disjaukifa

Thank you so much! I just printed both of those off so I could have it as a manual reference in front of me!

Thank you Spiceware! I need to find and print off a document that has all the opcodes that the 2600 has. Opcodes is the correct term right?

So you would have to first store the value of A into X or Y, call dex/dey or inx, iny and then load the value of X back into A correct? How would that look in Machine Language?

I stayed with the tutorials on Random's website for a couple of hours and got to lesson 12 understanding most of what I was doing but I found myself constantly confused at some portions of the code I would be looking at. While the tutorial I'm currently going through is good, and very informative, I feel it was missing some key elements/just brush over them with minor detail that I still need to study up on and get clarification on as well. The following information I feel should have been the first thing taught and really hammered into the student, if you have a solid understanding of the following, I feel the rest will come very easily. From my current understanding, which could be incorrect as I am still learning, the 6502 has 3 registers (I consider them variables, but that is just how I think about it) that you can us, A, X, and Y. The operations you have for each variable is as follows: A: sta <- store a into the following lda <- load a with the following ina <- increment value stored in variable a dea <- decrement value stored in variable a A has other oprerations as well, and as the author discribed it, its the "workhorse" of the 3 registers available on the 6502 (really the 6507) CPU. X: stx <- store x into the following ldx <- load a with the following inx <- increment value stored in variable x dex <- decrement value stored in variable x Y: sty <- store x in the following ldy <- load x with the following iny <- increment value stored in variable y dey <- decrement value stored in variable y The other thing I'm still trying to wrap my mind around completed is how you use these registers with the registers from vcs.h. Such as the following: ldx #0 stx COLUBK I guess for me I have to reverse my thinking of how these registers work. I'll explain with the following example: ldx #0 really means the following in x = 0 stx COLUBK really means the following COLUBK = x However in my mind, I would think ldx would be used to retrieve the value of x. Same thing for the stx which really means "store x in" and is used to take the value in the register x and put it int he following register COLUBK, in my mind it would be reverse, I want to think of it as storing a value into x. While this might seem minor and trivial, it was a small yet important concept for me to wrap my head around last night and this morning. I guess this just shows how I have to learn different from others which is fine. The more I think about trying to program in machine language, the more I'm applying natural language to each statement to help me retain this information in my memory. ldx is "load x with the following" stx is "store x in the following" I'm thinking of going through my books tonight to learn how loops, if statements and other basic operations that are pretty much universal in all languages, meaning Java, BASIC, C, Assembly all have IF statements its just learning the way the specific language requires you to setup the statement, before I continue with the rest of the 2600 programming tutorial on Randoms website. I think I will have a stronger grasp of the Machine Language if I go about it in this manor. If I've made any glaring errors in this please let me know so I can correct myself and learn! Thanks Disjaukifa

Bought a bunch of cartridges from me, great guy not only to deal with but to chat with as well! Thanks Austin and enjoy the games!

Hey Guys, Couple of updates. Worked on taking apart and cleaning more cartridges today. Also I've decided to do the following as well: The first 50 copies of the game will be a limited label release, meaning the first 50 copies of the game I sell will have a the label I created, after the first 50 copies are sold, any additional copies sold will have a standard label that is shown above created by Brian O. The first 50 copies of the game will be the only ones I number as well. I worked with the person whose Batronix programmer I bought on the Bay last night and it is being shipped express mail and will get here on Tuesday, so I should start sending out games Wednesday of this week, October 19th, just one day after my originally planned shipping date. I will be contacting everyone on the list as their cartridge is assembled and tested. I will double check to make sure they want their cartridge autographed and to let them know their cartridge is ready for shipping because some have chosen to wait till its ready to ship to pay, which I'm perfectly happy with I will be shipping these games out as quickly as possible, however I'm not completely sure how many games a night I will be able to burn, solder, assemble, test, label, and number a night. My hope is that I am able to do about 5 ~ 10 a night pending other stuff going on at night after I get home from work. I will PM each one of you on the list as your cartridge is ready to go as well! Thanks guys! Disjaukifa

Hey Guys, As some of you know I'm in the process of releasing my first homebrew game called Candy Catcher which I'm very excited about and have been extremely happy with the responses I have gotten from the game so far. However during the development of that game, i quickly realized not only the complexity of my statements I was making in batari Basic, but also the amount of ROM (Read Only Memory) space my code was taking, I had some statements that were easily pushing 50 ~ 75 bytes. That doesn't sound like much but when you only have 4096 bytes to work with, you only have ten of those statements, you have used a 1/5th of your available ROM space. I was limited to 4k, easiest way for my to make my game into a cartridge and release what I was considering a budget title. I had many more ideas for additional features in Candy Catcher that never saw the light of day because of ROM limitation issues. So for my next game that I'm keeping quite until I have a playable demo to present, I decided to learn assembly to reduce the amount of ROM space my code is taking and to give me great control of the number of objects that appear on the screen and to give me more flexibility with the speed and execution of my code as well as cutting down on the ROM space my code requires. I'm going through Atari 2600 Programming Tutorial posted on Random Terrain's site, getting my machine setup and learning the basics of Machine Langauge from the beginning. I also have Machine Language For Beginners by Richard Mansfield and 6502 Software Design by Leo J. Scanlon as references as I go. I'm going to be doing all my development on my Mac Mini Server as its my main desktop (Mirror Raid Harddrives are freaking awesome) and I'm not having to run a VM of Windows XP to do development of my game which is also nice which I did for Candy Catcher. My goal is to update this blog weekly with examples of what I have figured out and with tips to help others along as well. Thanks Disjaukifa

Atari 2600 A-VCS-TEC Challenge - 120 minutes Berzerk - 390 minutes Candy Catcher - 200 minutes Chunkout 2600 - 30 minutes Maciver - 45 minutes krezreB - 45 minutes

Hey Guys, I've got some good news for a change! I won a Batronix USB Chip Programmer on the Bay tonight and its located in North Carolina and is being shipped Priority Mail, so Candy Catcher will be going out next week! Also I cleaned out more cartridges today and I will be washing them tomorrow, I spent a couple of hours getting all the stickers off and cleaning all the residue off as well. I can also say with certainty that Goo-Gone is a freaking fantastic product. Does anyone know what I can do with all these old PCBs? Later guys!

I hope you wear at least underwear Nope I do my best work all natural

Hey Brian Wish I hadn't gone with the labels that I did!!! Those look fantastic!!! Truly amazing work! I really tempted to order another set of labels from Albert because those are just so awesome ... I'm going to need to sleep on it. Thank you so much!

Hey Guys, I've had to changed the shipping date on my first post. I still haven't gotten my Batronix BX32 programmer in the mail yet. Here is the tracking number for my order: DHL: 316760400800 USPS: 316760400800 The reason for two tracking numbers is my order original shipped from Germany, and has handled by DHL till it got to the United States, once it cleared customs which apparently it did on October 1st at 2:36 am in the morning, it went to the hands of the United States Post Service. I've contacted both companies and neither has been able to give me any real idea as to where my package is or when it will get here. At one point USPS told me DHL still had it because it didn't have a 20 ~ 22 digit tracking number on it, at which point I told the service rep I had called their 1-800 number and it said they had it in which I got the following reply "Wow . . . I didn't know our system could track shipment numbers like that . . . ." Anyway DHL has consistently told me USPS has it, however USPS doesn't seem to know whats going on, one guy tells me DHL still has it, another told me it would be here on Tuesday . . . yeah that came and pass. Another told me it could take up to 3 weeks because its parcel post I can have a package ordered, processed, shipped, go through out-bound customs, get onto a plane, fly over an OCEAN, land in the US and get out of customs in 4 days, but I can't have a package delivered from New York to Virginia for up to 3 weeks . . . if I'm being unreasonable here please please let me know. I've contacted Batronix to see what they could do because DHL said in my last conversation with them that the original Sender could start an investigation into the whereabouts for the package since they paid the postage for it . . . though I actually paid the postage for it, but I understand their logic, Batronix paid DHL from the money I paid them, but in DHL eyes, Batronix paid for postage. Thats the unfortunate update I have. I'm hoping my package shows up Saturday or Monday and I can start sending out orders on Tuesday the 18th like I had originally planed. I'm sorry guys about this, I really didn't think the programmer was going to take this long to get here . . . if you have any questions please feel free to ask. Thanks Disjaukifa

I'm glad! Hows the Halloween Proto coming?

Yup except their actually red . I finished soldering all the inverters on the first batch of boards, I should be getting the second batch from CPUWIZ soon!

That is the goal, the only piece I'm missing at the moment is my Batronix BX32 programmer . . . which is in the hands of USPS so yeah . . . as soon as it gets here I will start assembling cartridges and sending them out the door! Here is a picture of the PCBs being assembled with the inverters at the moment! Thanks guys! Disjaukifa

Its an Atari 2600 with a couple of Atari 2600 games built all into the controller, I think its like 5 games and no I don't think it can be converted to work as a normal 2600.

Thanks for the information, I posted this thread in hopes to find out who programmed it and what it stood for. I saw that there was a website on the bottom of the cartridge, but it wasn't clear on the label so I couldn't make it out though now I know its the website for the MacIver Institute. Thanks for sharing the above information.

Bought a couple of homebrews from him, all came in excellent shape. Thank you so much!

Bought two homebrews from him, came quickly and in excellent shape! Thank you so much!

Randy Crihfield . . . well this cartridge was defiantly made by him. My guess is that he sold it to someone who then in turn sold it to me. Its got the Hozer logo on it on the bottom left if you look at my first picture I posted. Whats Maciver?

You programmed this? Was it done in Batari Basic? I'd love to know more about it, quirky little game! In response to your comment about distribution, I thought you had made a small run, I was just offered the game with some other homebrews and got it, played it and had a good time. Have you released the game before? The back story that was supplied with the game made it appear that you had released it. Oh yeah, the one final question I have. What the heck does Maciver mean?

PM Sent

4920

The safest bet would be to take it apart and see if the system board gives you any kind of power specs.

I was thinking of trying to build on myself so that I could get more objects on the screen at once, that limitation really bothers me, I know you can use registers to get more, but I want to be able to have more unique objects on the screen at once. Also I feel that if I'm going to truly learn 6502 Machine Language, it will be best if I do everything from scratch! Very inspiring disjaukifa! I hope you will post about your adventures as you go along, it will also be a great way to learn to write to that unique line by line video hardware. I'd really like to learn that too. When I do get around to doing it, it will probably start out as a blog and once I have a good start on a game, it will transition to that game thread but I will defiantly post my journey into mastering Machine Langauge!