BrianBeuken Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Hi all just wanted to say hello, I've recently started messing about with the ColecoVision and finding it a lot of fun already, A long long time ago in a galaxy far away I used to do a fair bit of Ti99/4a coding and then a lot of Z80 coding so this has been happy memory overload for me combining two of my 1st loves. I am not really having any problems getting things going, so am working on a little game project that should be ready in a few months but I am curious to know from people where who've been active on the system what tips and tricks they found on the ColecoVision? I've set up a Notepad++ -> Tasm -> Colecoem dev chain on my Windows 7 machine, but I wonder if there are any better emulators around? Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PkK Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 The Meka emulator has some basic debugging functionality, scuh as displaying the memory and graphics memory maps and the state fo there gisters. Philipp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 I would suggest BlueMSX, it includes a reasonable debugger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Thanks I will have a look at these. Colecoem does have a basic disassembly display but its very limited and I can't seem to do much ore than look at the current PC so would like to find something a bit more usable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 i strongly recommend also BlueMSX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 I use BlueMSX and Ultimate SD cartridge for testing. Meka is good for me to dump VRAM data to raw format, so I can convert pre-rle graphics to use other compression like Pletter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 About BlueMSX, you'll need to pause to update debugger. The AtariMax Ultimate SD cartridge definitely is a must. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Thanks guys BLueMSX certainly does have a much better debugger so I will change my toolchain to use it. I did discover the pause thing after a bit of confusion also the fact I needed the full download to get ColecoVision options. I am not familiar with the AtariMax Ultimate SD cart though...can you give me a noobs explanation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 $130 copy you roms on to sd card, stick in cart, put cart in cv, game plays on real cv: http://atarimax.com/colecosd/documentation/index.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Ah thanks, I was not aware such devices were available on retro machines, that could be very useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 (edited) Ah thanks, I was not aware such devices were available on retro machines, that could be very useful. NP, all kinds of multicarts for retro systems, some that you put your roms on, others you get what it comes with. see this thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/127752-flashcart-and-multicart-list-all-systems/ Edited February 2, 2014 by evg2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardhat Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 One thing that many people don't know about on BlueMSX is the symbol table loading, which I find really helpful. I don't use tasm, so it'll be up to you to create a symbol table in the appropriate format. But when you load up the symbols everything is so much clearer I find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Ah thanks that is even more useful, would love to find out how I can insert breakpoints too. Tasm seems quite useful though it has a few quirks I've noticed already especially the expression evaluation is quite poor. But its usable and has let me build up a small test program. So far seems to be fairly easy to get going. Quite enjoying my trip down memory lane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 So back to the original question, how many active coders on here for the CV? Is there any actual product produced here and what has been the response from users? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 tniASM v0.44 is a pretty reasonable and fast assembler and also generates symbol tables compatible with BlueMSX. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 So back to the original question, how many active coders on here for the CV? Is there any actual product produced here and what has been the response from users? If you want have an idea of what have been produced on the CV. you can start by looking site like http://www.collectorvision.com/index2.htm http://www.teampixelboy.com http://www.gooddealgames.com/inventory/Colecovision.html and the list is not exhaustive. I think they are now (or very close) Homebrew published in C.V than commercial games! And to have a list of homebrew , you can check that website : http://www.colecovision.dk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I've read in other threads that the number of ColecoVision homebrew cartridge releases is getting so large that people need to pick which ones they prefer to buy, instead of getting them all. Your milage may vary, but it would at least not make you feel alone as a developer.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Nothing but BlueMSX! The best CV emulator you can get BTW: Welcome aboard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ten-four Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 So back to the original question, how many active coders on here for the CV? The most active coders i think is: Nanochess Youki Kiwi Nicam_Shilova Newcoleco PkK Crazyboss bfg.gamepassion OpCode Hardhat Mystery Man Stephen Seehorn Martijn Wenting But there are more out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. Yes Blue MSX is looking very neat, I am going to persist with Tasm for a little while, I will probably switch to tniASM at some point though for the symbol tables, I just wrote a bunch of code and don't want to refactor it just yet I've been luck so far that after some initial confusion I don't need the debugger so much now, so can crack on with a working devenv. nice to see such a thriving community, I will enjoy it here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. Yes Blue MSX is looking very neat, I am going to persist with Tasm for a little while, I will probably switch to tniASM at some point though for the symbol tables, I just wrote a bunch of code and don't want to refactor it just yet I've been luck so far that after some initial confusion I don't need the debugger so much now, so can crack on with a working devenv. nice to see such a thriving community, I will enjoy it here I'm looking foward to see what you are working on! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Gimme a couple of months 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardhat Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 And for making graphics, check out NewColeco's indispensable tools like ICVGM or CV Toolkit. I find they make my way more productive than I ever was before they came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianBeuken Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 thanks Hardhat I am indeed looking at those graphic tools but for now am trying to rip graphics from an old project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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