RedBeard Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 Rybags, just after I added to my post, I found you have already replied. I' m going to have to learn to log out or shut down or at least refresh the browswer more often! :-) I think I will try to set up a dard drive, they're bigger faster ect., that's why they were invented, of course. I just keep having problems getting one or more items to work together. If I have BASIC, I can't save, If I have the MYDOS onscreen, I can't "go program something". I'm sure there is something I'm missing...let's face it, for me it is usually Operator Error. Or maybe just too much time since I last used an 8-bit machine! It's as if I'm so comfortable with MAC and WIN that I can't seem to think things the 8-bit way, or something. Anyhow, thanks in advance... ><> RedBeard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamchevy Posted September 24, 2018 Share Posted September 24, 2018 Has anyone ever used this cartridge to program a game? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Very likely. But it's lacking in many ways compared to other assemblers such as no local variables, no macros, no tokenization, inability to link object sections and being extremely slow to do assembles. As has been said plenty of times it's mostly fine for doing short routines and projects where the executable doesn't exceed a few K but for anything bigger look elsewhere. And in the modern day, cross platform tools and using emulation makes much more sense. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamchevy Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 (edited) Very likely. But it's lacking in many ways compared to other assemblers such as no local variables, no macros, no tokenization, inability to link object sections and being extremely slow to do assembles. As has been said plenty of times it's mostly fine for doing short routines and projects where the executable doesn't exceed a few K but for anything bigger look elsewhere. And in the modern day, cross platform tools and using emulation makes much more sense. I’ve always thought it would be amazing to program a game for an Atari platform on an Atari platform. Are their other programming applications that were used on the 8bits to program with Besides the Assembly editor or Basic cartridge? Edited September 29, 2018 by adamchevy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Very likely. But it's lacking in many ways compared to other assemblers such as no local variables, no macros, no tokenization, inability to link object sections and being extremely slow to do assembles. As has been said plenty of times it's mostly fine for doing short routines and projects where the executable doesn't exceed a few K but for anything bigger look elsewhere. And in the modern day, cross platform tools and using emulation makes much more sense. Oh you lazy kids. I used EASMD which was the next version of the Asm/Ed cartridge for three years before I discovered Mac/65. I still had the commands list taped to my desktop until last year when I threw the desk out. It was no problem writing programs with it, although the debugger has a bug, it won't step over STY or INY, I forget which which was kind of a nuisance. I’ve always thought it would be amazing to program a game for an Atari platform on an Atari platform. Are their other programming applications that were used on the 8bits to program with Besides the Assembly editor or Basic cartridge? I know I used Envision to do character sets but I can't remember the paint program that I used when I was trying to port Beyond The Ice Palace from the ST. I know it wasn't the Micro-Illustrator thing, but it did save the pictures in that format. A bit cluttered, that's my desk back then after helping Bob with the Blackbox. The thing hanging out of the 800XL is the T816 with 256K SRAM card and the other XL has the Multiplexor Master card sticking out of it. If the lamp wasn't there, you could see the white sheet with the EASMD commands on it. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 the BBS sat in a rather cluttered area as well, perhaps a bit more dusty of an area and relegated to the dungeon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 (edited) the BBS sat in a rather cluttered area as well, perhaps a bit more dusty of an area and relegated to the dungeon. The BBS is to the right out of frame on some cheap wood laminate computer desk. There was two XL's side bye side with slave cards, hooked up to a B&W tv. You can't see it, but the 40 pin mux cable snakes back from my machine behind the bookcase to the bbs system running the puff bbs. The ISDN plug was on the wall just beside the cheap desk. It was only 64K speed cuz I was too cheap to get a modem that could bond both channels for 128k/bps. You can see the 5v power supply in the bottom left of the tv cabinet. To its right is the 80MB 8" platter Quantum hard drive that I got from Bob Puff. edit: I'm not sure if that's the 1090XL in the closet, I don't think so. Edited September 29, 2018 by Alfred 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 We need the Puff BBS back... even if the drive has stiction, it could be good for a one start one run copy to another. Last I heard it was rumored the drive and all were still sitting.... anyway there was at least one or two others out there. Just saying it would be a challenge, a diversion, possibly enjoyable even. ah blast from the past. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivop Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 (edited) Just when I was thinking my desk was cluttered... Edit: if I were to program on the Atari again, I think I'd go back to Atmas II. Edited September 29, 2018 by ivop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OmaOhneBH Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 I’ve always thought it would be amazing to program a game for an Atari platform on an Atari platform. Are their other programming applications that were used on the 8bits to program with Besides the Assembly editor or Basic cartridge? Maybe the Synapse Assembler is a more powerful and better assembler? Maybe someone who used it can tell us something about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 We need the Puff BBS back... even if the drive has stiction, it could be good for a one start one run copy to another. Last I heard it was rumored the drive and all were still sitting.... anyway there was at least one or two others out there. Just saying it would be a challenge, a diversion, possibly enjoyable even. ah blast from the past. I uploaded my copy of the Puff BBS in the other thread in the main forum, something about commercial BBS programs or something. I think a couple of people got it to run. Someone decoded the dongle too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 I uploaded my copy of the Puff BBS in the other thread in the main forum, something about commercial BBS programs or something. I think a couple of people got it to run. Someone decoded the dongle too. Yep, only a few files were missing, but I think we re-created most of them. The dongle is posted here http://atariage.com/forums/topic/276208-looking-for-commercial-bbs-info/page-4?do=findComment&comment=4011983 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 I uploaded my copy of the Puff BBS in the other thread in the main forum, something about commercial BBS programs or something. I think a couple of people got it to run. Someone decoded the dongle too. how did I miss this, or worse yet if I find I was a part of the conversation, how did I forget this? Looks like I don't know what's going on some days.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 I suddenly have a craving for peanut butter and captain crunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 Hi Alfred! So great you are still with us. :-))) Hope, you are doing fine? Alfred, does that mean the lost BBS, we are searching for years? BBS, where OSS published programs, which are still missed? Regarding EASMD, do you know, who wrote it? Do you have the source code for? Maybe, we can fix the bug... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 I suddenly have a craving for peanut butter and captain crunch. Honest to god, I have no idea why that jar is there, I almost never eat the stuff. Alpha Bits is actually my favorite for snacking on, but Crunch is good too. Alfred, does that mean the lost BBS, we are searching for years? BBS, where OSS published programs, which are still missed? Regarding EASMD, do you know, who wrote it? Do you have the source code for? Maybe, we can fix the bug... I don't know what BBS you mean. I had nothing to do with the OSS bbs. As for EASMD, no, I do not have the source. The bug is $88 so it must be the INY instruction that the debugger won't single step over. To my knowledge EASMD was written by Laughton's wife, Katherine. I don't know if she had the ASM/ED source to work from or not. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 (edited) I don't know where I got it, but I have an original copy of the Datasoft DATASM/65 assembler sitting here with me. Dated 1981, looks to be as primitive as the ASM/ED cartridge or EASMD. I don't see it on Atarimania, maybe it's under a different name. Edit: No, the copyright is held by something called Compu-cations, Datasoft is only the publisher. Actually, it looks like this thing doesn't produce a native binary. There's source in the back for the program you need to run that converts the file that DATASM creates and will make a binary out of it. The DATASM file appears to have a header of words: length, startaddress. Hmm, I think maybe DATASM produces a text output file of hex digits. "It is a compatible subset of the Fortran Cross-Assembler available for the 65XX series of microprocessors." WTH is that ? Edited September 30, 2018 by Alfred 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamchevy Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 I found some information in this old newsletter online. It looks like a full featured programming suite to me. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 lol, he's right, they did only print on one side of the page. It's not paper either, more like greeting card stock. It does have an editor, the assembler and a command menu that has the debugger built into it. What a lame product though. They go to all the trouble of patching this Apple assembler to run under the Atari OS, except they don't bother to fix the binary file header by adding the $FF,$FF. Instead, they print an 11(!) page program in the back of the manual that converts the binary file 1(!) byte at a time to the Atari format. What idiots ! Who would use this thing twice ? Can you imagine copying a 16K binary using CIO single byte at a time ? Man, it must have been like watching paint dry. Your program assembles in a couple of minutes, and then it's another 30 minutes to convert it. It just boggles the mind. They do also helpfully include six pages of the OS equates from the Atari OS listing I presume, dated June 1979. Anybody who used this dog would have thought the ASM/ED cartridge was amazing, haha. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 Thank you sooo much Alfred! Great plesure to read. :-) I thought something like this, but your are right, I have to ask Kathleen for EASMD. :-) Just asking because of: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Action#section-Action-StillMissingGraphicsUtilitiesLibraryAndShapeEditor are still missing. They were published via OSS BBS. Their status is 'lost', but you know me, I never surrender, I never give up, never ever. There is still hope, even if we have to do the: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru for Atari. Did you buy the: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=DataSoft%20Datasm-65 in Germany? It was offered last year, but because I am living in the poor, I hadn't the money to buy it. It was sold over the Atlantic... Anyway, it is an assembler, do you mind to make a copy of it for: - http://www.atarimania.com - atariwiki.org - http://a8preservation.com/#/home ? I would take care, the atr or even better atx will reach them? There is a copy of the cassette version at Stanford University, but if you have the disk version, that is way cooler of course. :-) Thank you sooo much in advance. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 what would be amazing is to have all that repaired on packages like this of the day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 The dream will come true, we just have to start it. Step by step over the years, the goal should be reachable.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 Thank you sooo much Alfred! Great plesure to read. :-) I thought something like this, but your are right, I have to ask Kathleen for EASMD. :-) Just asking because of: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Action#section-Action-StillMissingGraphicsUtilitiesLibraryAndShapeEditor are still missing. They were published via OSS BBS. Their status is 'lost', but you know me, I never surrender, I never give up, never ever. There is still hope, even if we have to do the: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru for Atari. Did you buy the: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=DataSoft%20Datasm-65 in Germany? It was offered last year, but because I am living in the poor, I hadn't the money to buy it. It was sold over the Atlantic... Anyway, it is an assembler, do you mind to make a copy of it for: - http://www.atarimania.com - atariwiki.org - http://a8preservation.com/#/home ? I would take care, the atr or even better atx will reach them? There is a copy of the cassette version at Stanford University, but if you have the disk version, that is way cooler of course. :-) Thank you sooo much in advance. :-) I should be able to ATR it; it says nothing about making copies, so I guess I'll find out if it has any bad sectors. I did not buy it from Germany. When I was rooting through my stockpile looking for a working Black Box, I happened to see it, and since it's an assembler I pulled it out to have a look at it later. Well, later was last night, heh. Mine looks like what's on the Atariwiki except for picture #3. That doesn't seem to be in my manual, or even the warranty card. As best I can tell I got it buy buying someone's collection of Atari stuff years ago, and that they had purchased it. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivop Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 As best I can tell I got it buy buying someone's collection of Atari stuff years ago, and that they had purchased it. Poor saps 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 Thank you so much Alfred, you already saved so much of Atari, which else would have been gone like tears in rain. Thanks, even in the name of the community. :-) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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