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A/W/A Phoenix for Atari 8-Bit - BASIC version - can someone convert it to .xex .car or .rom???


BIGHMW

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I found this version on Google (at least I think it is) but I can't play it on my Ultimate Cart of a working version of Phoenix by A/W/A on Atarimania, is it possible for someone to convert or is there a way I can get it myself to run on my Ultimate Cart, as it is in .bas (in which I assume is BASIC). I own an XEGS and also a 5200 if it can also be converted to it too thanks. :) 

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-phoenix_31474.html

Phoenix.zip

Edited by BIGHMW
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Not yet at least - I've had the desire for a while to port Atari Basic over to that system.

It would likely need a 32K cart and part of the computer OS ported and relocated so not a trivial thing.

Then you could for what it's worth run some programs that have 16K Ram as their target system.

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Atari BASIC games really can't be written to XEX or CAR files because they aren't assembly language binary files or cartridge files.  They require a BASIC cartridge to be loaded and the BASIC programs then get loaded on top of that.

 

This game called "Phoenix" is a very simple BASIC game where the bird is inspired by Phoenix, but it is NOT a port of the arcade game!   We wrote that game about 2 weeks after getting our Atari 400 in 1981, so it is as simple as can be.  However, that led to developing improved BASIC games in the 1980's by the A/W/A team. 

 

Like all of our A/W/A BASIC games, we will be rewriting this game in assembly language and releasing it by the end of this year.  It will be posted on this forum within the next couple months.   It will be much, much improved over the simple BASIC game, but again, it will not be a port of the arcade game.  It will actually be more like Demon Attack.

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But you can create a "fake" XEX file from almost any Basic file with e.g. Bas2COM (A8), Bas2XEX.EXE (PC) and similar programs. The created file is not a true ML file and it still requires Atari Basic to be present; it is also still as slow as the original Basic file (press Reset or Break and you can see the Basic listing) - but you can load it with binary load from DOS or a Gamedos, a Bootloader, etc.

 

BAS2COM.jpg.d0642bd213ef421a6e17e53b7c876358.jpg

 

So if your cart. allows a) to load XEX files AND b) enable Atari Basic, then it should work. Think SIDE 1/2/3 and AVG should be able to do that, unsure about Ult. cart, The!Cart, UNO cart. and others.

 

BAS2XEX.zip BAS2COM.xex

PHOENIX.BAS PHOENIX.XEX

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1 hour ago, CharlieChaplin said:

But you can create a "fake" XEX file from almost any Basic file with e.g. Bas2COM (A8), Bas2XEX.EXE (PC) and similar programs. The created file is not a true ML file and it still requires Atari Basic to be present; it is also still as slow as the original Basic file (press Reset or Break and you can see the Basic listing) - but you can load it with binary load from DOS or a Gamedos, a Bootloader, etc.

Sometimes, keeping BASIC programs the same speed when converting to an executable is a benefit; as machine language conversions can neglect timings that were determined under Atari BASIC, which can end up making them run "too fast". Even though, normally, the goal is to speed everything up.

 

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4 hours ago, rra said:

Atari BASIC games really can't be written to XEX or CAR files because they aren't assembly language binary files or cartridge files.  They require a BASIC cartridge to be loaded and the BASIC programs then get loaded on top of that.

 

This game called "Phoenix" is a very simple BASIC game where the bird is inspired by Phoenix, but it is NOT a port of the arcade game!   We wrote that game about 2 weeks after getting our Atari 400 in 1981, so it is as simple as can be.  However, that led to developing improved BASIC games in the 1980's by the A/W/A team. 

 

Like all of our A/W/A BASIC games, we will be rewriting this game in assembly language and releasing it by the end of this year.  It will be posted on this forum within the next couple months.   It will be much, much improved over the simple BASIC game, but again, it will not be a port of the arcade game.  It will actually be more like Demon Attack.

I like what I see already, we'll wait to see what the finished release will be. I assume you'll make this available not just for A8/XL/XE/XEGS but also the 5200 like you have done with many of your rewrites in the most recent past, I hope so, this could be the next Yar's Strike, and you know how I made that 4K minigame comp contest entry from 2009 a hit for Lennart Bown @Thelen so much that it (eventually) got ported over to the 5200 last year, maybe this one will be too.

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11 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

But you can create a "fake" XEX file from almost any Basic file with e.g. Bas2COM (A8), Bas2XEX.EXE (PC) and similar programs. The created file is not a true ML file and it still requires Atari Basic to be present; it is also still as slow as the original Basic file (press Reset or Break and you can see the Basic listing) - but you can load it with binary load from DOS or a Gamedos, a Bootloader, etc.

 

BAS2COM.jpg.d0642bd213ef421a6e17e53b7c876358.jpg

 

So if your cart. allows a) to load XEX files AND b) enable Atari Basic, then it should work. Think SIDE 1/2/3 and AVG should be able to do that, unsure about Ult. cart, The!Cart, UNO cart. and others.

 

BAS2XEX.zip 29.72 kB · 5 downloads BAS2COM.xex 4.88 kB · 5 downloads

PHOENIX.BAS 3.19 kB · 3 downloads PHOENIX.XEX 3.44 kB · 9 downloads

Thanks for this sharing this technique and providing a test case that shows it works.  

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On 10/14/2021 at 1:15 AM, Rybags said:

Not yet at least - I've had the desire for a while to port Atari Basic over to that system.

It would likely need a 32K cart and part of the computer OS ported and relocated so not a trivial thing.

Then you could for what it's worth run some programs that have 16K Ram as their target system.

 

That's a really interesting idea.  Did you have some ideas for addressing the differences in memory map between the two systems so that BASIC programs (aside from RAM limitations) could run as-is?  I seem to recall the hardware registers for some of the chips are different, especially CTIA and POKEY.   I suppose one could write a script that would translate bare POKE statements (those that use a literal address rather than a variable/expression) to their 5200 equivalents.

Edited by FifthPlayer
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