Dionoid Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 (edited) [edited: PDF and Word versions added] Hi there! I just joined AtariAge a few months ago because I bought an old Atari VCS and now want to write my own game(s). I did some C64 assembly before, but programming for the Atari 2600 is a real challenge! While browsing for good technical documentation, I noticed a lot of people recommended to read the "Stella Programmer's Guide" by Steve Wright, which can be downloaded as PDF. I thought it would be nice to have this guide as an actual booklet, so I took the PDF, cropped and scaled it for printing on US Trade Size (6" x 9"), then added a nice book-cover and finally uploaded it to lulu.com (the on-demand printing company). You can order it for less than $6.50 here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-wright/stella-programmers-guide/paperback/product-23612618.html (in Europe the price is around €5.50) Note that I'm not making a single dollar-cent on this; you only pay for the printing and shipping costs. And Lulu.com regularly has these promotions where they offer free shipping, making this a real bargain. The booklet has a full-color cover (showing a heavy sixer) and looks and feels really nice - if I may say so myself. Please see the attachments. PDF and Word document can be downloaded here (note: this is the latest version from 11/19/2021): Stella_Programmers_Guide_20211119.pdf Stella_Programmers_Guide_20211119.docx You might also like these other 2600-related books on Lulu: 6502 Instruction Set Guide Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies Cheers, Dion Some photos of the coil-bound booklet: Edited November 5, 2023 by Dionoid updated photos of booklet 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scitari Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 Wow! Thanks for doing this. This is awesome. I definitely plan to order one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremiahK Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 Nice work! I will have to order one tonight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Great stuff, thanks so much for doing this! Just ordered one, it'll be nice to have the guide cleanly formatted in paper form! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdp Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Nice one. Ordered. Discount code for today - 14th May = BOOKSHIP18 10% off and free shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremiahK Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Just got mine today, it's even nicer than I expected! Thank you for taking the time to do this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Got mine a few days ago. Didn't get free shipping or a discount, but I'm still very satisfied with the product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roryjr Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Got mine Saturday. There's another book on Lulu, too. Just ordered that one. Soon, I'll have both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Soon, I'll have both. Cool. Maybe you can compare and provide some info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted May 28, 2018 Author Share Posted May 28, 2018 Got mine Saturday. There's another book on Lulu, too. Just ordered that one. Soon, I'll have both. I'm not aware of another "Stella Programmer's Guide" on Lulu. Or are you referring to the revised "Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roryjr Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 I'm not aware of another "Stella Programmer's Guide" on Lulu. Or are you referring to the revised "Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies"? Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies - Revised Edition in another thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldAtAtari Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 I just ordered my copy! Thank you, Dionoid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arenafoot Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Like I said on the other thread for the "Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies" book, ..... "So, after they buy your book, and write their homebrew game, then they can make it into my next book!!!!" https://www.amazon.com/Brian-Matherne/e/B07CWNHTK9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 Like I said on the other thread for the "Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies" book, ..... "So, after they buy your book, and write their homebrew game, then they can make it into my next book!!!!" https://www.amazon.com/Brian-Matherne/e/B07CWNHTK9 I ordered your Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed reading it! I'm excited to see which games are covered in Volume 2. I would love to read some background stories on "Boulderdash", "Star Castle Arcade" or "Draconian" :-) FYI: the "Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies" is Andrew Davie's book, not mine. I just did some editing and uploaded it to Lulu.com. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 I ordered both of your books and just finished recording the reviews of them last night! The video should be ready for release next week and I'll let you know when it's up! I ordered your Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed reading it! I'm excited to see which games are covered in Volume 2. I would love to read some background stories on "Boulderdash", "Star Castle Arcade" or "Draconian" :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 I would love to read some background stories on "Boulderdash", "Star Castle Arcade" or "Draconian" :-) There are quite long background stories in the manuals of Boulder Dash and Star Castle Arcade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted June 21, 2018 Author Share Posted June 21, 2018 There are quite long background stories in the manuals of Boulder Dash and Star Castle Arcade. Is the manual for Boulder Dash available somewhere? I'm aware that Boulder Dash cartridges sold out long before I entered the world of retro gaming... (too bad, because Boulder Dash was my favorite game on the Commode 64 when I was young). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 https://www.atari2600homebrew.com/boulder-dash.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 Here's my review of the the Stella Programmer's Guide and Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion Volume 1! Enjoy! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldAtAtari Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Hi there! I just joined AtariAge a few months ago because I bought an old Atari VCS and now want to write my own game(s). I did some C64 assembly before, but programming for the Atari 2600 is a real challenge! While browsing for good technical documentation, I noticed a lot of people recommended to read the "Stella Programmer's Guide" by Steve Wright, which can be downloaded as PDF. I thought it would be nice to have this guide as an actual booklet, so I took the PDF, cropped and scaled it for printing on US Trade Size (6" x 9"), then added a nice book-cover and finally uploaded it to lulu.com (the on-demand printing company). You can order it for $2.45 here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-wright/stella-programmers-guide/paperback/product-23612618.html (in Europe the price is somewhat higher: €3.45) Note that I'm not making a single dollar-cent on this; you only pay for the printing of the booklet. And lulu.com regularly has these promotions where they offer free shipping, making this a real bargain. The booklet has a full-color cover (showing a heavy sixer) and looks and feels really nice - if I may say so myself. Please see the attachments. Cheers, Dion P.S. On the back of the booklet, I added a little photo of a bike. I think you can guess the brand :-) I can vouch for the quality of this book. I ordered it and received it, and it's fun to read. Thank you, Dionoid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acsabo Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 that is absolutely fantastic thing! I bought one yesterday night! I couldn't resist. Now looking forward for the arrival! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 I need to get one, I wound up printing mine from the reformatted word DOC some time ago... -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokumaru Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 I just received my copy of the book, along with the one containing Andrew Davie's lessons, they're both great items for hobbyist 2600 programmers! That may not sound like a big deal to most of you guys, but living in Brazil, the shipping costs for both books was quite high, about 3 times the cost of the books themselves, so the final price was too prohibitive for me and I gave up on the purchase. But then I ran into a FREE SHIPPING coupon, which never works for international shipping, specially considering how much more expensive than the products the shipping costs were, so my expectations were fairly low when I tried to use it, but somehow it did work! Couple of months later, the books finally arrive, and only then I was sure that the books were actually shipped! Haha I don't know if it was a mistake or if Lulu does this intentionally, but either way I'm glad that for once I was able to buy something cool from abroad without having to pay an arm and a leg! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 Wow very awesome you were able to get free shipping Tokumaru. I am happy for your good luck! I am ordering my copy also ^^ I just received my copy of the book, along with the one containing Andrew Davie's lessons, they're both great items for hobbyist 2600 programmers! That may not sound like a big deal to most of you guys, but living in Brazil, the shipping costs for both books was quite high, about 3 times the cost of the books themselves, so the final price was too prohibitive for me and I gave up on the purchase. But then I ran into a FREE SHIPPING coupon, which never works for international shipping, specially considering how much more expensive than the products the shipping costs were, so my expectations were fairly low when I tried to use it, but somehow it did work! Couple of months later, the books finally arrive, and only then I was sure that the books were actually shipped! Haha I don't know if it was a mistake or if Lulu does this intentionally, but either way I'm glad that for once I was able to buy something cool from abroad without having to pay an arm and a leg! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 (edited) Got mine today. :3 Super Rad! Edited August 24, 2018 by Jinroh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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