dink87522 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Hi, I do not own an Atari console (not really old enough). I've played a 2600 before I think. I wish to build some simple games for the early Atari console(s) simply to get a retro feel for it. I am already proficient in Basic. I saw on eBay a 2600 with a Programming cartridge, although it seemed the program was limited to 9 lines? So first off, whats the best Atari system to start with? Easiest and most popular I think. So Atari 2600? I will emulate it on my pc first (Windows Xp) unless there is easier ways. So a few questions. What development software do I need for programming for the Atari 2600? Can anyone recommend the best emulator? What are some good tutorials or books/ebooks for programming on the Atari 2600 or Atari 2600 in general? Am getting a new laptop in the next few days (its in the post). Will also try and buy a console off of eBay in the next few weeks when I see a decent package. Any thought are appreciated thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Hi, I do not own an Atari console (not really old enough). I've played a 2600 before I think. I wish to build some simple games for the early Atari console(s) simply to get a retro feel for it. I am already proficient in Basic. I saw on eBay a 2600 with a Programming cartridge, although it seemed the program was limited to 9 lines? So first off, whats the best Atari system to start with? Easiest and most popular I think. So Atari 2600? Batari basic is a good place to start programming for the Atari 2600. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 (edited) BTW the "Basic Programming" cartridge it sounds like you saw is not sufficent to create programs with. It's basically a cartridge to learn Basic with...and not a very good one (since it uses it's own limited version of Basic). Besides the obvious problems of trying to encorporate a high-level interpreter on a stock 2600 console...which only has 128 bytes of ram -total- by design...this is bumped down by half by the requirements of the cartridge itself. In addition, it lacks a storage medium...so even if you create a program using it, there's no way to store it. On the plus side, somebody completely unfamiliar with computer programming can single-step through lines written to get an idea of how computer logic functions when translating the code. Besides that, it was a pretty good trick back in the day to get a version of Basic squeezed down that small. Batari Basic (or bBasic), on the other hand, does not run on the 2600 console. Instead, you use it with a modern computer to build a working binary that is compatable with the console (and that can be burned to a cartridge eprom chip). It's a tool that takes away the necessity of creating the framework or skeleton of a 2600 program (referred to as a display kernel). Edited March 11, 2009 by Nukey Shay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Stella and z26 are both very good emulators. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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