ATTN: Programmers, What program do you use to write Atari?

[Cassidy Nolen]

Hi all,

 

After doing some reading, I am not sure what language I would use to write a game for 2600, or for 5200 for that matter. Is there a cross compiler for C? I am by no means a programmer, but I was looking at "how to" books on C, and maybe that is the language to do it in?

 

Geez, wish I had taken a class in computers back in the day. I have come a long way on my own, but still a lost cause!

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

Cassidy

[RCorcoran]

6502 Assembler is the language of the Atari 2600.

[Snider-man]

It is also the ONLY language for the Atari. No C++, no Visual Basic, no COBOL, FORTRAN, or PASCAL. Prepare yourself for the headache that is about to ensue.

 

Tim "Been there, done it, am going stark raving mad because of it" Snider

[Thomas Jentzsch]

100% Assembler for the 2600, NO other options

 

But before you start learning that, you should have some general knowledge about programming. Learning C first, will help there.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Can I run it on an emulator on a PC? I have an XE system, so if I needed to, I could use that instead. Does anyone have the program that they could send me?

 

I assume it is a very small program. Can I make a cartridge of it for my XE?

 

Thanks for the info, guys. All the effort will hopefully be repaid to the community via new goodies. I really am quite stubborn about things, and am not afraid of a few year commitment.

 

Cassidy

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Can I run it on an emulator on a PC?  I have an XE system, so if I needed to, I could use that instead.  Does anyone have the program that they could send me?  

There were some threads about this in the Programming forum. There you will find plenty of useful information.

 

Thanks for the info, guys.  All the effort will hopefully be repaid to the community via new goodies.  I really am quite stubborn about things, and am not afraid of a few year commitment.

That's one point for you.

 

Only 99 to go!

[+Cafeman]

You can do it Cassidy!

 

http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/specials...brew1&pagenum=1

 

Go read this article, I wrote it in February for Gaming-Age and I think that it gives nice overview info about not only the 2600 but 5200 homebrew scene and (most importantly) there are links at the end to help you with the ASM and Hex stuff.

 

As was mentioned, if you do not have ANY experience programming in a language yet, you should really dabble with BASIC and / or C first, for like a few weeks or so, to get some kind of feel for things.

[jsoper]

And if assembly is too easy for you, try coding a game directly in machine language. 4096 ones and zeroes, how hard can that be?

[RCorcoran]

You mean I can't write 2600VB? Damn!

 

[smf_4ever]

I am starting to play around with code.. using an ATARI 130 XE and Mac65 program...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

And if assembly is too easy for you, try coding a game directly in machine language.  4096 ones and zeroes, how hard can that be?

Actually there are 32768 (4096 * 8 ) ones and zeroes.

[mos6507]

Someone was working on a 5200BAS sort of utility for the 2600 but he never finished it.

 

I believe he could have gotten it to work, though, although certainly it would limit the kind of game you could write.

 

I'd like to see him finish it.

[rasty]

If you're looking for a development tool, Cassidy, let me suggest you EditPlus. Great text editor, lets you run the compiler and has 6502 syntax hilight!

It's 30 dollars, but it's worth every cent IMO!

 

Also as Thomas suggested, general programming knowledge is important... Anyway, I've learned ASM before C and found it useful to better understand the concept of pointers in the latter language..so your mileage may vary

 

greets,

Rasty.-

[Cybergoth]

If you're looking for a development tool, Cassidy, let me suggest you EditPlus. Great text editor, lets you run the compiler and has 6502 syntax hilight!

 

I was evaluating Ultraedit for approx. half a year now, but finally turned back to Textpad, on which I'd written Gunfight completely.

 

I couldn't really say what is better with Textpad, it's just that it feels *better* using it. Maybe when Star Fire is done, I'll try another editor again - Editplus , SciTE, MED and Codegenie are on my list

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Yes, TextPad is my first choice too. You can easily create your own syntax hilighting file and invoke the tools you need.

[NE146]

I highly recommend EDLIN

 

 

*cough*

[Ushabin]

I highly recommend EDLIN

 

 

*cough*

 

LOL.

 

If you are REALLY into self abuse, you could try writing in VI!

[RCorcoran]

I use UltraEdit-32 Professional 9.10 with the "ASM for 6502" incorporated into my wordfile. This too give 6502 syntax highlighting, etc.

[cschell]

What's wrong with vi? It's a perfectly good editor, and much more convenient than edlin. (vi is at least a screen editor rather than a line editor.)

 

I used notepad for the Cuttle Cart 2600 ROM development. It served just fine for all the code for the Intellicart too.

 

Chad

[Albert]

I haven't yet started programming for the 2600, but when I do I will probably use TextPad. I use it for most of my ASCII text editing, except when I'm using a nice IDE for some high-level languages (like Visual Studio and Delphi). When I'm working on AtariAge I almost always have TextPad running and am usually editing several files at once.

 

Does anyone have a 6502 Syntax Definition File for TextPad?

 

..Al

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Does anyone have a 6502 Syntax Definition File for TextPad?

Check your mail.

[Cybergoth]

Hi Thomas!

 

What would that line responsible for the output analysis of DASM in your Textpad configuration read? You know, that stuff:

 

^Error [0-9]+ in ([^(]+)(([0-9]+)[0-9]+)

 

And is there a way of preventing Textpad to swap the focus to the output window on every compile? That's driving me crazy...

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Albert]

Does anyone have a 6502 Syntax Definition File for TextPad?

Check your mail.

 

Thanks Thomas!!

 

..Al

[RCorcoran]

While not 6502 specific, here's another nice IDE ASM tool:

 

http://visualasm.polyex.com/toc.html

 

It works with all Win platforms and has a very clean interface.