Writing Games in 5200Basic

[Tempest]

Ok so I've been living under a rock for the last week (actually I've been working on www.atariprotos.com), and I've finally noticed the 5200Basic compiler. After looking over the command reference I must say this looks AWESOME, but is it robust enough yet to actually write a game?

 

Is this something I should look into converting Cypher to, or is it not ready for that yet? Personally I like the idea of using FOR loops and IF statements, but I'm really rusty on my BASIC and would have to learn it all over again. Is it worth my time to try and learn 5200BASIC and convert Cypher over (if that's even possible), or should I just stick with 6502 and keep chugging away at it?

 

Tempest

[+Cafeman]

Good question.

 

Back in the 80's, I used to use the USR command for custom ASM routines. I never code the ASM routines myself though, they were supplied in ANTIC and other magazines as type-ins. But by using USR's with Basic, you could get some speed.

 

Personally, I don't want to go back to BASIC now that I'm in the middle of ASM coding. ASM isn't that bad, just a bit tedious.

[calamari]

5200BAS is probably not ready for your game just yet. Give it a little bit of time.

 

I've added Antic 4 support in 5200BAS. However, sprites aren't built in yet. I also just recently discovered the VBI.

 

I'll be adding more features as I need them, or as people request them. I've received several requests and I'm working hard to implement them.

 

5200BAS allows plain ASM statements in the code, but as of the current release, several areas are pretty hardcoded. For example, you'd have to change 10 or 15 different things in your code if you wanted screen memory in an address other than $1000. Same thing if you wanted a DLI at a certain offset in the code.

 

I'm working on this problem currently, and am well on the way to a solution. It will take a bit of doing to weed out all the hard coded stuff, but when it's done it will be a lot easier to port your game if that's what you want to do.

 

calamari

[ziggystar]

I tried to email you calamari but it came back. any way, love your 5200 basic. I've got everything figured out except sprites and backgrounds. Sure, I know how to PUT a sprite. I know how to ue antic4 to make so so backgrounds. but how do I get any image date into the put command? Can you write a simple demo with just a dot or something that moves around? I can go from there. Also, is there a way to make a bmp converter or something to make backgrounds easier in a graphics mode instead of a 4 color text mode with blocks? thanks!!

[calamari]

I got your mail last night.. not sure why it said that it bounced.

 

I was tweaking the sprite code and I may have damaged it prior to the 1.60 release of 5200BAS. I'll put up a sprite demo when I make sure everything is working again, no problem.

 

I suppose some kind of BMP convertor would work for the Antic E (4 color) or Antic F modes (9 color, or the high rez 2 color), but you're looking at around 16k bytes per screen (without compression), and the max ROM size without bankswitching is only 32k. It's going to be a lot more efficient to use an Antic 4 screen (and you get 5 colors instead of 4). The character set will take 1k, and each screen you make with it is only 960 bytes. AlanD was able to compress his screens even further with a custom routine. I have an ANTIC4 screen designer program on my website.. it's not that bad using the blocks, you just have to get used to them. Give it a try!

 

calamari

[Thelen]

5200 basic is really great !! . indeed a little sprite demo would be nice.

 

keep on going !

 

thelen

[ziggystar]

Ok, let me know when you get it fixed. I need it to make a mouse pointer. Do you know if your standard joystick value reading routines will work with the 5200 trac ball? also, what values should I expect to get when you push up on the joystick? or other directions. all your examples are for keypad input. I understand we will get an analog value but is it like a strength meter or just a generic yes no value?

[calamari]

To my great relief, 5200BAS 1.60 sprites are *NOT* broken!!

 

So, I guess that means you'll need to rework a few things in your code...

 

I found an old River Racer example program that I never released (oops!), and it uses a sprite, so enjoy. I tried to spiff up the code a little to use some of the newer IF..END IF and DO...UNTIL/WHILE, but some of the original GOTO stuff remains. You'll be able to figure it out without too much trouble. It also uses character graphics.

 

http://www.azstarnet.com/~jeffryj/5200exam.html

 

You'll need to do some experimentation on your own with a real 5200 to figure out what you need for your joystick routine, I still haven't tackled that one, yet. You'll be getting an analog value for X and Y. The emulators will produce certain values for each direction, but these don't mean anything for the real console, not to mention calibration, etc.

 

calamari

[ziggystar]

I'm just going with generic values of up and down left and right but I cant figure out the up and left values.. I tried

[ziggystar]

$50 works! found it on a previous post.