If programming the Atari 2600 is so difficult....

[KAZ]

Then on the other hand what is the easiest platform to program for?

 

I'm talking something that a hobbiest could do themselves.

 

Is it maybe the NES, because it gives you more ROOM to work with when coding? And then the related question is could you use the same dasm process to make a NES game, or is it something else?

 

Programming for the Atari 2600 is rewarding for its own reasons, yet it would be cool to do something on the NES also, because it allows more room to work with.

 

I have a JNES, so I could test creations out on that too.

Is there a playfield program thing for JNES like Atari 2600?

 

Anything higher than a Nintendo I'd think would be way to hard for a hobbiest to tackle.

 

Or perhaps there isn't an eprom burner for a system like the NES, whereas there is for the Atari 2600.

 

 

Can anyone provide me with some more information?

 

This whole subject has ballooned my post count like crazy.

[King Asmo]

You'd probably be best off making something for an 8-bit computer, such as the Atari 800 or Commodore 64 line.

 

KA

[Joel D. Park]

Writing old style games on the PC might be something fun to try.. There is a program called Blitz Basic that is designed just for old school games.. Look around a little, it sounded like alot of fun.

[DanBoris]

Of all the consoles I have studied, I would say that the Gameboy is probably one of the easiest to program. It has a really nice, simple, yet power graphics controller that really makes getting stuff on the screen easy.

 

There are is also a lot of good tech info and development tools out there for it.

 

Dan

[Tempest]

The Vectrex is surprisingly easy to program since it has a Bios with a bunch of built in functions. I was able to whip up a movement and graphics demo (with titlescreen) for my unfinished Solar Fox clone in a matter of days.

 

Tempest

[Rob Mitchell]

The Vectrex is surprisingly easy to program since it has a Bios with a bunch of built in functions.  I was able to whip up a movement and graphics demo (with titlescreen) for my unfinished Solar Fox clone in a matter of days.  

 

Tempest

 

Hey .. I would like to see this Vectrex BIN .. and load it up on my VecRAM cart and see what it looks like on a real Vectrex!

 

I've been dabbling in Vectrex programming off/on .. and have actually written a real program for the Vectrex: The Proof of the Pythagorian Theorem .. and it works!

 

There are two excellent Vectrex programming tutorials .. makes it easy! Now it is time to check out the 2600 programming info .. and see what I can play with ..

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

(full of programming dreams)

[RCorcoran]

Writing old style games on the PC might be something fun to try..  There is a program called Blitz Basic that is designed just for old school games..  Look around a little,  it sounded like alot of fun.

 

Blitz3D is meant for more "modern" games where Blitz2D is as Joel states.

[Joel D. Park]

By the way,

 

I've finally got a chance to start messing with Blitz Basic, I'm working in 3D right now. I must say it's the simplest programming language I ever used. It's embarisingly simple some times, but the results are FAST and really nice.

[eric_ruck]

I started messing with Lynx programming a bit and it's quite easy. While you should use the blitter (sprite engine) for best results, you really don't have to, and the C compiler has a few goodies thrown in to make programming pretty easy.

 

Of course, you'll have to know C and understand something about memory and pointer. Also you'll really want to understand something about the binary representation of numbers. None of these are too hard to learn.

 

Oh, and there are a bunch of decent sample programs on the Lynx to help you out.

 

Eric