PaultheRoman

If money is an issue, because I see here people worrying that ROM purchases would kill carts, just make the ROM cost the same as the physical counterpart, that way the option exists. As long as my living space doesn't get cluttered with things I don't want, I'm down with paying a pretty sizable amount, I just want the option.

Hey there, friends, I wanted to ask something: Where can I find here a list of games and/or homebrews that detail what type of expansion chips or additional cart hardware do they use? I want to see things like, at least on the homebrew side, which games use additional hardware like, like the Activision DPC, or what other additional hardware exists now that is being used, now that we have so much technology at our fingertips.

I can't wait for it, personally. I do not like having a massive physical collection for something that can take less than a 100 MB on my Google Drive. Plus, having a ROM version of a game futureproofs it. If not for ROMs, I feel like a lot of these cool homebrews may not be playable in the future, when they're not being produced.

Yup, I do, and it runs on the emulator! Woohoo! Thanks guys!

Okay, so I took the advice and located the macro.h and vcs.h files into the same directory as demo.asm. I also united the -l and -o switches to their directed file/filename. It's still not working however in PowerShell though. Anything else that I need to fix? PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects> ls Directory: C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a---- 3/10/2021 8:45 PM 1829 demo.asm -a---- 9/8/2020 3:04 AM 5955 macro.h -a---- 9/8/2020 3:04 AM 9364 vcs.h PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects> ..\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64\dasm.exe .\demo.asm -ldemo.txt -f3 -v5 -okernel.bin DASM 2.20.14 Copyright (c) 1988-2020 by the DASM team. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later (see file LICENSE). DASM is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Usage: dasm sourcefile [options] -f# output format 1-3 (default 1) -oname output file name (else a.out) -lname list file name (else none generated) -Lname list file, containing all passes -sname symbol dump file name (else none generated) -v# verboseness 0-4 (default 0) -d debug mode (for developers) -Dsymbol define symbol, set to 0 -Dsymbol=expression define symbol, set to expression -Msymbol=expression define symbol using EQM (same as -D) -Idir search directory for INCLUDE and INCBIN -p# maximum number of passes -P# maximum number of passes, with fewer checks -T# symbol table sorting (default 0 = alphabetical, 1 = address/value) -E# error format (default 0 = MS, 1 = Dillon, 2 = GNU) -S strict syntax checking -R remove binary output-file in case of errors -m# safety barrier to abort on recursions, max. allowed file-size in kB Report bugs on https://github.com/dasm-assembler/dasm please! Fatal assembly error: Check command-line format. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects> That's the bad news. The good news, is that in the Command Prompt it seemed to be that it worked: C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects>..\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64\dasm.exe .\demo.asm -ldemo.txt -f3 -v5 -okernel.bin START OF PASS: 1 back to: .\demo.asm back to: .\demo.asm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SEGMENT NAME INIT PC INIT RPC FINAL PC FINAL RPC f000 f000 RIOT [u] 0280 0280 TIA_REGISTERS_READ [u] 0000 0000 TIA_REGISTERS_WRITE [u] 0000 0000 INITIAL CODE SEGMENT 0000 ???? 0000 ???? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 references to unknown symbols. 0 events requiring another assembler pass. --- Symbol List (sorted by symbol) 0.FREE_BYTES 0000 1.CLEAR_STACK f005 (R ) AUDC0 0015 AUDC1 0016 AUDF0 0017 AUDF1 0018 AUDV0 0019 AUDV1 001a BGColor 0081 (R ) COLUBK 0009 (R ) COLUP0 0006 COLUP1 0007 COLUPF 0008 CTRLPF 000a CXBLPF 0006 CXCLR 002c CXM0FB 0004 CXM0P 0000 CXM1FB 0005 CXM1P 0001 CXP0FB 0002 CXP1FB 0003 CXPPMM 0007 ENABL 001f ENAM0 001d ENAM1 001e GRP0 001b GRP1 001c HMBL 0024 HMCLR 002b HMM0 0022 HMM1 0023 HMOVE 002a HMP0 0020 HMP1 0021 INPT0 0008 INPT1 0009 INPT2 000a INPT3 000b INPT4 000c INPT5 000d INTIM 0284 LVBlank f01e (R ) LVOver f03a (R ) NextFrame f00a (R ) NO_ILLEGAL_OPCODES 0000 ???? (R ) NUSIZ0 0004 NUSIZ1 0005 PF0 000d PF1 000e PF2 000f REFP0 000b REFP1 000c RESBL 0014 RESM0 0012 RESM1 0013 RESMP0 0028 RESMP1 0029 RESP0 0010 RESP1 0011 RSYNC 0003 ScanLoop f02b (R ) Start f000 (R ) SWACNT 0281 SWBCNT 0283 SWCHA 0280 SWCHB 0282 T1024T 0297 TIA_BASE_ADDRESS 0000 (R ) TIA_BASE_READ_ADDRESS 0000 (R ) TIA_BASE_WRITE_ADDRESS 0000 (R ) TIM1T 0294 TIM64T 0296 TIM8T 0295 TIMINT 0285 VBLANK 0001 (R ) VDELBL 0027 VDELP0 0025 VDELP1 0026 VERSION_MACRO 006d VERSION_VCS 006a VSYNC 0000 (R ) WSYNC 0002 (R ) --- End of Symbol List. --- Unresolved Symbol List NO_ILLEGAL_OPCODES 0000 ???? (R ) --- 1 Unresolved Symbol Complete. (0) C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects> Is this output what I'm looking for, guys?

So, thing was that I didn't know whether I needed to set a path in my computer to the dasm.exe executable. Apparently, as long as I'm in the folder when calling it, or I'm entering the the folder it's in through ..\..\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64\dasm.exe , it seems to work. Question now though, is that I don't know if I'm writing the command correctly: PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe kernel.asm -l kernel.txt -f3 -v5 -o kernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe kernel.asm -l kernel.txt -f3 -v5 -okernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe kernel.asm -l kernel.txt -f3 -v5 -o kernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe ..\..\projects\demo.asm -l kernel.txt -f3 -v5 -o kernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe ..\..\projects\ -l demo.asm -f3 -v5 -o kernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe ..\..\projects\ -l ..\..\projects\demo.asm -f3 -v5 -o ..\..\projects\kernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe ..\..\projects\ -l ..\..\projects\demo.asm -f3 -v5 ..\..\projects\kernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\dasm_assembler\dasm-2.20.14-win-x64> .\dasm.exe ..\..\projects\ -l ..\..\projects\demo.asm -f3 -v5 -o ..\..\projects\kernel.bin -o Switch requires file name. As for what's in the folder I have my file in: PS C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects> ls Directory: C:\Users\pablo\Google Drive\ATARI_2600\projects Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a---- 3/10/2021 8:45 PM 1829 demo.asm And as for what's inside the file, it's not what's in Andrew's book. I took this code from 8bitworkshop IDE [vcs] - examples/vsync.a , as I just currently want to get something assembling before anything else. I've always have had problems with command line assemblers and compilers. They seem really hard to understand and use. The code in that link is: processor 6502 include "vcs.h" include "macro.h" org $f000 ; Now we're going to drive the TV signal properly. ; Assuming NTSC standards, we need the following: ; - 3 scanlines of VSYNC ; - 37 blank lines ; - 192 visible scanlines ; - 30 blank lines ; We'll use the VSYNC register to generate the VSYNC signal, ; and the VBLANK register to force a blank screen above ; and below the visible frame (it'll look letterboxed on ; the emulator, but not on a real TV) ; Let's define a variable to hold the starting color ; at memory address $81 BGColor equ $81 ; The CLEAN_START macro zeroes RAM and registers Start CLEAN_START NextFrame ; Enable VBLANK (disable output) lda #2 sta VBLANK ; At the beginning of the frame we set the VSYNC bit... lda #2 sta VSYNC ; And hold it on for 3 scanlines... sta WSYNC sta WSYNC sta WSYNC ; Now we turn VSYNC off. lda #0 sta VSYNC ; Now we need 37 lines of VBLANK... ldx #37 LVBlank sta WSYNC ; accessing WSYNC stops the CPU until next scanline dex ; decrement X bne LVBlank ; loop until X == 0 ; Re-enable output (disable VBLANK) lda #0 sta VBLANK ; 192 scanlines are visible ; We'll draw some rainbows ldx #192 lda BGColor ; load the background color out of RAM ScanLoop adc #1 ; add 1 to the current background color in A sta COLUBK ; set the background color sta WSYNC ; WSYNC doesn't care what value is stored dex bne ScanLoop ; Enable VBLANK again lda #2 sta VBLANK ; 30 lines of overscan to complete the frame ldx #30 LVOver sta WSYNC dex bne LVOver ; The next frame will start with current color value - 1 ; to get a downwards scrolling effect dec BGColor ; Go back and do another frame jmp NextFrame org $fffc .word Start .word Start Let me know if you need anything else, please. Really just want to assemble something so I know I am able to actually program and try things out.

Hey, guys, I'm trying to follow the instructions on Andrew Davie's "Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies", in chapter 9 where he starts teaching how to use DASM. Thing is, I'm having troubles trying to get it to work. Can anyone please help?

So, is this a program for the A800, or is this like a replacement ROM (as in OS) for it? I'm kind of confused.

I hope this is still being worked on. I played the latest version and it's really cool!

The link for the NTSC version isn't working anymore. What difference is there between the NTSC version and the PAL version?

An FPGA can be as cheap as $10 - $20. What are you talking about, my friend? Besides, FPGA is the future of retrogaming, haven't you heard?

That sounds like a wonderful idea and something that I'd like to participate in

So I'm very new to this community, and I can't really find much information concerning this, so here goes: When will Gradius be available to buy again? Also, will it every be possible to buy the Rom (or pack of roms) the same way that CollectorVision does? Again, just a question, not trying to enrage anyone here. From what I've been able to see, roms are a no no here, but I can't really find out why. Thank you for your patience.

I forgot to thank you guys for your help! Thanks @Serguei2 , thanks @Mike Harris !

bump bump

Thank you very much, enthusi!

@enthusi Do you plan on releasing the rom?

So I'm interested in learning how to program for the ColecoVision, but I can't find any good guide/walkthrough on how to do so. Can anyone please help me? I also can't find a good and active ColecoVision community/forum to join. So if someone can help with that too, it would be greatly appreciated.

Is the ROM for this going to be released, or is it going to be a cartridge only game? I would love to be able to play this.

Is the game already completely programmed, or is it still in the works?

Is there something like this, but as a downloadable program? Like, what do other people use?

Oh cool, is this a rougelike of sorts? If not, what genre is it?

Hey guys, question What do people use to develop pixel art for the 2600? I would think other normal pixel art programs, but each pixel in the 2600 looks more like a rectangle than an actual square. What do you guys recommend me?

What do you mean? Why do you say that? Can you link me to some of the FPGA cores? That sounds interesting. As for whether they output control signals, I don't know, haven't heard much about Atari VCS FPGA clones. What do you mean by that? I'm pretty sure that the case is not at fault here, if anything it's the lack of a manual, whether printed or in PDF form. Can you show me what it is that your referring to when you wrote this? If all the information is available, then it shouldn't really be so hard to make a perfect clone of it. Manufacturing aside, it would just be a matter of how much time your willing to spend in gathering all the information needed.

GTIA chip? Don't you mean the TIA chip? I looked into the GTIA chip, and that was something used for the Atari 8bit computers and the Atari 5200. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTIA_and_GTIA#2600_and_TIA https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Atari+2600+Teardown/3541