Help setting up in Windows ME

[Bit101]

Does anyone know how to set up Batari Basic in Windows ME? Because when ever I try to set the Envirement Variable, it says SYNTAX ERROR. Thank you!

Edited May 22, 2007 by Bit101

[+batari]

Does anyone know how to set up Batari Basic in Windows ME? Because when ever I try to set the Envirement Variable, it says SYNTAX ERROR. Thank you!

I don't know much about Windows ME, but it's possible that it doesn't allow setting environment variables at the command line or autoexec. If not, you can try the method outlined in the bataribasic.com tutorial #3.

 

The below might not apply 100% to WinME, or not at all, so let us know if it works.

Alternatively, there is a way to change the path and environment variables in Windows without using autoexec. To do this, you'll need to be logged into Windows as a user with administrative rights. (If you're using your own computer, and have only one user name set up, then you've almost certainly got administrative rights.)

 

Right-click the "My Computer" icon on your desktop, and left-click on "Properties." Left-click the "Advanced" tab, then left-click the "Environment Variables" button. In the bottom half of the window, under "System variables," find the line that says "Path," and double-click it with the left mouse button. (You might need to scroll down until you see "Path.")

 

This next part can be tricky, so be careful. The "Variable value" field will be highlighted, but you don't want to type in it while it's all highlighted, or you'll delete everything in it. Instead, you want to press the "End" key, or else press the right arrow (right cursor) key, which should put your cursor at the end of the text in the "Variable value" field. (If you accidentally press some other key and wipe out the "Variable value" field by misyake, just left-click the "Cancel" button to abort the change, and then start over by double-clicking on "Path" again.)

 

Once you've got the cursor at the end of the text in the "Variable value" field, add the following text to the end of it:

 

;C:\Atari2600\bB

 

Be sure to start with the semicolon, as shown, because it will separate your new entry from the entries that are already in the path. Also, you should specify the particular drive and directory where you've installed batari BASIC. For example, if you've installed everything on drive D:, then specify drive D: instead of drive C:. Or, if you've put everything in a folder named "AtariVCS," then type that name instead.

 

When you're done typing the new entry at the end of the "Variable value" field, click "OK" to save the changes.

 

Next, you should add a new variable to the "System variables." Click the "New" button in the bottom half of the window, which will open a "New System Variable" window. (If the window says "New User Variable," then you clicked the wrong "New" button, so click "Cancel" to close the popup window, then click the correct "New" button-- the one in the bottom half of the window.)

 

Click in the top field, which says "Variable name," and type in the following:

 

bB

 

(That's it-- just "bB"!)

 

Now click in the bottom field, which says "Variable value," and type in the following:

 

C:\Atari2600\bB

 

(Again, this should be the specific drive and directory you installed the batari BASIC package in.)

 

When you're done, click "OK." You should now see the "bB" entry in the bottom half of the window, under "System variables." Then click "OK" to close the "Environment Variables" window, and click "OK" again to close the "System Properties" window.

 

You can verify that the entries were added correctly by opening a command prompt window. Click the "start" button, click "All Programs," click "Accessories," and click "Command Prompt." When the "Command Prompt" window appears, type in the following command, then press the "Enter" key:

 

set

 

This will display a whole bunch of lines that probably look very confusing, but you don't care about them. Just look for a line that says "bB=C:\Atari2600\bB" (or whatever drive and directory path you used), which should be near the top of the list, since the lines are in alphabetical order. (You might need to scroll up to see it.) Then look for the line that starts with "Path=" and verify that it ends with the ";C:\Atari2600\bB" directory. Once you've verified that these two entries are installed, you can close the "Command Prompt" window.

[Bit101]

It doesn't work. When I right-click the My Computer icon, there is no advanced thing. Just General,Device Manager, Hardware Profiles, and Performance.

[danwinslow]

Do yourself a favor and load XP overtop of that piece of crap. Windows ME is not only not good, it is actively bad.

[+Atarius Maximus]

I don't have any PC's with WinME, but I fired up my old one that has Windows98SE. I launched a command prompt, switched to the folder that I installed batari basic in, and typed set bb=c:\bbasic, and that worked. I would think that if it works on 98, it should work on ME. What exactly are you typing in that gives you the syntax error?

[Bit101]

Ok, it's compiling now. Apparently, I kept typing in the wrong thing. Anyway, now whenever I try to run a compiled program, it just shows two walls closing in, then repeating. It says it can't fide include.bb

Edited May 23, 2007 by Bit101

[+batari]

Ok, it's compiling now. Apparently, I kept typing in the wrong thing. Anyway, now whenever I try to run a compiled program, it just shows two walls closing in, then repeating. It says it can't fide include.bb

The two walls probably means that your binary is zero bytes, and this means that one of the compilation stages is failing.

 

If it is saying "Cannot open includes.bB for writing," this means it's not getting past the compiler stage. If bB can't write the file, there might be a problem with the permissions in the current directory (assuming WinME has them... I really have no idea if it does or not.)

 

If it says "Cannot open includes.bB for reading," this means it's hanging up in the postprocessor. The postprocessor looks for this file in the current directory and for some reason it isn't finding it. First make sure this file is even being created. If it's not, it's possible that the compiler isn't running at all.

 

If you can post a screen capture of the window where you type the commands and run the compiler, that may help. To do this, press ALT-Print Screen then paste the image into Paintbrush or other image editor, save and post here.

[Sharky]

I can never understand whats so bad with Windows ME, and why ppl called it the 'Mistake Edition' it certainly beats Windows 98 SE for stability. I have Windows ME installed on my old Intel Pentium 266mhz 320MB RAM machine, and its perfect, installing WinXP over the old machine would make it too slow.

 

I had WinME installed on that machine for over 5 years, an my OS hasn't corrupted yet, plus its comes with Windows Movie Maker just like WinXP.

 

[Bit101]

I have a FOLDER called includes, but no file.and here's a screenshot.

[+batari]

I have a FOLDER called includes, but no file.and here's a screenshot.

OK, that helps a lot. Your path isn't set properly, otherwise you'd be able to run 2600bas from anywhere and not just your installation folder. Also, the name of the file you want to compile is sample.bas, not just sample.

 

Type "set" and you will see the list of environment variables. You should see "bB" as one of them, and "path" should be in there too, with c:\atari2600\bb included in its list.

[Bit101]

I see BB=C:\Atari2600\bB

[Dan Iacovelli]

I see BB=C:\Atari2600\bB

that shoud be set bB=C:/Atari2600/bB

(correct me if I'm wrong batari)

[SeaGtGruff]

I see BB=C:\Atari2600\bB

that shoud be set bB=C:/Atari2600/bB

(correct me if I'm wrong batari)

No, Windows uses "\", Unix would use "/". And I don't think the case matters (bB, BB, Bb, bb), at least not in Windows. But there may be other issues in the batch file that are causing problems, I'll check tonight after Pirates 3.

 

Michael

[+batari]

I see BB=C:\Atari2600\bB

Then the environment variable is set, but I'm still thinking the path is not.

 

Try this: path=%path%;c:\atari2600\bb

 

If that doesn't work, let us know.

[SeaGtGruff]

I see BB=C:\Atari2600\bB

Then the environment variable is set, but I'm still thinking the path is not.

 

Try this: path=%path%;c:\atari2600\bb

 

If that doesn't work, let us know.

This is what I'm using:

 

set bB=C:\Atari2600\bB
set Path=%Path%;%bB%

However, one thing I noticed a few years ago, when bB was first released, was that some of the lines in the batch file had to be modified slightly for Windows/DOS-- nothing major, just adding spaces in a few places to make sure Windows/DOS didn't get confused about how to parse some of the commands (especially where the ">" and "<" are being used, if I remember correctly). Anyway, here's the batch file I'm using, which is essentially identical to the original one, except for the addition of the two "set" commands, plus the addition of spaces where needed:

 

@echo off

set bB=C:\Atari2600\bB
set Path=%Path%;%bB%

if X%bB% == X goto nobb
if exist sed.exe goto havesed
if exist %bB%\sed.exe goto havesed
goto nosed

:havesed
preprocess.exe < %1 | 2600basic.exe -i %bB% > bB.asm
if errorlevel 1 goto bBerror
if X%2 == X-O goto optimize
postprocess.exe -i %bB% > %1.asm
goto nooptimize

:optimize
postprocess.exe -i %bB% | optimize.exe > %1.asm

:nooptimize
dasm.exe %1.asm -f3 -I%bB%\Includes -l%1.lst -o%1.bin | sed.exe "/Label mismatch/d" | sed.exe "/shakescreen/d;/rand16/d;/debugscore/d;/pfscore/d;/noscore/d;/vblank_bB_code/d;/PFcolorandheight/d;/pfrowheight/d;/pfres/d;/PFmaskvalue/d;/overscan_time/d;/vblank_time/d;/no_blank_lines/d;/superchip/d;/ROM2k/d;/NO_ILLEGAL_OPCODES/d;/minikernel/d;/debugcycles/d;/mincycles/d;/legacy/d;/PFcolors/d;/playercolors/d;/player1colors/d;/backgroundchange/d;/readpaddle/d;/multisprite/d;/PFheights/d;/bankswitch/d;/Unresolved Symbols/d" | sed.exe "2,/-->/!{ /-->/,/-->/d; }" | sed.exe "s/--> 0./Possible duplicate label: /"
rem yes, I know :) This is the first attempt to make DASM's output more useful!
goto end

:nosed
echo sed.exe not found.  Continuing without it.
pause
preprocess.exe < %1 | 2600basic.exe -i %bB% > bB.asm
if errorlevel 1 goto bBerror
if X%2 == X-O goto optimize2
postprocess.exe -i %bB% > %1.asm
goto nooptimize2

:optimize2
postprocess.exe -i %bB% | optimize.exe > %1.asm

:nooptimize2
dasm.exe %1.asm -f3 -I%bB%\Includes -l%1.lst -o%1.bin
goto end

:nobb
echo bB environment variable not set.

:bBerror
echo Compilation failed.

:end

Michael

[Bit101]

I tryed SeaGTGruffs thing, but it didn't work. It still won't find includes.bb and now it's REALLY messed up. It keeps reapeating and it won't find sed.exe

[+batari]

I tryed SeaGTGruffs thing, but it didn't work. It still won't find includes.bb and now it's REALLY messed up. It keeps reapeating and it won't find sed.exe

If nothing else works, you can try the last resort. Go to your c:\atari2600\bb folder and type "copy includes\*.*"

 

Then try this greatly simplified file. Edit 2600bas.bat, replace the contents with this and save:

preprocess.exe < %1 | 2600basic.exe > bB.asm
if errorlevel 1 goto bBerror
postprocess.exe > %1.asm
dasm.exe %1.asm -f3 -o%1.bin
goto end

:bBerror
echo Compilation failed.

:end

After this, you will be limited to building your files only in c:\atari2600\bb. I have not tried it, but I think it will work.

Edited May 25, 2007 by batari

[SeaGtGruff]

I tryed SeaGTGruffs thing, but it didn't work. It still won't find includes.bb and now it's REALLY messed up. It keeps reapeating and it won't find sed.exe

When I posted that batch file in a code section, I was afraid it might get messed up because of the lengths of some of the lines. So if you tried copying and pasting the batch from what I posted, there's a good chance it got mucked up during the copy and paste. Try this attachment instead. I'm zipping it up, so you'll need to unzip it before you copy it into your C:\Atari2600\bB directory.

 

Michael

2600bas.zip

[Bit101]

Nope, neither ways worked.

[Bit101]

Ummmm. Anyone there?

[SeaGtGruff]

Ummmm. Anyone there?

I'll tinker around with the compile batch and post a version that will help you figure out what's going wrong, so you can fix it.

 

Michael

[SeaGtGruff]

Ummmm. Anyone there?

Okay, I'm on my father's computer right now, and it uses Windows ME (but batari Basic isn't installed on it, and I don't want to "mess up" his computer). I see that the advanced properties are missing, as you'd stated. However, you should be able to edit (*edit*, not *open*) the C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT file and add the two SET commands at the very end, as shown below-- and in the same *order* as shown:

 

 

Michael