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kenjennings

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Posts posted by kenjennings

  3. Posted

    I work's fine on real hardware (400/800 or XL line). And yes it works using an SIO2SD. I never realized that Asteroids had 4 player modes (individual, meelee, coop). If I had know that, it would have been very fun in the 80's. One of those games that you need a 400 or 800 with four joystick ports.

     

    I kid you not, in 1985/86, Asteroids was THE party game in our dorm. I was probably the only computer geek on speaking terms with the football jocks. Pretzels, beer, and 4 player asteroids combat. The asteroids were entirely inconsequential. We played it like Space War.

    • Like 4

  5. Posted

    My favorite "benchmark" was the Dead On Arrival/Failure Out Of The Box industry stats that one of the multi-platform magazines published. Wish I could remember which one that was. I recall not many computers came close to the reliability of the Ataris.

  6. Posted

     

    . . .

     

    And that is the final point that I am attempting to illustrate: (relative) tons of juice on this platform... totally wasted.

    . . .

     

    It is a benchmark running in BASIC. By definition it totally wastes the performance of whatever computer it runs on. Did I mention this is BASIC? The purpose of a benchmark in BASIC (wow, that's an oxymoron, isn't it?) is to evaluate how poorly BASIC performs. (and by extension the other things we know that affect this, like the difference a slow floating point library makes.)

     

    AND, some kind of ballpark figure measuring BASIC was actually a useful goal back in the day. In the 70s/early 80s a major purpose of 8-bit computers was to run BASIC. In fact, for some computers BASIC was the operating system and user interface for users. Many, MANY people buying 8-bit computers would not make it as far as assembly coding, (unlike the rest of us basement dwellers without meaningful social lives,) so a general comparison of BASIC languages was a reasonable, if not precisely accurate yardstick to evaluate their user experience. Today, its primary function is as gasoline for a burning debate on efficiency.

    • Like 4

  8. Posted · Edited by kenjennings

    ... Is graphics mode 13 supposed to always have the 4 lowest lines of monochromatic text?

     

    I don't have cc65. From what you describe it sounds like cc65 uses the Atari OS CIO to open graphics modes. Any BASIC language documentation referring to the graphics mode numbers should be good to use, since it is the OS, not BASIC that is creating the graphics modes.

     

    Simply, you get graphics modes numbered 0 through 11 on Atari 800/400, 0 to 15 on XL and XE.

     

    Mode 0 is the usual 40x24 text mode. What you described as monochromatic text.

     

    Mode 1 and 2 are colored text modes. Modes 3 to 7 are regular graphics modes (black background by default).

     

    Mode 8 is the highest resolution mode which uses the same color scheme as the monochromatic text mode (blue background, white pixels).

     

    The modes from 1 through 8 automatically include four lines of "monochromatic text" at the bottom of the screen. Add 16 to the graphics mode number to remove the text window at the bottom of the screen.

     

    On computers with GTIA (which by now is almost every 8-bit Atari available) modes 9, 10, 11 are graphics modes with special color options. None of these include the text window at the bottom of the screen.

     

    On the XL/XE there are also modes 12, 13, 14, 15. Two are text modes that really require custom character set to be effective, and two are graphics modes.

  12. Posted

    When I built the CheapTalk voice synthesizer from magazine directions in the 1980s the RS store in my neighborhood was like an electronics grocery store. There were aisles, many aisles. The store had little shopping carts. Everything I needed, and piles of things I didn't even know about.

     

    And then it became a crappy R/C toy and cell phone store. Parts became one wall panel filled with earbuds and video cables.

    • Like 3

  13. Posted · Edited by kenjennings

    As far as native assemblers go, MAC/65 is very capable and feature rich. Also, it's (as you enter) syntax checking is helpful, especially for budding programmers. However, it's default source storage method is a tokenized format rather than text. A newbie has to remember to list rather than save to have a text based source file, and similar considerations on source file input. Another thing that I think is annoying is the use of line numbers. I think they're more of a minus than a plus on balance.

    Love Mac/65. Super for small things, even in an emulator.

     

    But my tutorial projects have become larger and larger -- not necessarily the code, but the comments. Recently, I was doing something relatively minor and Mac/65 couldn't build it, because it ran out of memory -- used up by all the tutorial comments.

     

    Since I'm mostly using linux I started using atasm -- all the joy of Mac/65 with none of the line numbers!

  15. Posted · Edited by kenjennings

    I use eclipse/wudsn/atasm on linux. Works great.

     

    When I'm editing on the PC I use Notepad++. I put together a few syntax hilighting configurations. Atari BASIC, BASIC XL, and atasm. I exported the configa and put them on github here:

     

    https://github.com/kenjennings/NotepadPlusPlus-Atari-Syntax-Highlighting

     

    The atasm syntax hilighting is fairly complete. Not too sure about the BASICs. I don't use them very often.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted · Edited by kenjennings

    I always seemed to be running out of space in BASIC and data statements eat RAM. :)

     

    Yup. Even if data is worked down to strings in data statements or assignments there is still redundant data.

     

    The most efficient use of memory is having no string data staged as DATA or assignments. Instead, put it in a file (or files) and read it at startup.

     

    Unfortunately, Atari BASIC is brain damaged when using CIO to put/get arbitrary lengths of binary data, so a program has to do it the slow way and GET one character at a time. (OSS BASIC XL and others have working Bget commands that fix this.)

     

    I posted a bit of blather about this in the blog including a new version of XIO that does what it should, here:

     

    http://atariage.com/forums/blog/576/entry-13185-part-10-of-11-simple-assembly-for-atari-basic/

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    If anyone was to enhance the Antic, certainly would try to do 2x,4x HOZ mode, Double and Quadruple the internal clock frequency. I am sure there are unused bits in the registers or map another 16 registers in the $D4xx area. Is $D406 and $D408 used for anything?

     

    Just guessing/speculating.... What ANTIC does is defined by the speed of the entire system. It does what it does based on the DMA time available in the system. Things that a superdeedooperdee ANTIC would do that need more DMA would probably need the entire system, bus, and memory running 2x or 4x or more times faster in order to provide the necessary data/DMA time.

     

    At that point we have an Amiga. :-) (not that that's a bad thing ).

  21. Posted

    You could create a binary load file.

    PUT the $FF $FF bytes for the header to the file.

    PUT the low byte then high byte of the starting address.

    PUT the low byte then the high byte of the ending address. (Starting address + number of Bytes - 1)

    Then PUT the bytes values of your data.

     

    For the sake of just loading the file into memory it doesn't matter much if you you don't recall the actual starting address of the machine code. Once you get it into a load file you can put it into memory and look at it with all kinds of debuggers. That should help figure out what the real addresses should be.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    I remember in the 70's Battleship Galactica there is a scene with computer monitors in the background definitely showing some multicolor Graphics 10 patterns changing in shape and color. I could recognize the typical colors and resolution as Atari GTIA mode at once. Maybe some simple Basic doodle and color cycling code.

     

    In that scene they were talking with some hyperintelligent professor kid giving hints about some problem.. anybody know what movie or episode that was?

     

    This would be interesting if someone can find it. According to IMDB the original show was on in 1978 and 1979. The Atari 8-bits came out in late 79, so it would have been difficult for them to have the computers during production. If they did, it probably would have to be a prototype... which would be awesome to have Atari 8-bit graphics on film in 1979.

     

    I read that after a write-in campaign there was another set of episodes made in 1980. It is more likely that Atari graphics could appear in these shows.

     

    There is a list of shows on wikipedia. Several plots mention children from the Galactica.

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Battlestar_Galactica_%281978_TV_series%29_and_Galactica_1980_episodes

     

    As much as I like the show I'm not going to sit through hours of it to find the graphics. A job for someone else who loves the series more.

  23. Posted

    Not Atari-specific, but I've read about people here pulling thing off Atari's mainframe tapes. Was wondering if anyone has the resources to assist in another project.

     

    I'm discussing getting source code for GRASS/ZGRASS from the author. He reports he has "9-track tape/source code in .rol format for PDP-11 assembler". Does anyone here have the ability to read this? Is there other information you need to be sure?

     

    I'm not certain yet how we would transfer possession of the tape or under what terms he would part with it. Just trying to find out if there is someone out there who can do something useful with it.

     

    Thanks.

     

    • Like 2

  24. Posted

    Now it's mid-summer. Do you wanna try contacting him again?

     

     

    Thanks for reminding me.

     

    Tom, not nearly as lazy as I am, replied to me right away.....

     

    I looked through my stuff in September. I did not find any GRASS/Zgrass related stuff that isn't on videotape. I did find a source code listing for the Bally Arcade, but it is marked confidential on every page, and this is my signed-out copy. I'd need to get permission from someone, I do not know whom, to release me of this confidentiality. Is there any traceable ownership (Astrocade?). On the other hand, you may already have this document--there were a bunch handed out to the programmers and developers.
    I have a 9-track tape in my office here with source code in .rol format for GRASS (PDP-11 assembler) if it still reads. It's been untouched for ~35 years.
    Have you contacted Steve Heminover in Chicago? He has piles of related materials, I believe.

     

     

    So, pending questions. . .

     

    1) What is the state of Bally/Astrocade proprietary/confidential information? Who owns it? Who would have to give Tom permission to release it? (assuming he has something new we haven't seen before.)

     

    2) Who has the resources to read that old tape? Is 9-track tape/source code in .rol format for PDP-11 assembler enough information?

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