Retro Assembler

[tsom]

Just wanted to make notice of a new(ish) cross-assembler for Atari 8-bit systems, Retro Assembler (https://enginedesigns.net/retroassembler). Until this latest release, it was geared to other systems (C64, NES, Gameboy, Z80), and a bunch of other processors. I sent a message to the author asking about Atari 8-bit support, and in the latest release he added it. It's based on Microsoft .Net Core, so it should run  on almost any system that can run .Net Core (MacOS, Windows, Linux, arm, etc.)

 

He also has released a nice extension for Visual Studio Code (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=EngineDesigns.retroassembler) that includes syntax highlighting and build commands. So far, it's pretty nice. Not quite directly ATASM, or MADS compatible, but otherwise has promise. The author (https://twitter.com/Peter_Tihanyi) is fairly responsive, and there have been many updates (unlike ATASM, or even MADS).

 

Check it out!

[+MrFish]

Thanks for getting us added to the list. It looks like a neat assembler, and some support for Notepad++ too.

 

Interestingly, it also has a Disassembler Mode.

 

[tsom]

Just wanted to post an update. In the latest versions of the assembler, the author, who had been very receptive to requests, has added more direct support for Atari 8 bit assembly:

• ATASCII and ScreencodeAtari text encodings added in the ".encoding" directive.
• The Disassembler processes Atari DOS .XEX files to utilize the Chunk load addresses.
• New output file type added: Atari DOS binary format with load data chunks and launcher. It uses the .xex file extension.
  • This includes the ability to add the code to launch a file after loading, by placing the start address in the RUNAD vector (2e0-2e1)

[+bhall408]

I'm curious... What modern cross assembler is considered closest (syntax wise) to Atari Macro Assembler?

 

[snicklin]

On 9/27/2020 at 6:16 AM, bhall408 said:

I'm curious... What modern cross assembler is considered closest (syntax wise) to Atari Macro Assembler?

 

I personally do not know.

 

But I am surprised that there aren't more configurable cross assemblers whereby you could say that you would like to use ORG or * or any other syntax options you want to set. So if you are looking for something very similar to what you have used before, but also want the added features of the new cross assemblers, you could have the best of both worlds.

[+bhall408]

On 9/29/2020 at 5:53 AM, snicklin said:

But I am surprised that there aren't more configurable cross assemblers whereby you could say that you would like to use ORG or * or any other syntax options you want to set. So if you are looking for something very similar to what you have used before, but also want the added features of the new cross assemblers, you could have the best of both worlds.

See a post I made earlier this morning... I did *finally* figure out end to end how to get my AMAC project converted to ca65 and executing.

 

Updating the code for ca65 syntax was straightforward and went very fast.

 

I'm looking forward to the advanced string handling capabilities of the macro facility - very nerdy, but I'm really looking to having InverseString as a Macro so I can have inverse text in my source as text instead of DB 'A'+128 or DB $xx.

 

Figuring out the linker and getting the linker to output a proper DOS .COM/XEX file took me a bit longer, complicated by my emulator crashing when I tried to load the XEX, which was not the fault of the XEX... Ouch. Lost a day or so to that. On the bright side, it forced me to really crawl over and learn all the options of la65 and how to put together config files for it.

 

Now that I have it figured out, I'm now moving on to the 2 games I had written with AMAC in the 80s.

 

I think they will go pretty fast now that I invested the time in learning ca65 & ld65.