best book to start

[marialisar]

Hi everyone

 

i know a little basic and reading "Atari 130 XE machine language for the absolute beginner"

finding it interesting

 

but

 

what i want to Attempt is hacks/ conversions from A8 to 5200

 

can someone point me in the right direction?

 

thanks!!

[idavis]

I highly recommend Machine Language for Beginners.

 

http://www.atariarchives.org/mlb/

[marialisar]

thanks!

looking in to it.

 

but its pretty general, what about specifics about A8/5200 conversions ?

[Xuel]

Check Section 8 of the Altirra Hardware Reference Manual.

 

I think the main things you'll have to do are:

 

1) Shuffle memory to accommodate the alternate memory map. This will involve changing pointers in the A8 code to point to the new locations of the hardware chips and possibly relocating code and data.

2) Modify the joystick routines to use 5200 controller instead.

 

The Altirra debugger would be of great use here as you can step through the code, set breakpoints, etc. to find out how the A8 program uses memory and how it interfaces with the hardware. Then you can craft a strategy for relocating things and replacing the joystick routines.

[idavis]

thanks!

looking in to it.

 

but its pretty general, what about specifics about A8/5200 conversions ?

 

Sorry about that. How about this article:

 

http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/5200/conv_to_5200.html

[marialisar]

thank you very much, i've seen that,

 

will be here again when i get my assembler "degree"

[marialisar]

I highly recommend Machine Language for Beginners.

 

http://www.atariarchives.org/mlb/

 

great book, eating it!

 

should i type simple assembler , or use a more advanced one to practice?

Edited March 18, 2013 by marialisar

[marialisar]

Sorry about that. How about this article:

 

http://www.atarimuse...nv_to_5200.html

 

thank you very much,

forgot that link long ago...

Edited March 18, 2013 by marialisar

[idavis]

I am using Synassembler because I purchased it way back when. I am sure most will recommend something like MAC65 or others. It is going to come down to user preference really. I think before I tried typing in their simple assembler, I would even go with a copy of Atari's Assembler Editor with the caveat that it would just be to test out the code in the book. I wouldn't use either of those two to write something involved.

 

I think there are tools to write and compile on a pc, and then just move the code over to the Atari. We have come a long way huh.

[devwebcl]

This is also strongly recommended: http://www.atariarchives.org/alp/

[Marius]

@idavis

Synassembler is my absolute favorite number #1 Assembler too. Mac/65 is very good but synassembler is winning (for me)!

[marialisar]

now understanding ML listings...

 

getting there...

[idavis]

now understanding ML listings...

 

getting there...

 

That's awesome. I really wished I had pushed myself to learn assembler when I was learning to program back in the early 80's. It's pretty satisfying to look at some ml code and understand what is going on.