Basic

[Rocko]

Can you program a 2600 in Basic?

What about the 5200?

[Nukey Shay]

That would all depend on what you consider to BE Basic and where it's used. The 2600 has the Basic Programming cartridge...as well as the Compumate keyboard. The 5200 also has a homebrew version of Basic.

 

If you are referring to programming your own games (i.e. carts)...assembler is the only way to go.

[bjk7382]

In order to program a game for the 2600 the way they did in the 80's you need to learn Assembly Language. (I am in the process of reading the books right now) go to http://www.atariarchives.org and start reading

[Albert]

The only reasonable way to program anything on the 2600 is via 6502 Assembly Language. Andrew Dave has been working on a series of excellent tutorials you can find here in our forums, and Kirk Israel has also put together an Atari 2600 101 tutorial. Additional resources are listed here.

 

As for the 5200, Jeffry Johnston has developed a compiler called 5200BAS that will compile BASIC code into 6502 Assembly. But generally, 5200 games are also programmed in straight assembly. Since the 5200 is just an Atari 400 computer in disguise, you can generally use the many great Atari 8-bit resources to learn how to program it (and it's easier to program than the 2600).

 

..Al