Programming for 5200 question

[MegaManFan]

Would it be possible to create a 5200 game by writing it in BASIC on an Atari 800 and then using a tool to convert it to assembly? I ask because I remember there was such a tool created for Commodore 64, so I thought it might be possible on the 800 as well; and since the 5200 seems to be regarded as an 800 in sheep's clothing it occured to me this might be an easy way for me to work out a homebrew idea I have (nothing overly special, just a turn based strategy game based on a childhood game I loved).

[CPUWIZ]

Check out Calamari's compiler, I think this is the closest thing to what you're looking for.

 

http://lilly.csoft.net/~jeffryj/5200bas/5200bas.html

[MegaManFan]

Sah-weet! It is possible then! Now all I need is an Atari 800.

[sku_u]

I have a broken one I could send you for the cost of shipping if you want.

[MegaManFan]

Well as CPU just pointed out to me in PM's, I don't really need an 800 to program a game (and couldn't compile the code on one anyway) so I'll probably forget about getting one, at least for now.

[DEBRO]

Would it be possible to create a 5200 game by writing it in BASIC on an Atari 800 and then using a tool to convert it to assembly?  I ask because I remember there was such a tool created for Commodore 64, so I thought it might be possible on the 800 as well

Just for the record, there were tools that would do this for the 8-bit too. I remember seeing one published in ANALOG magazine (still have it too ). It wouldn't speed up the execution though.

 

If this were possible it wouldn't be a walk in the park. The issue at hand is the 5200 and the 400 are very similar but at the same time different. Aside from the obvious joysticks, they use different memory locations to handle tasks. So unless this converter also did the labels for you it would be a huge pain searching for the direct memory location access and converting it. You might as well write it in ASM after doing all of that.

 

I haven't looked at Jeffry's 5200BASIC but I hear it's very good and compiles to very efficient ASM

[+Cafeman]

Oh yeah, just mess around with 5200BAS for a few weeks, since you already know Basic I bet you could get something running.

 

Now, from what Ziggster said he had to augment his Basic 5200 games (HH and C II I believe) with some hand-coded ASM -- but you had to do this back with Atari 8bit Basic too (Via the USR command) to get any kind of speed anyway. See what happens.