KAZ

Yeah, I read that about how computers only understand binary (1's and 0's). From the book: "They (high-level computer languages) are designed to be understood by human beings. To the computer, programs written in these languages are pure gibberish." All programming languages eventually must be converted/translated into this machine language before it can be accepted. I don't know BASIC, but I'm going to read this book anyways, and hopefully some of it will sink in. So every so often if I do get confused while reading this stuff, I'll know who to ask. Thanks!

From the library, I checked out three books: 6502 Machine and Assembly Language Programming, By Mike Smith Copyright: 1984 6502 Assembly Language Programming For Apple, Commodore, And Atari Computers, By Christopher Lampton Copyright: 1985 Programming the 65816 Including the 6502, 65C02 and 65802, By David Eyes and Ron Lichty Copyright: 1986 None of the books were in the "main" section of books, I had to special request they go into another archival area where they keep old books. And I am very serious about learning this stuff, have already read through the first chapter of one. From Christopher Lampton's Book: "In this book, we will asume from the outset that you are already familiar with at least one high-level programming language. It doesn't matter if this language is BASIC or Pascal or Logo or whatever, though we will occasionally draw examples from the BASIC language to illustrate certain programming principles." And I knew this is what you were trying to do Nukey and all when telling me about BASIC. It resembles the English language more closely that assembly, and is easier to understand. I like how they they say these are the high-level languages...this was before C++ even came out I'll bet. So every night about an hour or so before I go to sleep, I'm gonna melt my brain with this stuff I just hope my dreams are in an understandable language.

God I am oblivious....incredible: NE146 is short for....anyone for sex After posting 700 times, you'd think I would've figured that out by now. Holy cripes!

I don't fault their teaching methods, I just can't quite yet swallow that yet, but the threads aren't going anywhere, and I'll review them as I get more knowledge about where to put code. I had heard about the Atari800Win emulator, and was going to download it, but then I was thinking that it wasn't the right programming language to try first because it would be the long way around to get to assembly programming for the Atari 2600. But then they said that it would be helpful to learn it anyway. I love how brutally straightforward your posts are NE146, you get right to the heart of the matter. You don't assume I know anything beyond what I've already proven I know. That's how programming works, you have to hand hold the computer through all the steps, not assuming it knows the next thing to do... I was getting mixed up, because I had Atari Basic in one ear, and my text files and dasm in the other. Atari Basic seemed like alot of added effort to download the emulator, when I had what I needed to make code already. And I couldn't make programs for the Atari 2600 with Atari Basic. But I understand it is being used in a teaching context too. Explaining some of those three digit codes WAS very helpful, since that's what I kept seeing when I disassembled binary files. I'm not gonna give up on this, not a chance...so you guys helping me figure this out won't be for nothing. As far as "reading assembly docs" I have to go to the library for that. I was at that site called "Assembly in One Step", but when I copy pasted it to a word document, it loses its formatting, so printing it out was going to be a problem. Or I'd have to read it right on that site to preserve the nice tables. And that's where I'm at with this.

Man this game is fun, fun, fun! I finally managed to figure out how to complete a stage, and then I beat two, you've got to swing to that TV thing at the top....your web apparently doesn't stick to it. I think it is awesomely cool when you are falling down a building, and you send off a diagonal spider line, and you just barely get it to stick on something other than a window. Sometimes you have to send off a diagonal line, because you began falling while you were vertical to a window. I haven't played other spiderman versions for other consoles, but are there any out there that have the same "feel" as this game does? Like falling, and barely saving yourself with a spiderweb? This game goes towards the very top of my favorite list....

Welcome to the boards cckenned! I hope you enjoy it here, I like this place alot. I think it shouldn't be split into so many generations, that gets a little much... How bout just three generations: Divided mainly along cartridge vs. cd line: 1st Gen: Atari 2600,5200,7800,Intellivision,Colecovision 2nd Gen: NES,SNES,SMS,Gens 3rd Gen: Playstation,Dreamcast,beyond... The N64 makes this really rough to do. So I'll call that one the 9th generation wild card. Jaguar cartridge based also defies categorization.

How bout I send you a $5 in the mail for those 4 that you have? I may need to get your address again, if these terms are good for you, email me plz. Thanks TB! If I ever come across some excess cash, I will likely push some your way for being so cool about the games, thanks!

Yes, I do have a list, here it is (the ones with two entries are my label variations). 1. Combat 2. Air Sea Battle 3. Outlaw 4. Super Breakout 5. Defender 6. Warlords 7. Indy 500 8. Street Racer 9. Video Olympics 9. Video Olympics 10. Breakout 11. Basketball 12. Bowling 13. Circus Atari 14. Space Invaders 14. Space Invaders 15. Night Driver 16. Missile Command 17. RS Baseball 18. Surround 19. Pacman 20. Video Pinball 21. Asteroids 22. Berserk 23. Blackjack 24. Haunted House 25. Yar's Revenge 26. RS Football 27. Vanguard 28. Phoenix 29. ET 30. Ms. Pacman 31. Centipede 32. Dig Dug 33. Jungle Hunt 34. Kangaroo 35. Moon Patrol 36. Pole Position 37. Solaris 38. Dragster 39. Boxing 40. Skiing 41. Tennis 42. Laser Blast 43. Freeway 44. Stampede 45. Ice Hockey 46. Barnstorming 47. Grand Prix 48. Chopper Command 49. Starmaster 50. Pitfall! 51. River Raid 52. Keystone Kapers 53. Frost Bite 54. Frogger 55. Reactor 56. Q-bert 57. Spider-Man 58. Kool Aid Man 59. SC Football 60. Astroblast 61. Donkey Kong 62. Venture 63. Demon Attack 64. Chuck/Artillery 65. MASH 66. Mr. Roboto 67. Warring Worms Any number labels you have would be excellent, like: 01 Combat 02 Air Sea Battle Even tho I have those two in picture labels, it would be neat to collect like maybe the first 10 number labels slowly over time.

No, I haven't picked up a book devoted to assembly language yet, I only picked up a general programming book. I just want to understand the general framework for all of this, and understand terms, etc. from what I know so far there is: machine language: binary code (1's and 0's) assembly language: a low level language, that can be difficult to read. Then you have some languages that are more readable: C language, Basic, and Pascal Then you have some high level languages: C ++, FORTRAN, COBOL, QBASIC I guess the question is can I use one of these more friendly languages like BASIC to write programming for the Atari 2600? Or perhaps assembly language is needed because the code is more efficient, and runs faster. I've always been hung up on where to put the code at like where would I put a Basic code? Not in a text file I wouldn't think, I would think I'd need a special Basic program to write at. This is just what I've read so far in the first like 20 pages of programming for dummies.

If anyone has common carts that are in halfway decent shape at least, I'd like to make an offer to buy them at $1 a piece (basically paying for shipping). I'm real low on funds, and I was just thinking if anyone had any to spare, it wouldn't hurt to ask. I have about 70 carts collected so far, and am simply looking for any to add to it for cheap. 1 dollar is easy to send in the mail too Thanks, I guess it didn't hurt to ask

I keep posting in the wrong sections, that just sucks. And then the editing process takes like 5 minutes, I just hope 70 people didn't notice I posted in the wrong place while waiting for it to submit

It is mysterious...sometimes when I change spacing it doesn't affect the assembly, but sometimes it does. Very confusing.

Excellent, you have a spreadsheet of those columns, I'm watching everything you are saying closely. As I start to actually grasp some of this stuff, I'll be making a spreadsheet like that. I'm not there yet, not for a bit... I have to read this stuff a little at a time....I can't digest it that fast. What am I up to right now? I'm going to take the playfield.txt file and attempt to see if spacing and indentation makes a difference to the assembler... Like instead of this: LF00F:x JSRxxLF021 xxxxxxxJSRxxLF03F xxxxxxxJSRxxLF044 xxxxxxxJSRxxLF047 xxxxxxxJSRxxLF096 xxxxxxxJMPxxLF00F there's no X's written, it is the only way I can space it I'm going to write it like this: LF00F: JSR LF021 JSR LF03F JSR LF044 JSR LF047 JSR LF096 JMP LF00F Or maybe remove all spacing, and see how it deals with that. Since I'm a newbie, this is very important to understand how this is all supposed to actually look in a text file. I learned that an accumulator has to do with memory. There are a certain amount of registers...three general and 2 specific or something. And then I'm wondering what small thing I could add to the playfield to see what it does....I'm not talking editing it via binary (distella), but rather actually changing the source code. I'm gonna take a nice look at my beginning programming for dummies when I go to bed too.

I might choose Berserk, because I have Paul Slocum's better version of it Otherwise I'd pick Artillery Duel. Even tho it is a double ender, I hate chuck norris, and artillery duel can only be played two player. ...unless I can make a clone. Please?

I stopped at the Edina library looking for some books related to Assembly Language, or anything having to do with the 6502. The librarian helped me do a search, because I could find nothing in their computer section. They are not an "archival" library, and they don't keep books dating back to 1983, so she searched the library located in Minneapolis. It is an archival library, and had a bunch of books from: http://www.6502.org/booklist.htm But I did pick up a book from the library called: "Beginning Programming for Dummies." Has anyone else read this, and did they find any of it helpful in general, or helpful for familiarizing themselves with programming leading up to programming for the Atari 2600? That would be neat if they had "Assembly for Dummies" Or "6502 for dummies". So I'm moving along....gonna try figuring this stuff out.

Surround is super, but try the latest released "Warring Worms" by Billy Eno (NorbytheRobot). Think of it like surround, only you can SHOOT at the other guy, and shoot at the trails you leave behind, while still playing the game like it is a version of TRON. Not sure what concept came first, TRON or surround. I'm guess TRON was the idea behind surround. Billy didn't even know about surround while making his game, but it should be called Surround 2...best sequel to surround. I'd rather play warring worms than surround. It just has more to it. Now if Billy could somehow do a syth addition to Warring Worms, like Paul Slocum...now that would be even cooler. Then he could release another special edition at The Midwest Classic. But maybe there's just not enough space left to work with on the warring worms, and as I'm still figuring out programming, I could not help with this Kinda like Pitfall 2 was to Pitfall! Artillery Duel has to be one of the best for two players. Ice Hockey, you cannot go wrong with this, even if you HATE hockey. And Indy 500 I've heard is really great, but have yet to ACTUALLY play it with driving controllers two players. But I can already imagine what it would be like.

Atari is not dead....not even close. Atari I'd liken to Mozart. Tho mozart was pretty popular when he was living, but when he died...that's when people really started to like him. As time grew on, people found out why they appreciated his music. What I'm trying to say is that in 200 hundred years, people will still be playing Atari. Um, yeah...that's exactly the point.

I must have been living in Tazmania back then. I actually didn't know of this system. I've heard it off and on on this message board. I was familiar with Atari 2600, 5200, Intellivision, Colecovision, Commodore 64. Never heard of Vectrex before coming to this message board never was familiar with XEGS. I had an apple 2 GS. That's what I thought you guys had been talking about the whole time. I hardly knew about 7800, tho I think I heard of it back then. And of course that was around the time Nintendo was coming out strong. So please don't fault me for not remembering such an obscure system, if you hadn't heard of an Atari 2600 I'd say you were living in Tazmania, but not "XEGS". If you had never heard of Nintendo, you were living in a cave. XEGS is kinda like CD i I don't know anything about CD i, and hardly heard anything about it back when it first came out. And I still don't know about it. I must be living in Tazmania

This is what happened to the guy who has a store called: Cedar Collectibles...it is near The Mall of America in Minnesota. He said he opened JUST last December 2001. He started out very small, I mean VERY small. People just started coming in and selling him their games, and then he just slightly jacked up the price or something, and began getting a profit. Word of mouth, and this place seems awesome now. Don't go too high on overhead right away...or I'm sure you'll get burned fast. Unless you can get a loan or something. The loan officer might laugh you out of the room tho, depending on their generation

Makes you wonder about the shape of those Combat tanks in the game... Kinda looks like the shape of a building as seen from the top down, doesn't it? Combat was the main packin game, so I can see them doing that for some reason.

It does, but my Atari controllers are currently broken. Both of them have that main white joystick area damaged. So the joysticks "click" when you move it up or down, or sometimes left or right, depending on where the damage is. I realize there are replacements for that, but I'm too lazy to research where to get that. Plus, I like the thumbpad control. You are completely right, to get the full experience I need to get two perfectly working Atari 2600 controllers. I actually intend to do that sometime. Playing pitfall! with a genesis controller IS dirty, and I agree!

So I decided to drive to the library, to pick up some sort of 6502 programming book...I left at around 8:15pm, and I didn't know the hours of the library, but went anyways. They were closed. Ok, no biggie, so then on the way back I stopped by the Goodwill. The place seemed cleaner than usual, maybe 1 inch LESS dirt and grime on the ground (rofl). So I was looking for treasure and across the room I spot it: A olive green sweater! I took a really deep breath, and I smiled at the lucious fragrance of it. Well so I continued browsing. The workers there were busy abusing, I mean organizing, the items. (This one guy was "organizing" a bunch of phones, and he was wearing plastic gloves, and he was rough to the items like you wouldn't believe! And what's with those plastic gloves? Is he afraid of some horrible disease caused by 100's of people touching every item there? Nah.) And even the shoppers were abusing the items, being extra loud while rummaging through it all. They did have the electronics nicely arranged, and that kind of made me smile. And then I saw it: A genesis controller! Same three button type that I've always used, so now I have two player capability. It was only $2.12 with tax. Been having a hard time locating one. It works great. It had a bunch of wierd "glitter" all over it. I cleaned it real nice tho. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1360478390 This one is nearly the same price I guess, but I avoided the "hassle" of ebay.

With emulation it seems clear to me that learning to program the Atari 2600 is about 50 times easier than it was back in let's say 1983. Because you can test out your creations RIGHT away on the nearest emulator. I have my emulator right in the same directory, so after I was done dasming and distelling I just went: z26 pacman.bin Back in 1983 you'd have to actually work AT atari probably, because you'd have to burn yourself a cartridge everytime you wanted to test out a code, right? Or was there another method they used to test out their code? I doubt they had "emulators" back then. gonna go get my VBLANK swerve on!

Looks like he just wanted to show off his rare video game collection. I would consider doing the same if I were in that position, but my rarest cart is only a 5. Wonder how many email offers he's gotton from people asking to buy those games, that would be fun to know

And tho I think it might really break it, you could consider spraying electrical contact cleaner into the cartridge port. If it is going to become a doorstop anyway, you might as well try it if you haven't got anything to lose... Especially if you are intending to replace the cartridge slot anyways, what would it hurt then? There would be no loss either way if it already doesn't work.