DKWITT

First things first, apologies if already covered, but I have searched and couldn't find an answer. Maybe it is here and I didn't look properly, maybe it is scattered. I want to use my android box with a bluetoothed gamepad to play Atari 8 bit games. Ideally I want to be able to use the same app to play games on other platforms, old arcade classics plus Megadrive games. So, I tried Retroarch. Managed to get Sonic up and running but every Atari file I tried crashed Retroarch. I tried various filetypes, everything crashed the app. Can you use Mame4Droid to run Atari programs? How is it set up? Can I just select "Breakout 1979 Atari.atr" and it will run it, or do I have to run an Atari emulator and then somehow use DOS to load the disk image? I've been trying this for 5 hours (it's 11am!), installing and uninstalling, and I'm at a loss! Probably a lie down in a dark room would be best but I am sure that some clearer-headed experts could help out. Thank you in advance PS I tried Colleen but could not see how to set this up with a gamepad. Is that possible? If I have to have multiple emulators then fair enough , but a single app would be better.

Thanks pps! I would be interested in seeing your source files. Are they on a website somewhere or would you post them here? My version (before I childishly trashed it) was a lot simpler. I used a number array and just printed CHR$ of the number onscreen in gr.2. I used simple character animation to show that the block was 'blowing up'. I wanted the mechanics right before doing it with sprites,colours etc. I was never a great programmer when I was a kid in the 1980s and I haven't got much better since! I couldn't find out how to control the game (arrow keys + space bar or joystick). I did routines initialising the grid, and looking for 3,4,5 in a row. The game could sort of play itself but i wasn't able to merge that with the user input. I won't give up again! That is not a good example to set to the kids.

Thanks for the guidance TRBB. Turbo Basic is indeed my choice. I will check those websites and hopefully I can get something done.

My first post so be gentle (if i deserve it). I decided it would be a good idea to get my kids into computer programming, rather than just using a computer or an iPad. Maybe wrong but i think that the very simple environment of an atari would be ideal. They are mad on Candy Crush Saga so I thought, let's write one of those match-3 games. It's lot more difficult than I thought. I'd got most of the checking routines sorted out but frustrated that I could not tie it all together I deleted everything. Now I want to carry on. I know that there is a game called "Swapz" on a Czech disk magazine, but does anyone know of a Basic version that I could work with / copy? I have searched for this on many different atari forums and could not find what i was looking for, but apologies if I have missed it. Even if I get no response I would like to congratulate everyone on these various forums for their dedication and hard work in supporting and using 8-bit atari machines. To think that people are still getting more out of these machines (like crazy new graphics modes) is amazing. (i'd like to see a Basic listing showing them all off - I am sure one is around somewhere). Thanks and apologies again if this subject has been covered before.