If it seems too basic... start there

[wiseguyusa]

This seems like a good starting point of trying to wrap my head around batari BASIC:

 

take the most simple basic program.....

 

10 print "I love you Jill, Will you marry me?"

20 goto 10

 

Now in theory, I could write this program, burn it to cart and use it to propose to my girlfriend.

 

I am willing to bet that it is nowhere near that easy.

 

 

[+atari2600land]

The Atari 2600 doesn't have a set of characters like ASCII or anything. You could do that on an Atari 800, but not a 2600. All there is are numbers, and you only get 6. (Well if you use the playerscore kernel and set it to 4 two digits you could squeeze 14 on the screen, but let's not get ahead of ourselves...) So with no set of letters, most words are spelled out with the playfield blocks. But you can't fit "I love you Jill will you marry me?" on the screen. You could do "Jill," or MAYBE "Will you marry me?" But if you want to propose using a computer program, make sure you have a tech-savvy girl who would actually be impressed. I suggest reading Random Terrain's bB program page here: http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html

[DZ-Jay]

Is your goal to learn to program BatariBASIC, or is it to propose to your girlfriend in a rather nerdy, retro, and very cool way? I ask because, like atari2600land mentioned, it may be more easy or practical to do this on a different console, while still retaining that retro-nostalgic vibe.

 

I'm an Intellivision home-brew programmer, and with some newer tools, I can help you do this for that console in a few minutes. You'll need to buy a cart and PCB from one of the producers, though, but that's not a big deal.

 

If your intention is to learn BatariBASIC, then persevere with your quest. Good luck!

 

-dZ.

Edited June 7, 2014 by DZ-Jay

[Andrew Davie]

If I was a girlfriend being proposed to, I'd like to see my boyfriend at least show that he went to a lot of effort.

If, for example, he chose Intellivision because he could do it in a few minutes.... meh.

[DZ-Jay]

If I was a girlfriend being proposed to, I'd like to see my boyfriend at least show that he went to a lot of effort.

If, for example, he chose Intellivision because he could do it in a few minutes.... meh.

 

True, but if he chose Intellivision, I would propose he would do something much more elaborate than just

10 PRINT "WILL YOU MARRY ME?"
20 GOTO 10 

The effort can then go into creatively making a cool "demo" for his girlfriend, rather than in just getting a simple string displayed on the screen. More razzle dazzle and less macho brute force.

 

However, that's why I asked what his goal is. If he really wants to learn BatariBASIC, then he should spend his effort there.

[accousticguitar]

Odyssey II man. They have a game where you can type in anything you want and it appears on the screen.

[+Random Terrain]

Once you have the Atari 2600 proposal ready, you could drill a ring-sized hole through the cart. After you show her the message on your Atari 2600, you could pull out the cart and slip it on her finger. A big ass cart ring would be more impressive than a stupid diamond.

[DZ-Jay]

Once you have the Atari 2600 proposal ready, you could drill a ring-sized hole through the cart. After you show her the message on your Atari 2600, you could pull out the cart and slip it on her finger. A big ass cart ring would be more impressive than a stupid diamond.

 

LOL! That only works if she's into retro games as well. Otherwise, you'll get a big "WTF? You, nerd!" from her...

[wiseguyusa]

The proposal was hypothetical, Jill has been happily married for 20 years.

 

The question was not about how to propose, but rather to understand batari BASIC better.

 

and as I thought, it was "not that simple"

 

 

[wiseguyusa]

If what I have seen of Star Castle is real, than just about anything that I have dreamed up would work on a 2600!. How does it save high scores? How does writing a program for a Supercharged 2600 differ? Does a SC enhanced 2600 have a character set?

[nanochess]

If what I have seen of Star Castle is real, than just about anything that I have dreamed up would work on a 2600!. How does it save high scores? How does writing a program for a Supercharged 2600 differ? Does a SC enhanced 2600 have a character set?

 

The Atari 2600 only can draw (per scanline) two players (each one of 8 pixels, thin or fat, plus repeated 2 or three times), two missiles (two points), one ball and one playfield (40 fat pixels as background)

 

If you want to do text, then you use a programming trick that allows you to draw 48 pixels bitmaps, and there you draw your letters. This is the cause that most Atari games have a fat six-digit score number, imagine replacing these numbers with your text.

 

Other option is to use the fat pixels to draw text scrolling with big letters, this way you can have a message.

[SeaGtGruff]

Guys who propose to their girlfriends this way prefer it to have some sort of surprise factor, so ideally you wouldn't want it to just say "I love you, Jill! Will you marry me?" right off the bat. Instead, you'd want it to start out with something else, then suddenly pop up with the proposal. And if it's going to be done on the Atari 2600, it's got to have the obligatory rainbow screen.

 

So you write the program, get a cart made, and arrange to have it delivered to the house while your girlfriend is there. You show her the cart-- which has your name on the label, of course-- excitedly tell her how you finally fulfilled your lifelong dream of creating an Atari game, and ask her to play it.

 

The game itself is really lame-o-- maybe it's a standard shoot-the-aliens game but the alien ships are so slow and ginormous that there's no way you can miss them, or something like that. And the game graphics and sound are really crude, like something a 5-year-old kid might come up with.

 

So you've convinced your girlfriend to play the game you wrote, and she's silently thinking to herself that it's got to be the most pathetic video game she's ever seen, while you're gushing on and on about how hard it was to make and isn't it the coolest game she's ever played, yadda yadda-- then after she's destroyed a certain number of alien ships or earned a certain score, the screen suddenly changes to the Atari rainbow display and the letters "I love you, Jill! Will you marry me?" scroll across the screen.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Here you go.

marrymejill.bin

[+Atarius Maximus]

Here's another.

marrymejill2.bin

[+Atarius Maximus]

I didn't write the code, these are old demos from Eckhard Stohlberg and Alex Hebert. I'm Attaching the DASM compatible source and they are easily modifiable. If you want to change the text, search the code for "marry me jill" to change it then run "dasm marrymejill.txt -f3 -omarrymejill.bin".

marrymejill.txt

marrymejill2.txt

[wiseguyusa]

That is funny, I will check out the attachments when things slow down. I still haven't sent my audition video to the reality show show producers. Well done by the way!