Help setting up a programming environment

[LoTonah]

First, I should say that I do know how to program. What I seem to lack is the ability to set up a working ColecoVision/ADAM programming environment, under either OSX or Windows XP.

 

Every tutorial that I've read is either incomplete, a translation from another language (or written by someone that English is their second language) or woefully out of date (tools missing, upgraded, etc).

 

I think that we have quite a few people on these forums that would love to program for the ColecoVision, but may have given up when they didn't know how to get MAKE to work, for instance.

I would love to make a new set of documents covering the following:

 

1). Assembler programming environment under Windows XP/Vista/7/8

2). Assembler programming environment under OSX 10.6-10.9

3). C programming environment under Windows XP/Vista/7/8

4). C programming environment under OSX 10.6-10.9

 

Anyone willing to help me start? Which tools/languages/etc. are the best under each platform?

 

I would love to see an explosion of new talent on the scene, making it stronger than ever!

[PkK]

Well, there is the tutorial at

 

http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial0.shtml

 

The environment there comes from a Unix background (I use Debian GNU/Linux, the tutorial works for Windows using Cygwin), so it should fit well for OSX, since AFAIK, OSX is based on BSD.

 

Philipp

[LoTonah]

Well, I tried to that tutorial on Windows XP, just a few weeks ago. There was some confusion because since that article was written, SDCC has been upgraded and doesn't quite work the same.

 

Most of my programming has used environments that didn't try to emulate UNIX (like Atari ST, MS-DOS, Delphi, then BlitzMax for years on Mac and some Python recently), so when the tutorials just assume that everyone knows how to use MAKE and such, I just say...no.

 

To be honest, I'm kind of a lazy programmer who somehow avoided doing anything with C for decades (although I can read most source code). But I really want to make Coleco games, so I'm putting aside my old aversions to C and Assembler, but yeah... stumped at the install level? LOL

 

 

So what I would like to see is better, more up to date documentation for how to get started. Or better yet, easier tools to set up and configure.

[+evg2000]

You mentioned mac, there was a thread about this though I haven't had time to give it a try:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/193880-cv-development-on-a-mac/?hl=%2Bevg2000&do=findComment&comment=2467297

[parkfun101]

I know this was posted back in March, but I would also like to try coding for Colecovision and had luck with the ASM or tniasm compiler but have not figured out how to use the C version to do any coding. If anyone needs help setting up an environment using tniasm, I can help. Just let me know.

[youki]

you can find very easy C development kit here :

 

http://ccjvq.com/newcoleco/

[+Gemintronic]

On Win 8 I had to set the permissions for Full Control for Everyone on the C:\Program Files\SDCC directory. After that the batch files in the z80 folder worked. Other than that I just followed the directions in NewColecos video. Oh, and I installed blueMSX and set it for Colecovision mode.

[+Gemintronic]

Sorry to double post but I just realized newbies kinda expect some sort of IDE. Is there a preferred one for SDCC and the NewColeco devkit?

[Kiwi]

I use Notepad++ to code. You can clone the code to another tab. I use ICVGM and CV toolkit sprite 2 to produce graphics and it'll encode the graphics to rle format. ICVGM I believe needed .net framework. CCI3 and CVtoolkit needed JAVA.

[parkfun101]

On Win 8 I had to set the permissions for Full Control for Everyone on the C:\Program Files\SDCC directory. After that the batch files in the z80 folder worked. Other than that I just followed the directions in NewColecos video. Oh, and I installed blueMSX and set it for Colecovision mode.

This really should be added to the documentation. I'm using Windows 7 and I had the same issue you mentioned. I just had to grant Full Control for Everyone on C:\Program Files (x86)\SDCC directory. I wasn't sure if the CCI3 program was just having issues or what. Once you do the Full Control for Everyone, it's all good. Thanks for posting this Windows fix, now I'm good!

[nitrofurano]

about cross-development (i'm GNU/Linux only, but i think these tools works fine on other operating systems), i guess these ones are good:

- Pasmo - http://pasmo.speccy.org

- WLA-DX - http://www.villehelin.com/wla.html

- z80asm (from z88dk) - http://www.z88dk.org

 

and this one is what i want to extend to ColecoVision, but i wasn't successful yet (even with the help from Bienvenu, shame on me... :S )

- Boriel's ZX-Basic Compiler - http://www.boriel.com/wiki/en/index.php/ZXBasic

 

about Boriel's ZX-Basic Compiler, some of my humble attempts are at http://www.boriel.com/wiki/en/index.php/ZX_BASIC:Released_Programs_-_ColecoVision(btw, i have to update http://nitrofurano.altervista.org/retrocoding/colecovision/ asap)

 

what i'm using mostly is Gedit or Pluma as text editor, and a terminal located in the source directory running the cross compiler, or bash script, there - i also use some converters (mostly coded on sdlBasic) for converting stuff like sprites, character sets and so on ( the ones might be useful for ColecoVision development i think are at http://nitrofurano.altervista.org/retrocoding/msx/ )

 

for now, what i'm looking for is compilable snippets in z80 assembly that might help us to improve Boriel's ZX-Basic Compiler development, since i'm mostly focused on this cross-compiler

Edited March 16, 2016 by nitrofurano