Basic Programming Atari CX2620

[simonsunnyboy]

"For use with keyboard controller"

 

How much is this one worth and is it common?

[rockman_x_2002]

It's a fairly common one. Not too difficult to find.

[simonsunnyboy]

Ok, then I didn't miss much as I lost the auction anyway....

[Inky]

It's absolutely terrible anyway. Even if you could do something useful with it, how would you save what you did?

[video game addict]

It's absolutely terrible anyway. Even if you could do something useful with it, how would you save what you did?

 

 

leave the power switch ON

[Nukey Shay]

STACK = "Even if you could do something useful with it"

 

= 0

[games-video]

did anyone here ever program a game with? or a Excel-like database or something?

[Schitti]

be sure that the overlays for the keyboard controllers are in the box

[fiddlepaddle]

It's absolutely terrible anyway. Even if you could do something useful with it, how would you save what you did?

 

Programmers used to have to enter the boot loader through binary switches on the front panel when the card reader messed up.

 

I bet you could write a little memory matching game, or maybe a flash-card type educational program.

 

Could also probably make it a Supercharger program and use the audio signal to create a save function with a tape recorder (with a minor mod, of course).

[+Random Terrain]

It's absolutely terrible anyway. Even if you could do something useful with it, how would you save what you did?

Isn't it nice that we have batari Basic now so we can save our Atari 2600 games?

[TheHoboInYourRoom]

Even if you could do something useful with it,

Isn't there a text file somewhere that gives you Basic Programming versions of Mario Kart, Pitfall, etc.? I'm know I've seen it before, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or the author's name.

[Inky]

Isn't there a text file somewhere that gives you Basic Programming versions of Mario Kart, Pitfall, etc.? I'm know I've seen it before, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or the author's name.

 

You couldn't even get close to remotely-almost-kinda-sorta-maybe replicating the gameplay for those, even in a extremely watered down way.

[Vic George 2K3]

It's more of an antiquated learning tool than a totally useful game program.

[seemo]

It's more of an antiquated learning tool than a totally useful game program.

 

yes, but it's really fascinating

 

Simone

[Impaler_26]

I found this text-file with Basic Programming and Compumate examples on my HD, can't remember where i copied it from...

Basic_Programming_Examples.txt

[TheHoboInYourRoom]

You couldn't even get close to remotely-almost-kinda-sorta-maybe replicating the gameplay for those, even in a extremely watered down way.

Yeah, well, I thought that was kinda the point anyway.

[+Random Terrain]

You couldn't even get close to remotely-almost-kinda-sorta-maybe replicating the gameplay for those, even in a extremely watered down way.

Yeah, well, I thought that was kinda the point anyway.

Still, you'd have to type it in. Done that for the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore 64 when I used to buy magazines like Compute. At least you could save what you typed in. When you can't save what you type in, it feels like you're trying to hold water in a strainer or trying to walk up a down escalator that is moving faster than you can climb.

[shadow460]

It's more of an antiquated learning tool than a totally useful game program.

 

In other words, it's a paperweight.

 

BTW, I've read in some places that the overlays came with the keyboards themselves, and in others that they came with basic programming. Which was it?

[TheHoboInYourRoom]

Still, you'd have to type it in. Done that for the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore 64 when I used to buy magazines like Compute. At least you could save what you typed in. When you can't save what you type in, it feels like you're trying to hold water in a strainer or trying to walk up a down escalator that is moving faster than you can climb.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but is this really that much of a problem with Basic Programming? I mean, the longest a program for it can (reliably) be is 64 characters, and you have to exploit a glitch to get the last two! Personally, 64 characters is quite manageable, even with volatile memory.

[Impaler_26]

Even if you could do something useful with it,

Isn't there a text file somewhere that gives you Basic Programming versions of Mario Kart, Pitfall, etc.? I'm know I've seen it before, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or the author's name.

Yep, it's here: http://www2.gvsu.edu/~brittedg/BasicProgramming.txt

[TheHoboInYourRoom]

Even if you could do something useful with it,

Isn't there a text file somewhere that gives you Basic Programming versions of Mario Kart, Pitfall, etc.? I'm know I've seen it before, but I can't for the life of me remember the title or the author's name.

Yep, it's here: http://www2.gvsu.edu/~brittedg/BasicProgramming.txt

Thank you so much! I've been looking to try some of those programs out myself.

[supercat]

yes, but it's really fascinating

 

If the 2600 with an extra 128 bytes or so of RAM, the BASIC programming cartridge would have been almost practical as a teaching/experimental tool. When it was released, though, 8K+SARA cartridges hadn't yet been invented.

 

Still, if you look at what the cartridge does manage, despite the limitations, it's pretty impressive. With a RAM footprint of only 64 bytes (including 24 for the text line buffer) and a ROM footprint of only 4K (including 1.25K for the character set) it provides an editing/debugging environment which shows source code, variables, and output in separate windows in the style of Microsoft's "CodeView" products which were considered revolutionary when they came out a few years later. Fascinating indeed.

[Nukey Shay]

Actually, Superchip conversion would be pretty easy (as all user ram within the program is consecutive...$92 on up). Altering this to be $Fxxx for the seperate read/write addresses would be no great hassle (heck, many of the instructions are already treating them as 16-bit addresses)...and fixing the line number display so they don't become glitched is also pretty easy (increase the size of the lookup table, or provide a loop to handle 2-digit line numbers). The (only?) difficult thing would be adding the ability to scroll through the program area, because the kernal only supports a maximum of 13 displayed lines. Goto's might also present a problem, but I'm not sure about that.

 

The real question would be "is it worth it?". And that's where it falls on it's face. 2 squares only for graphics and keypad-only input isn't very flexible. It would still be just a learning tool to teach it's own unique version of BASIC.

[elenag]

You couldn't even get close to remotely-almost-kinda-sorta-maybe replicating the gameplay for those, even in a extremely watered down way.

At about 10-12 years old, that cart was my first exposure to programming. I remember being frustrated with wondering why I couldn't enter more lines of code. Best I could do was move the cursor around. I got a lot more use out of Brain Games.

[supercat]

The real question would be "is it worth it?". And that's where it falls on it's face. 2 squares only for graphics and keypad-only input isn't very flexible. It would still be just a learning tool to teach it's own unique version of BASIC.

 

Today, no it wouldn't be worth it. But back then, adding 128 bytes of RAM would have not only doubled the program storage, but it would have also freed up 64 bytes of main RAM. The cartridge could have allowed the program to switch between a five-line output screen that didn't use up program memory, or a 32x16 bitmap, or a 32x12 bitmap plus one line of text. And with 8K of ROM, the cartridge could have afforded to let the user move around sprites (taken from a small but reasonable set) instead of boxes.

 

Many possibilities.