have your own little version of Gary Kitchen's GameMaker done here before too long. Thanks.

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I'm not sure the binaries will run in 1.1.3 due to the illegal opcodes - I think you'll need 1.3.

Also, I don't think they will work properly in PCAE either - I strongly recommend Stella or z26.

 

Think your right, tried it also with PCAE yesterday and that didnt work, phew so then it wasnt a bug, i hate those tiny creatures.

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I'm not sure the binaries will run in 1.1.3 due to the illegal opcodes - I think you'll need 1.3.

Also, I don't think they will work properly in PCAE either - I strongly recommend Stella or z26.

 

Think your right, tried it also with PCAE yesterday and that didnt work, phew so then it wasnt a bug, i hate those tiny creatures.

889588[/snapback]

 

I compiled batari's sample code using the ide and ran the bin using pcaewin2.6

and it worked fine.(just did compile then ran pcaewin2.6 seperatly).

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By popular request :D I have added a sprite maker.

 

It can be found under "Tools", a window will pop up where you can click on a square to fill or empty it. When your satisfied with your sprite just click on the "Insert Sprite" button. It then will be flipped upside down for proper display when running.

 

This new version of the 2600IDE is attached to the first post of this thread.

Edited by attendo
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Actually, the "correct" thing to do is to parse the error output and display only errors and not run the compiler...though thats a bit tougher because Batari BASIC is still a work in progress.

 

I wish the default font was fixed-width, like Courier....code just dont look right in sans-serif :-)

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Thanks for the feedback.

Dont want the DOS window to be open long but im searching for a way to parse the output DASM (and 2600Bas) creates and look for errors or if compile=succes. But perhaps Ill wait until the "Warning: Unable to.." messages bug is solved.

 

Probally will change the default font in the next update :) but it can easilly be changed in the menu selecting format>font.

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Just found a way to get the output for DASM so the IDE can check if the compile will work or not and respond to that, for example give an (detailed) error message and when compile>run was chosen not to run it anyway with Stella.

 

It catches errors like this and others..

"DASM V2.20.10, Macro Assembler ©1988-2004

--- Unresolved Symbol List

NO_ILLEGAL_OPCODES 0000 ???? (R )

then 0000 ???? (R )

0.skip50 0000 ???? (R )

--- 3 Unresolved Symbols

 

Fatal assembly error: Source is not resolvable."

 

which was the result of not spacing propperly "if a <3 then"

 

I have an idea for getting the possible error messages of BASIC to, have to try it yet.

 

Expect an updated version within the week.

Edited by attendo
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Ok, updated the Win 2600IDE to version 0.3 see first post.

 

Note: for the IDE to work propperly download the latest version of Bataris Basic, well at least basic alpha 2.

 

Batari Basic thread

 

Attendo, I can't get it to work.

 

I put it in the same directory as BatariBASIC Alpha 0.2, hit compile, and get a blank dialog box popping up.

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:( strange someone else had the same problem, Ill look into it ASAP. Don't know whats wrong because it works fine here. My best guess is that because Batars basic is evolving very fast, there was something changed in his latest update which affects the IDE.
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:( strange someone else had the same problem, Ill look into it ASAP. Don't know whats wrong because it works fine here. My best guess is that because Batars basic is evolving very fast, there was something changed in his latest update which affects the IDE.

On your system, does it work if there are spaces in the path?

I'm not at home so I can't try to see if that fixes it or no.

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Hi, I think i found out the problem..

 

How i figured it out was i created an new empy dir, downloaded 2600IDEV03.zip extracted it all and then downloaded 2600basic.zip and extracted it all in the same dir, compiling gave the usual unable to errors and compile and run did not work. Then i downloaded batari_basic_alpha2.zip and extracted it all in the same dir overwriting the old with the new files. Tried the IDE again with sample.bas and everything worked fine.

 

So the IDE only works with the latest batari basic version.

 

I think not all the files in your dir were overwritten correctly with the latest files or the alpha version was updated again. Solution is to download the batari_basic_alpha2.zip again and be sure that all the files in your dir are overwritten with the new version then it should work again. (i hope)

 

Oh could you tell me which Windows version your using? (me xp pro)

Update..I think the alpha2 version was updated again i had also an old alpha2 version on my system which it didnt work with but after downloading it again it worked.

Edited by attendo
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