ScumSoft

Very cool, I like it. Any massive hardware tricks required? I'm still learning how the 2600 all works and just got Visual Batari running under Win7's XP virtual machine. Would you have enough cycles left for player movement and enemy updates? If so it would be really cool to play.

Yes with the exception of those of course I understand what is being said now, I thought you were somehow accessing the data written to the read only registers. You wish for the lower nibble of PF0 to set a flag, then push that flag onto the stack in order for it to be reused later on correct?

Sounds like neat tricks, but I thought all TIA registers were write only.

START HERE You'll quickly learn from Andrews tutorials. I have also attached the latest DASM compiler which contains my 2600 Template and batch file for compiling. Double click the 01-Template.asm, windows will ask what program you wish to open this with, so point it to BUILD.bat The batch file is simple and is setup to only compile if your .asm files resides in the DASM directory. Good luck with your pong game, the 2600 isn't a machine to start learning to program on since it can get complex really fast. But it really is a fun machine! and it is beneficial to at least understand how a console works at the bit level of things --ATTACHMENT-- DASM.rar

No problem, glad to do whatever I can to help.

UPDATED LINKS: Session 1: Start Here Session 2: Television Display Basics Session 3: The TIA and the 6502 Session 4: The TIA Session 5: Memory Architecture Session 6: TV Timing Diagram Session 7: The TV and our Kernel Session 8: Our First Kernel Session 9: 6502 and DASM - Assembling the Basics Session 10: Orgasm Session 11: Colourful Colors Session 12: Initialisation Session 13: Playfield Basics Session 14: Playfield Wierdness Session 15 - Playfield Continued Session 16: Letting the Assembler do the Work Session 17: Asymmetrical Playfields - Part 1 Session 18: Asymmetrical Playfields - Part 2 Session 19: Addressing modes Session 20: Asymmetrical Playfields - Part 3 Session 21: Sprites Session 22: Sprites, Horizontal Positioning Part 1 Session 23: Moving Sprites Vertically Session 24: Some nice code session 25: lets start with missiles

Bugs bunny crazy castle NES

I also still have my 32x and I love it. I have kolibri, knuckles chaotix, Virtua Racing deluxe, and Brutal paws of fury for it. I love each of these games as they were a big part of my later childhood. But for games themselves they're rather mediocre I really want to neptunize the system as a fun project and revive that old beast.

I found this really impressive tech demo running on the 32X: Wish there was a rom provided of this demo, I would really like to see it in clearer quality.

I just finished the game and I am impressed that they kept the feel of the original comedy and style of gameplay. My favorite part is the electric monkey Although I'm not to sure why they make all the characters snap their fingers over and over, kind of got on my nerves after a while. But minor minor gripe. Very enjoyable!

They will not, so no worries.

Fair enough. I wouldn't want to FRY anyone's brains by being overly vague, so I will just wait for the FUTURE and see what happens in say...the year 3000 or so. Wouldn't want to send anyone on some insane BENDER or anything. BTW: This puzzle really is a rather hard one as such I am enjoying it quite a bit. So thank you.

I've done some chess programming and enjoyed using bitmap boards the best. Use this site as a quick reference on how it should function and get you started: http://www.cis.uab.edu/hyatt/pubs.html With only 3 8-bit registers it would provide some challenges, but this is what makes the 2600 so fun to program for.

Someone did a PC remake of the arcade game a while back. http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/last_starfighter.php Freeware with source available. Want to make a remake?

You didn't think some people would recognize those symbols didja. Am I allowed to share the translation?

Well it eats up an extra byte, so if anyone is going to need this byte and is using this template then they can remove it, since I cannot edit the post to commit the change. But everything looking good in it so far?

Oh I'm in, I love these type of games. And what do you mean I won't find anything here?! Obviously I had to have found something for that message to be there.

Never seen the Sega Vacuum cleaner? It was a very unique console, only one of it's kind. I believe it also doubled as a space heater, though this is pure speculation.

I thought it was there in case you run the game on a system that uses the NMI vector for a safer than sorry scenario. Is this incorrect? If so I'll remove the line. Thanks for the reply. *edit* Odd, can I not edit my first post once it's been replied to?

Hey everyone! Nice to see such a site dedicated to these classic consoles and keeping them alive. I've always wanted to make a game for a console and decided to start at the roots. I've got some programming experience and just finished Andrew Davie tutorials which are great! I thought it was really well done and provided a good starting point for the 2600. I thought it might benefit some other new programmers to have a nice template to start off with instead of writing everything from scratch. I'm not sure if I left anything out and got all the info 100% correct, but it can always be updated if need be Here you go: ;**************************************************************************** ;* Atari 2600 Template (NTSC) ;* STARTED (Project start date here) ;* COMPLETED (date completed here) ;* PROGRAMMED BY (insert name here) ;**************************************************************************** processor 6502 include "vcs.h" include "macro.h" SEG ORG $F000 RESET: CLEAN_START ;macro.h ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[VARIABLES] ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;Add variables here ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[iNITIALIZATION] ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;Add any needed initialization here ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[KERNAL]/[VSYNC] ;3 scanlines of VSYNC ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KERNAL: lda #%1110 ;Taken from macro.h VS_LOOP: sta WSYNC ;3 scanlines VSYNC sta VSYNC ;Each '1' bits generates lsr ;a VSYNC ON line (bits 1..3) bne VS_LOOP ;1st '0' bit resets Vsync, ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[VBLANK] ;2812 Cycles for use ;76 per scanline ;37 scanlines VBLANK ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- lda #45 ;Set timer to 37 scanlines sta TIM64T ;worth of time ((37*76)/64) VB_LOOP: lda INTIM ;Read timer ;***************** ;Insert Logic here ;***************** bne VB_LOOP ;Loop if not 0 sta WSYNC ;Rollover to scanline 38 sta VBLANK ;Enable beam/stop VBLANK ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[PLAYFIELD];Starts drawing on 38th scanline ;14,592 Cycles for use ;76 per scanline ;22.6 in Hblank ;53.3 in Visible area ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ldy #191 ;192 Visible scanlines PF_LOOP: ;***************** ;Insert Logic here sty COLUBK ;example color gradient ;***************** dey sta WSYNC bne PF_LOOP ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[OVERSCAN] ;2280 Cycles for use ;76 per scanline ;30 scanlines ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- lda #$42 ;Disable beam/Start VBLANK sta VBLANK OVERSCAN: lda #35 ;Set timer to 30 scanlines sta TIM64T ;worth of time ((30*76)/64) OS_LOOP: lda INTIM ;Read timer ;***************** ;Insert Logic here ;***************** bne OS_LOOP sta WSYNC ;Rollover to scanline 1 jmp KERNAL ;End of Kernal/loop back up ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[LOGIC SECTION] ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;Fill in game logic routines here ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;[iNTERRUPTS] ; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ORG $FFFA INTERRUPTS: .word RESET ;NMI .word RESET ;RESET .word RESET ;IRQ END Everything look right so far? I plan to do a port or complete remake of Temple of Apshai. I always liked that game and thought it would be a fun first project to do. I'm getting the hang of the TIA and how much I can hammer it per scanline what a wonderfully simplistic yet complex console, I get so excited just thinking about what I can do with it. I'm very happy to have found this great site! Cya all around *edit* corrected code formatting (replaced tabs with spaces)