Some questions about expansions and game development

[Lord Thag]

So now that I have got my game room set up, I have really been spending some time poling around with my 800xl setup. It's revived my interest in learning 6502 assembly and writing a game. I used to write stuff in basic back in the day. I have some hardware and dev system questions first:

 

1. I am planning on getting an Ultimate 1mb and Side2 cart. I am very good with software, and a rank beginner when it comes to a soldering iron, so I am not concerned about programming so much as installation. How hard is the solder job installing the U1mb for someone who has never done it before? I have a socketed 800xl, so it seems to be just soldering some wires to a few points on the motherboard besides plugging a couple of cables in. There seems to be a shortage of good guides/instructions for people who are not usually hacking hardware. Any tips/links?

 

2. If I do go the U1mb route, will the extra RAM allow me to actually develop a (say 16k) game on the actual atari? I have the dev stuff set up on the mac if needed but I kinda like the idea of doing it on real hardware. Is it doable? I know it's nowhere near as practical, but I would like to try.

 

3. If #2 is yes, what do I need? I have spartados x running on an Atarimax 8meg cart, but I could ref lash that with MAC/65 since the U1mb has sparta built in. Is that the best way to natively develop on the atari? Or can you flash 2 of the U1mb 8k slots with the 16k Mac/65 cart? Or should I just use something like MA65 or Synassembler?

 

4. Is there an easily printable memory map reference for the 8 bits with just the stuff you are likely to need (I am thinking something less gigantic than the .pdf scans of some of the old books), or should I just try and track down physical copies of Mapping the Atari and De Re Atari. I have the other Compute books. I want something on paper.

 

Thanks for the pointers guys. Looking forward to returning to the community around here.

[MrFish]

4. Is there an easily printable memory map reference for the 8 bits with just the stuff you are likely to need (I am thinking something less gigantic than the .pdf scans of some of the old books), or should I just try and track down physical copies of Mapping the Atari and De Re Atari. I have the other Compute books. I want something on paper.

 

Although there are programming reference cards available that are useful for often used memory locations, they're never going to cover enough to keep you from needing the real thing available at your fingertips. Get a real copy (second edition) of Mapping the Atari. This book is to you what a light saber is to a Jedi.

[popmilo]

For me this one is most used book:

http://www.virtualdub.org/downloads/Altirra%20Hardware%20Reference%20Manual.pdf

 

It can be printed in small booklet format, won't take you too much space and is awesome to read.

Keeping PDF open for fast searching is also advised.