Atari Dev Studio for Homebrew Development [Release]

[TwentySixHundred]

I can't see where you have included the 'score_graphics.asm' command in your posted source. As far as i remember with bB, you need to include .asm files in the last bank or the current bank used in your source file.

 

 asm
 include "score_graphics.asm"
end

 

[+Karl G]

8 hours ago, Krunkcleanup said:

I tried removing the score_graphics.asm file that was in the directory, and now it works.  I guess that was the issue.  Dang i really wanted to use different score graphics.

Could you post the customized score_graphics.asm? As an attached file rather than pasting the text, preferably. I'm sure we can get it to work. 

[+Karl G]

8 hours ago, TwentySixHundred said:

I can't see where you have included the 'score_graphics.asm' command in your posted source. As far as i remember with bB, you need to include .asm files in the last bank or the current bank used in your source file.

 

 asm
 include "score_graphics.asm"
end

 

In the case of customized bB files like score_graphics, modified kernels, etc. bB will use a copy it finds in the working directory instead of the built-in version. No need to include it in the bB source file (which would end up causing duplicate symbols). 

[TwentySixHundred]

Cheers mate, forgot all about that. It's been a few years since dabbling around with bB

[frny4x]

I'm very, very late to this party. 

 

OG Atari 2600 owner, 4 decade software developer.  Just fell down the rabbit hole with the purchase of a My Arcade Gamestation Pro console.

 

Would love to try to build a simple game for it.

 

Do games from this tool run on the AGSP?
Any video or other tutorials anywhere?

Tool still supported?

 

[+mksmith]

14 hours ago, frny4x said:

I'm very, very late to this party. 

 

OG Atari 2600 owner, 4 decade software developer.  Just fell down the rabbit hole with the purchase of a My Arcade Gamestation Pro console.

 

Would love to try to build a simple game for it.

 

Do games from this tool run on the AGSP?
Any video or other tutorials anywhere?

Tool still supported?

 

Hi there!

 

Yes ADS is still supported with the latest releases of all software used to develop and test for 2600 and 7800 games.  I'd love to add some additional functionality eventually (better IntelliSense for both languages and additional 2600 dev tools such as playfield editors and better sprite color support) but otherwise this will be maintained ongoing.

 

Once you install Visual Studio Code and ADS from the VSCode marketplace (via the in-built Extensions Tab) your ready to start developing.  The front page of this post explains the basic process to create a file for batariBasic (using a .bb extension will sync the bB language automatically) or (dasm - this is not a user friendly process using scripts TBH unless you just want straight assembly and do the whole thing yourself). Once you setup your cart format and add valid code/loops etc, just press the rocket button on the status bar (or F5) and it will be compiled and if successful open the Stella emulator and run your game. Within your game folder a .bin folder will be created and contain your cart file - that can be copied to your memory card and that should be fully useable on your My Arcade Gamestation Pro console. I'd suggest starting with a very basic loop to test the process works on the console but using Stella will be more than suitable for the majority of your development period.

 

Good luck and welcome to the world of 2600 development!

 

 

[+Muddyfunster]

Quick question, 

 

Does anyone know how to get the standard dark theme / colours back for 7800Basic editing. 

My keywords are now all white and some like IF THEN and RETURN are yellow. Makes reading code very hard. 

 

I have no idea what I've done

 

Tried reinstalling ADS, no change. 

 

I can change theme but none of the options seem to be the setting I had before.

 

Would appreciate any help. 

[+Karl G]

On 7/13/2024 at 10:00 AM, Muddyfunster said:

Does anyone know how to get the standard dark theme / colours back for 7800Basic editing. 

Total guess, but try checking or unchecking (depending on current state) "Window: Auto Detect Color Scheme" and/or "Window: Auto Detect High Contrast" to see if that was what has changed for you.

[+Muddyfunster]

Thanks Karl, that didn't help unfortunately.

 

 

If I can't figure out what I broke, I'll just have to find a theme that I can live with and adjust to  

[+mksmith]

@Muddyfunster Sorry mate i'll have a look tonight 👍

[+mksmith]

@Muddyfunster Try some of these things Lewis:

 

1. Open File > Preferences > Profile (Default) > Show Profile Contents

2. Open the Settings.json file - this may contain entries relating to color customisations (see below)

 

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35165362/how-to-edit-default-dark-theme-for-visual-studio-code

"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
    "list.inactiveSelectionBackground": "#C5DEF0",
    "sideBar.background": "#F8F6F6",
    "sideBar.foreground": "#000000",
    "editor.background": "#FFFFFF",
    "editor.foreground": "#000000",
    "sideBarSectionHeader.background": "#CAC9C9",
    "sideBarSectionHeader.foreground": "#000000",
    "activityBar.border": "#FFFFFF",
    "statusBar.background": "#102F97",
    "scrollbarSlider.activeBackground": "#77D4CB",
    "scrollbarSlider.hoverBackground": "#8CE6DA",
    "badge.background": "#81CA91"
}

 

Optionally look through here (refer Themes section):

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings

 

Or open this folder and maybe give it a cleaup:

Windows %APPDATA%\Code\User\

macOS $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User

Linux $HOME/.config/Code/User

 

More info:

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=vscode+settyings+location

 

Set how that goes!

 

 

[+Muddyfunster]

@mksmith Thanks mate, this is super helpful. I think I've managed to recover the old colour settings from the history folder. 

 

👍

[+mksmith]

Hi All,

 

Has anyone had an ongoing issue when sometimes compiling your game, the compiler appears to stop (no continued log messages) and you need to re-hit compile again?  I mainly see it if I'm editing in the Changes Comparision view... It's been on ongoing issue for quite a while for me and gets annoying after a while!

 

Well it appears to be some sort of issue around saving edited documents using the built-in 'vscode.workspace.saveAll()' function and consequently my validation of this result fails and it exits the compiler process.  It's supposed to return true or false and it doesn't appear to sometimes (there are some bug reports around it). 

 

I've put a retry loop (up to 5 tries) and that seems to get it working returning the required result after the first retry.  I'll monitor it to see if it's working as expected otherwise I'm going to remove the result check as it appears the documents do save anyway as it's a very frustrating problem 💩

 

 

 

[+mksmith]

I received some suggestions on how to potentially get around this issue. To make these changes changing the following settings (open settings and type Auto Save)

• Set Files: Auto Save to afterdelay (default is off)
• Set Files: Auto Save Delay to 0 (default is 1000)

I'm also pretty happy with how the retry change is also working (works on the 2nd try every time for me so far) so I'll roll out a new build shortly.  I've functioned it off and included it into all relevant compilers to replace the existing save process.

[+mksmith]

A new release (v0.9.7 VSCodium / v0.9.9 VSCode) is now available (VSCode and VSCodium) with the following changes:

• Updated the internal Save on Compile routine to auto retry (a maximum of 5 times) before failing the save and exiting the compiler with a warning.

 

[Update 6/8/24] Finally got a version to upload to VSCode marketplace - v0.9.9. No other changes in this release as you now need to bump the version every time you have a failure 🥵  I'll resync them next release.

 

[+mksmith]

A new release (v0.10.0) is now available (VSCode and VSCodium) with the following changes:

 

Changes in this release:

• Added status bar and command palette links to PlayerPal 2600 and Atari Background Builder (thanks kisrael) websites (opens in the system default browser currently)
• Removed existing Sprite Editor due to lack for proper features to edit 2600 objects as well as other missing functionality. Also the code libraries are dangerously out of date according to Github and not updatable in some cases without serious effort. Recommend using Paint.Net (Windows) or Gimp for now - any other suggestions welcome.
• Updated Stella for macOS to exclude architecture referencing [x64/arm64] and use the same universal build
• Updated internal packages to latest
• Updated minimum VSCode version to 1.90.2

 

Some big changes include the removal of the Sprite Editor but the additional links to @kisrael 2600 tools and attempting to use Stella for any version of macOS (regardless of architecure).  All feedback will be welcome if you have any. 

 

I've stopped using the Sprite Editor myself in recent times with Paint.Net proving the better option. Also the palette colors appears to be properly indexed on export where the Sprite Editor libraries didn't do that correctly.   

[+darryl1970]

19 hours ago, mksmith said:

A new release (v0.10.0) is now available (VSCode and VSCodium) with the following changes:

 

Changes in this release:

• Removed existing Sprite Editor due to lack for proper features to edit 2600 objects as well as other missing functionality. Also the code libraries are dangerously out of date according to Github and not updatable in some cases without serious effort. Recommend using Paint.Net (Windows) or Gimp for now - any other suggestions welcome

 

Some big changes include the removal of the Sprite Editor but the additional links to @kisrael 2600 tools and attempting to use Stella for any version of macOS (regardless of architecure).  All feedback will be welcome if you have any. 

 

I've stopped using the Sprite Editor myself in recent times with Paint.Net proving the better option. Also the palette colors appears to be properly indexed on export where the Sprite Editor libraries didn't do that correctly.   

Thank you for all the work you do Matt!

 

I have a lot of anxiety over the missing sprite editor, so I hesitated leaving any feedback. I don't want this to come across as negative. I am genuinely concerned on what to do and how to move forward, and that has my head swimming with questions. (I am way more stressed about this than I feel I should be. Maybe it's the Prednisone I just started.)

 

I was not sure how I could complete my in-progress .spe files, I reverted back to 0.96. I hope I am safe there. This helps ease that anxiety quite a bit. Will that be acceptable for a long time, or will I have breaking changes soon?

 

Is the sprite editor available as a stand-alone program somewhere? I feel dead in the water without its functionality. If I had the sprite editor separately, I'd prefer to keep up to date with Dev Studio.

 

I would definitely like to hear alternate suggestions. Here are the issues that I have face personally when attempting sprite and tile work:

 

I am pretty proficient in Photoshop, but I find it terrible for 7800 development. Besides other missing conveniences of the sprite editor, I cannot use Photoshop create a NEW png with 4 or 12 indexed colors. I can edit ones that have been created in Dev Studio, and they save fine. I can't create them from scratch though. I never like to use it, unless it's a one-off banner or something though. I can manipulate images better Photoshop, but then I have to open it in GIMP to reduce the color pallet. It's all so clunky for me. I can't imagine drawing 20 frames of animation or 50 tiles in separate windows. I like that all of my characters/background tiles have their own (.spe) filing cabinet for storage. I like them on display to the right of what I'm drawing. Sometimes I even line them up adjacently, for larger multi-part sprites.

 

GIMP will let me create sprites of 4 or 12 indexed colors. However, I often have trouble getting "new" ones to compile in 7800 BASIC. It still feels clunky for some of the reasons above, and I am not as proficient with the odd controls.

 

I found Paint.Net very unusable. I couldn't even figure out how to limit the pallet colors. I want to keep my mind open that it might be decent, but I was totally lost. If anybody uses this and has tips that will turn on the light bulb, please share!

 

Atari Dev Studio has just worked for so long, that I didn't even notice when it updated. It's just always made life so easy.  Thank you for that, and sorry I didn't chime in sooner along the way to say thanks.

 

Thanks again,

 

Darryl

 

 

 

 

 

[+mksmith]

33 minutes ago, darryl1970 said:

Thank you for all the work you do Matt!

 

I have a lot of anxiety over the missing sprite editor, so I hesitated leaving any feedback. I don't want this to come across as negative. I am genuinely concerned on what to do and how to move forward, and that has my head swimming with questions. (I am way more stressed about this than I feel I should be. Maybe it's the Prednisone I just started.)

 

I was not sure how I could complete my in-progress .spe files, I reverted back to 0.96. I hope I am safe there. This helps ease that anxiety quite a bit. Will that be acceptable for a long time, or will I have breaking changes soon?

 

Is the sprite editor available as a stand-alone program somewhere? I feel dead in the water without its functionality. If I had the sprite editor separately, I'd prefer to keep up to date with Dev Studio.

 

I would definitely like to hear alternate suggestions. Here are the issues that I have face personally when attempting sprite and tile work:

 

I am pretty proficient in Photoshop, but I find it terrible for 7800 development. Besides other missing conveniences of the sprite editor, I cannot use Photoshop create a NEW png with 4 or 12 indexed colors. I can edit ones that have been created in Dev Studio, and they save fine. I can't create them from scratch though. I never like to use it, unless it's a one-off banner or something though. I can manipulate images better Photoshop, but then I have to open it in GIMP to reduce the color pallet. It's all so clunky for me. I can't imagine drawing 20 frames of animation or 50 tiles in separate windows. I like that all of my characters/background tiles have their own (.spe) filing cabinet for storage. I like them on display to the right of what I'm drawing. Sometimes I even line them up adjacently, for larger multi-part sprites.

 

GIMP will let me create sprites of 4 or 12 indexed colors. However, I often have trouble getting "new" ones to compile in 7800 BASIC. It still feels clunky for some of the reasons above, and I am not as proficient with the odd controls.

 

I found Paint.Net very unusable. I couldn't even figure out how to limit the pallet colors. I want to keep my mind open that it might be decent, but I was totally lost. If anybody uses this and has tips that will turn on the light bulb, please share!

 

Atari Dev Studio has just worked for so long, that I didn't even notice when it updated. It's just always made life so easy.  Thank you for that, and sorry I didn't chime in sooner along the way to say thanks.

 

Thanks again,

 

Darryl

Hey mate!

 

I'm definitely open to putting it back in - I've always thought I was the only one using it TBH!  My workflow really lends itself to using any tool TBH as I don't draw much graphics as compared to you.  Let me have a play around with updating the libraries and see if I can get it still working fine.  You can stay on your current release for the time being (or 0.9.9) and everything will work fine.  I really do need to add some better functionality especially for 2600 users.

---------------------------

 

Also for macOS users anyone got any feedback around Stella working? SO early feedback may be still some issues there.

[TwentySixHundred]

Another spite editor user here,thanks for bringing this up @darryl1970.

 

Personally i use Paint.NET, Gimp and the sprite editor depending on the application. I am not great at art work either, however many times i need to recopy sprites given by my artist. Either my ignorance with art programs or 7800 can be finicky with colour indexes at times. Whichever the case i know if i copy into the sprite editor it will just work.

 

Cheers

[+mksmith]

1 minute ago, TwentySixHundred said:

Another spite editor user here,thanks for bringing this up @darryl1970.

 

Personally i use Paint.NET, Gimp and the sprite editor depending on the application. I am not great at art work either, however many times i need to recopy sprites given by my artist. Either my ignorance with art programs or 7800 can be finicky with colour indexes at times. Whichever the case i know if i copy into the sprite editor it will just work.

 

Cheers

No probs mate - thanks for the feedback!

[+mksmith]

Just fixed another long-standing annoyance where if the console (or non-code document area) is active the compile process won't proceed or may pop up a message about a missing language (I think that's the scenario).

 

This will be in the next release once I get the Sprite Editor updated (unless that is causing me grief to update).

[+Karl G]

I'm having trouble compiling with 7800basic after upgrading. I get this message:

 

Verifying compiler files exist...
Verifying file permissions...
/bin/sh: 1: /home/karl/.vscode/extensions/chunkypixel.atari-dev-studio-0.10.0/out/bin/compilers/7800basic/7800basic.sh: not found

Exit code: 127

 

However, the error message lies: the file in question is present in that location with wide-open permissions.

 

Ditto if I go back to 0.9.9. However, I go back to version 0.9.6 (the next version down that is listed), then the problem goes away.

[+Karl G]

Is anyone else able to compile 7800BASIC projects on Linux?

[+mksmith]

4 hours ago, Karl G said:

Is anyone else able to compile 7800BASIC projects on Linux?

Are you having issues there too Karl?  I'll get my Linux machine (Zorin OS now) up and running to see if mine is working today.

 

Sorry bud I thought responded to your previous message (😬I  mustn't have pushed the button).

[+mksmith]

A new release (v0.10.1) is now available (VSCode and VSCodium) with the following changes:

 

Changes in this release:

• Updated compile routine to ensure the 'code' document area is selected before determining the required document to compile (fix for when the console area active and not the code document area and not compiling)
• Fixed an issue with the 7800basic.sh (and updated 2600basic.sh also) containing a CRLF ending causing the compiler to not process (thanks Mats).

Sorry to those on Linux/macOS having compile issues - thanks to Mats for pointing out the LF issue with the shell files.  I've got Linux up and running again on my laptop and my server is now also running Zorin Linux so I might look to try and get that sorted for development purposes and remote in to code ADS from now on so I can properly test it before release.

 

The other nice QOL fix relates around to having save the console/terminal area active and then pressing the compile/compile & run button on the status bar not working - I worked out how to ensure the active code area document is chosen so along with this and the other changes around compilation/delay issue some good enhancements.

 

I'll get back to restoring the Sprite Editor next.