DracIsBack Posted September 11, 2003 Share Posted September 11, 2003 Anyone know if there are or are plans to make any 7800 homebrew development tools for the Macintosh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricBall Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 What you need is a basic text editor, an 6502 assembler and MacMESS. Ooops, forgot, you will need someone to recompile a78sign.c for the Mac. Although you may be able to use one of the modified ROMs (or even the PAL ROM) to bypass the digital signature check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApM Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 DASM works great -- the official DASM site has a MacOS X port. I've also compiled a78sign for MacOS X, you can grab it here. I've found it works nicely to build the .a78 header directly into the source file: SUBROUTINE Header ORG CodeStart - 128 .byte 1 ; Header version .byte "ATARI7800" DS.B 7 .Cartname .byte "Test";Cart title, 32 bytes max .EndCartname DS.B 32 - (.EndCartname - .Cartname) .byte $00,$02,$00,$00;ROM size, big-endian .byte $06 ;bit0 - pokey cart ;bit1 - supercart bank switching ;bit2 - supercart RAM ;bit 3 - ROM at $4000 ;bit 4 - Bank 6 at $4000 .byte 1 ;P1 controller type .byte 1 ;P2 controller type ;0 - none ;1 - joystick ;2 - lightgun DS.B 100 - 57 .byte "ACTUAL CART DATA STARTS HERE" SUBROUTINE Code ; Bank 0 ORG $8000 CodeStart ... ; Bank 1 ORG $c000 RORG $8000 ... ; Bank 7 ORG $24000 RORG $c000 ; Bank 7 always mapped in $c000 This is for a full-out, 8-bank 128kb ROM, I believe with 16kb of Supercart RAM at $4000-$7fff. (MESS and the official a78 spec don't seem to quite line up properly -- I have to say "ROM at $4000" for it to recognize that there is RAM there or somesuch. I forget exactly, it's been a while since I did this up.) Anyway, hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricBall Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 Great minds think alike: SEG ROM HEADER ORG ROMTOP-128 DC.B 1 ; 0 Header version - 1 byte DC.B "ATARI7800" ; 1..16 "ATARI7800 " - 16 bytes DS 7,32 DC.B "7800 Space War!"; 17..48 Cart title - 32 bytes DS HEADER+49-.,0 DC.B $00,$00,256->ROMTOP,$00; 49..52 data length - 4 bytes DC.B $00,$00 ; 53..54 cart type - 2 bytes ; bit 0 - Pokey cart ; bit 1 - Supercart bank switched ; bit 2 - Supercart RAM at $4000 ; bit 3 - ROM at $4000 ; bit 4 - Bank 6 at $4000 ; bit 8-15 - Special ; 0 = Normal cart DC.B 1 ; 55 controller 1 type - 1 byte DC.B 1 ; 56 controller 2 type - 1 byte ; 0 = None ; 1 = Joystick ; 2 = Light Gun DC.B 0 ; 57 0 = NTSC 1 = PAL ORG HEADER+100 ; 100..127 "ACTUAL CART DATA STARTS HERE" - 28 bytes DC.B "ACTUAL CART DATA STARTS HERE" ROMTOP ORG $F000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 The original Atari 7800 games were all written at GCC on Macs... unfortunately none of the programmers retained any of the prog's or source code, too bad. GCC was later change to being a Mac peripheral company, I remember their interal Mac HD called the HyperDrive. I had one in my Fat Mac (1mb Mac) in 87' It had this tempermental piggyback piece that plugged right onto of the 68000 and ribbon cabled to a little side board that was uncomfortably close to the monitor flyback assembly and the side board then connected to a little SCSI HD. You didn't want to jolt the Mac, otherwise the piggyback clip popped off the processor. GCC is still around and makes high end Laserprinters. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 Okay, here's a question. Have there been any homebrew games for the 7800 at all? There's plenty for the 2600, but i've never heard of one made specifically for the 7800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miqorz Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 CuttleCart 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted September 19, 2003 Author Share Posted September 19, 2003 There's a homebrew called SENSO in the works. Not sure of any others though. There's also been a release of the lost "High Score" cart, the lost KLAX, lost NTSC Sentinel and there was talk at one point of releasing the 7800 keyboard but haven't heard of that in years. I'm hoping that with the advent of dev tools plus the cuttle cart, more homebrewers will start looking to design 7800 titles. It's been a long haul, but the pieces are starting to come together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 I've got a 7800 development board I've been dying to use. I may try my hand at a 7800 game eventually, but right now I don't have the hours to devote to it (and I'd hate to see it get half done and killed off like Cypher). If I did do a 7800 game it would probably be Mappy. But the problem is I don't think the 7800 market is big enough to support homebrews yet. I think I'd be better off doing a 5200 or 2600 version of it (although a 2600 version would be mega hard). Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 Hi Matt... I think the 7800 Homebrew Market would grow VERY rapidly if new releases were made. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 Well I'm willing to try anything once (no not THAT you pervs!). I guess I'll try my hand at a 7800 version of Mappy, but no promises! I've got to learn how the 7800 is programmed first (I have a big thick manual for it and some development tools though). What does everyone think? 7800 Mappy sound good? Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miqorz Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 Atari 7800 version on 1942 would be awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted September 19, 2003 Author Share Posted September 19, 2003 If I new the first thing about programming, I'd go more the NES route and do some kind of a 7800 adventure game or RPG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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