theking21083 Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 So what does everybody think is the best language to program games with? I have been doing some research and read that Action! is really good. Is pilot any good? Should I stick with basic? What is everyones opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 The best language for develop action games on Atari is Assembler. And an external assembler with emulator, because it works faster and have more features for debugging. (really MADs is the best assembler environment today). There is no other way, it's impossible to do games as Yoomp! or Crownland with high level languages. If you want to do brain or logic games you can use CC65 or Action!. Even TurboBasic is a good idea for this type of games if you don't worry about the amount of free memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 PILOT is a very simple Language with the aim to teach programming. It is hard to do much more complex then "Hello World" in PILOT. BASIC, esp. TurboBasic, is good for Games that are not depending on speed, like adventures and strategic simulation games, or simple Run-and-Jump Platform Games. Everything that need to do fast graphics needs a compiled language, like ACTION!, CC65 or plain Assembler. There are also at least one person programming games in Forth Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 Turbo Basic XL is a good start and then switching more and more over to pure assembler... as Allas mentioned... Mac 65 or MADS is key... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I agree assembler is the best and fastest you can do on the Atari 8-bit for a 1.79mhz cpu. Assembly is much more work than a high level language. Your second best option is compiled turbo basic with a few custom ml routines. Depends on how much work you want to put into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sub(Function(:)) Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Has any one produced an English language manual for the MADs assembler yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eru Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Since there seem to be quite an interest in an english manual for MADS, I wrote TeBe to ask if there is anything happening about it, and offering my help. So perhaps soon there will be something available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gury Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Since there seem to be quite an interest in an english manual for MADS, I wrote TeBe to ask if there is anything happening about it, and offering my help. So perhaps soon there will be something available. That's absolutely great, as my projects mainly depend on it. Thanks for all future efforts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japh42 Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 How would AdvanBasic compare to Turbo Basic? I got it a long time ago and then moved on to the DOS world. I just read it is freeware now. (assuming it will run off of one of the emulators). japh42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ransom Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 (edited) In my experience, assembly language is the way to go. The Mac/65 assembler cart is the best I found. "Atari Roots" is the best beginner's book on assembly language programming on an Atari 8-bit that I've found. Good luck! Edited March 25, 2008 by Ransom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 At some point you are going to have to get into assembly, even if you are using a high-level language. You'll just have to code your DLIs and VBIs in assembly, and any hand-tuning that needs to be done will pretty much have to be done in assembly (of course you could start with the assembly that the compiler generates and go from there.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 You all fail. The correct answer is: The best programming language for games is the one that lets you actually complete a game. For some people, this is assembly. For others, it's Atari BASIC. Whatever works. A good game can be written in pretty much any language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 ZylonBane... exactly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eru Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 There are two (at least) dimensions here: - the best tool to implement a given project - the best tool for you So far, most people discussed the first option. But it is very important what is your programming background. If you're a novice programmer, it might be hard to start with assembly. If you have some experience with some languages on other platforms, you might want to find something resembling what you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 You all fail. The correct answer is: The best programming language for games is the one that lets you actually complete a game. For some people, this is assembly. For others, it's Atari BASIC. Whatever works. A good game can be written in pretty much any language. Ummm... lovely bit of contrarian philosophy. The question isn't "which programming language is right for me and my current level of expertise?" The question is "What is the best programing language for games?" For most types of games it's assembly. No contest. Assembly is uniquely capable of giving you the most from the system. Some people have trouble with assembly so it may not be the best language for you to write a game in, but it is certainly the best language for games. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Some people have trouble with assembly so it may not be the best language for you to write a game in, but it is certainly the best language for games. "Best" is hopelessly vague. If he'd asked what the most powerful language was, sure, assembly would be the no-brainer answer. But asking for the "best" language simply begs a more holistic response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 (edited) Unless you are doing something turn based or loaded with ML subroutines you really can't write a good game in an interpreted language on an 8-bit machine. The main execution loop of an interpeter just can't hand user input and animation in realtime. Edited March 25, 2008 by mos6507 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 The answer to the question of post is clearly: - The best language is Assembler. And there are a lot of assembler editor on Atari, the best way to develop a game easily and faster is using the MADS assembler (PC extenal assembler for Atari), because have actually count with support, is external and have a lot of nice features. - Other languages as Action, TurboBasic, Quick are more easy to use, but cost memory, speed and flexibility. Times of compiling are too slow. Whatever the language you choice, the most important thing you need for create a game is knowledge about the Atari internals. Without that you can't construct anything, so you need to learn how Atari manage the sprites, the music, the interrupts, the DMAs, the Display Lists,.... a lot of things. Every time you learn something, you'll do better on any language you choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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