A Game Idea.

[liquid_sky]

trust me atari master.. start with atari basic.

 

Just trust me on this one.

[Nukey Shay]

Your tags didn't show up (as this site accepts them), but I get your drift.

In Basic, you would simply write PRINT "HELLO" if you wanted that to appear on the screen. The operating system will work out all the variables for you if you wish (like where to put it and such). Bold text would be a little more involved in Atari Basic, since you only get the one font to work with (but it does include lower-case, inverse, and graphic symbols as well...just put 'em in between the quotes). This is like the english language, as you are telling it to print something on the screen.

 

And that link you have is to a site that covers 8088 machine language...which won't help much for 8-bit processors (6502/6507 that Atari uses).

[Nukey Shay]

BTW Atari Basic offers two additional text modes for text that you can use without learning m/l right away. These offer larger characters in four colors. Again, you would simply use the print statement.

The GRAPHICS X selects the screen mode you want (substitute the # for X).

 

Don't underestimate the power of Atari Basic...many successful programs and games were written using it (including two of my favorites...Dragon's Eye and Mar Tesoro). Atari Basic's small 8kb size make it probably the fastest 8-bit Basic out there (in fact, there were some benchmarks done that proves this).

 

[ 06-06-2002: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Atari Master]

Can Atari Basic be used to make 2600 games. I've been reading this book thing for about 20 minutes. And it's like 20 chapters long. It's a colledge book for 16 bit programing.

 

I just want to be able to make my game and sell it. I want my name to be sorta known in the Atari community.

 

My 15 minutes of fame.

 

I got another cool idea. But is assembly the only way?

[liquid_sky]

heres an example atari basic program.

 

code:

---

 5 PRINT "Coin Flipper!"

10 PRINT : PRINT "How many flips?" : : INPUT N

20 IF N<1 THEN END

30 K=0 : PRINT

40 C=INT(2*RND(1))

50 IF C=0 THEN PRINT "Tails ":

60 IF C=1 THEN PRINT "Heads ":

70 K=K+1

80 IF K < N THEN 40

90 GOTO 10

---

 

Yes, its the often used coin flipper.. sorry i couldnt be any more creative.

 

[ 06-06-2002: Message edited by: liquid_sky ]

 

[ 06-06-2002: Message edited by: liquid_sky ]

[Atari Master]

I think I understood some of that. But after about reading meond like 3 I got cunfused. I think the code tells the other like to somthing. Am I right?

[Nukey Shay]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Atari Master:

Can Atari Basic be used to make 2600 games. I've been reading this book thing for about 20 minutes. And it's like 20 chapters long. It's a colledge book for 16 bit programing.

---

 

No, but Atari Basic will provide the fundamentals of programming in general...as well as teaching you things about the Atari hardware that you can apply to Assembly programming (like players and missiles, display lists, etc).

 

And that book will do you no good, since it's made for more advanced computers. It would be like trying to get a dog to speak english...not gonna happen.

[Atari Master]

Hmmm, so you think Atari Basic will make it easyer to lern asm?

[Nukey Shay]

In a way. If you can program in Basic, assembly is easier to learn later. Trying to learn assembly right away can overwhelm a new user, and might make you give up (since nothing will appear to make any sense at all...at least Basic uses english words for commands).

[Nukey Shay]

Another good point about Atari Basic is that it often tells you if you make a mistake right when you enter a line...many basics will not.

[Nukey Shay]

You may have noticed from liquid_sky's example program that every line begins with a number. His example mostly uses line numbers that are multiples of 10, but in fact you can use any number you want. When you run the program, Basic will do the lowest line first, and then do the next higher one**. Numbering by 10 is often a good idea, since it gives you a little room to add stuff in between the lines later on. You don't need to enter them in that order right away, Basic will sort them out as you type in new lines.

If he would have numbered the lines by 1 (1, 2, 3, etc.), it would be harder to add new lines in between later on.

 

Say for example that you entered the program above...but then decided that you want to have your name printed on the screen when it runs. This would be easy to do by adding a line number between 5 and 10...like this :

6 PRINT "BY ATARI MASTER"

You wouldn't need to retype the whole deal. Basic will put it in the order that you want. When you now LIST the program, you will see your new line in between lines 5 and 10.

 

** If the program is running and sees a GOTO statement, it will go to that line number and continue from there.

 

[ 06-07-2002: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[+Cafeman]

Players are big sprites. They are 8pixels wide and 192 pixels high.

 

Missiles are little sprites. they are 2 pixels high, 192 pixels high. perfect for a Pong-style ball -- a two-by-two tiny square which, on a tv, looks like a ball.

 

The 2600 has 2 players, 2 missiles, and a ball sprite(which I know nothing about). The 5200/8bit has 4 players, 4 missiles.

 

Both machines have built-in collision detection -- you just check a memory location and it will tell you if a ball hit a player or a playfield wall. Easy! The motion would be the most complicated thing.

[Atari Master]

It sorta looks like the lines recall one another. Like the last like calls like 10 for the "how many coin flips".

[Nukey Shay]

"192 pixels high" is not really the correct way to describe the sprites on the 2600...since the 2600 has no video ram to store images (you need to create them as the scanline increases, line-by-line). That's why most of us suggest starting on another platform where it's operating system will do most of the dull, brain-scrambling dirty work for you.

The ball is just like another sprite, except you can't choose it's shape.

[Nukey Shay]

Yep, when the first set of coin flips is over...it goes back to line 10 for another round.

[Nukey Shay]

BTW Congratulations! You've just understood a command!!

Which is more than I can say for "The President".

[Atari Master]

Thanks! So were can I start lerning Atari Basics. And what was it used to make?

 

Do u have AIM?

[Nukey Shay]

Same story as machine language...let your fingers do the walking. Many public libraries have old books on learning basic...and many programs like this one will run on any computer. If you want to see more examples and finished games, you can visit sites like the Antic archives and download programs from there. Those programs can be loaded into Atari800Win from your hard drive** by typing

LOAD H:PROGRAM.BAS and pressing enter (substitute PROGRAM.BAS with the actual name of the one you are loading). Then, type LIST to look at how it is written (use ctrl-1 to pause the listings).

 

** to allow Atari800Win to get files from a hard drive folder, you press alt-h and select the folder that contains the basic files you downloaded.

 

BTW nope, no instant messaging...I never got into that.

 

[ 06-07-2002: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Atari Master]

Is there a place were I can get a primer insted of looking at code?

[Nukey Shay]

I can't seem to find any sites that details all the commands and what they do. Anyone have any links?

But I still recommend finding at least one book on it, since it could go into far greater detail than a website probably could. Even getting old magazines from Antic and Compute! will help you learn it pretty speedy just by typing in the programs that they have (that is how I learned on my first computer - the Vic20). I took a course in school the next year, but I was completely disappointed since they didn't teach assembly. Instead, I checked around and picked up Compute!'s Machine Language For Beginners, and had to teach myself.

[Atari Master]

Well, I just want to leern Atari Basic so Assembly wont be as hard. Mabe I can program some games in Atari Basic.

[Atari Master]

Well, I just want to leern Atari Basic so Assembly wont be as hard. Mabe I can program some games in Atari Basic.

[DEBRO]

quote:

---

Originally posted by DEBRO:

This sounds like a game I used to play on my 8-bit. It was a BASIC game (I think) where more balls would come out as the level progresses. You scored points by moving around the playfield. The other obstacles were a laser that went around the playfield and fired periodically. It was a COMPUTE! type in program. I think it was Laserball but I'm not sure. I'll check my floppies tonight.

---

 

I looked it up and it's called LASERBEAM. That was fun game

[Nukey Shay]

Quoting ourselves, are we?

You see what programming DOES to people, Atari Master? Are you sure you want to learn this?? j/k

 

BTW if you can find absolutely no help to find a book to help teach you Basic...you may have to search Amazon or B.Dalton for one.

 

Very good guides that cover everything from sprites to redesigned characters to sound voices are the Dr.Wacko books (stupid name, but very good references). There is one that deals with creating video games specifically... http://www.allbookstores.com/book/0201114887

If you find this one, buy it!

 

Myrtle The Turtle rocks!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Atari Master:

Well, I just want to leern Atari Basic so Assembly wont be as hard. Mabe I can program some games in Atari Basic.

---

I don't want to discourage you, but let me tell you this:

Don't expect to get to the "art of programming" the 2600 to soon. You may need some months to understand the fundamentals of programming in Basic, some weeks to get into 650x assembler and some more weeks to understand the basics of the 2600 hardware.

 

And years to get enough experience to put it all together.