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Upcoming book on Atari 2600 programming (now available)


nanochess

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Hi all.

 

It is a great pleasure for me to announce my upcoming book Programming Games for Atari 2600, composed of 320 pages of self-contained 6507 assembly language programming. Following on the tracks of my previous books Programming Boot Sector Games and Programming Games for Intellivision.

 

The process of creating a book requires help! And three good friends are helping me there. @Thomas Jentzsch and @Andrew Davie are doing the technical revision of the book (you can remember Thomas from amazing games like Thrust, Boulder Dash, and our teamwork on Aardvark along with Nathan Strum; and Andrew from Qb and his amazing tutorials), and Michael Hayes @Zendocon is in charge of proofreading (he has done some amazing feats on Intellivision).

 

Finally, I feel pretty honored that we have a foreword by the legend himself David Crane (creator of the Pitfall!™ games!)

 

Everything is looking great. We are pretty close to completing this project, and order some demo copies of the book for approval. I'll post as things develop.

 

Meanwhile, enjoy this preview of the cover 😉

 

Edit: Aug/29/2022 And now added the back cover 😀

Edit 2: Sep/21/2022 Andrew Davie is now helping with technical correction.

Edit 3: Nov/11/2022 Now available for ordering!

Edit 4: Nov/12/2022 I've made a video showing the book, and the same afternoon I was talking about it with my friend Artemio Urbina in Spanish in another video.

Edit 5: Dec/12/2022 Now available on Amazon!

 

Lulu hard-cover: https://www.lulu.com/shop/oscar-toledo-gutierrez/programming-games-for-atari-2600/hardcover/product-n8z9r6.html

Lulu paperback: https://www.lulu.com/shop/oscar-toledo-gutierrez/programming-games-for-atari-2600/paperback/product-pq9dg4.html

 

Amazon hard-cover: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/dp/1387838148/

Amazon paperback: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/dp/1387809962/

 

And as ebook: https://nanochess.org/store.html

 

cover_sample _2.png backcover_sample_2.thumb.png.07040ddeccb789218f5f08b460557d21.png

 

 

Showing the book with Artemio Urbina (Spanish audio)

 

 

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3 hours ago, cvga said:

Love it. All of the pictures on the cover other than Flash Gordon make sense to me. Is there a story behind it's selection?

It could be Space Invaders, but Flash Gordon also has spaceships, and that mustache is impressive!

 

Besides, it reminds me that I read Flash Gordon a long time ago but I didn't knew I was reading it because in Mexico it was titled "Roldan el Temerario". And the only time the movie came out in TV, my mother sent me to bed because it was late, so I have only watched the first 5 minutes! 

Edited by nanochess
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1 hour ago, Dionoid said:

Nice!!! I'm looking forward to reading it!

Where is the book going to be published? Lulu, Amazon?

 

Nice touch with that copy of Aardvark plugged into the '2600 🙂

Thanks! It is going to Lulu, and then Amazon.

 

58 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

Great stuff Oscar, I'll definitely be picking up a copy when it's released!

 

- James

Cool! 8) Thanks a lot!

 

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15 hours ago, Andrew Davie said:

Fantastic!  I'm available to review, if you need another set of eyes. I'm anal-retentive about grammar and spelling. Also, I have a tiny bit of experience tinkering on the Atari.  Congrats, BTW!

Wow! I would feel honored. Thank you!

 

I'll send you the latest draft once I put the corrections of the proofreading to not duplicate efforts.

 

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On 8/29/2022 at 10:31 PM, nanochess said:

Btw, I got my approval to access Dall-E, and now I've some fine line art created by an A.I. let me show an example for the Sound&Music chapter.

 

Did you have any success getting Dall-E to draw something resembling an Atari 2600 or even a joystick? I've had amusing results but nothing anyone would recognise.

 

(A recently launched alternative to Dall-E is "Stable Diffusion". You can get access straight away and also run it locally.)

 

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10 hours ago, p1FqO3 said:

I image coil-bound, like @Dionoid did with Stella Programmer's Guide, would be a nice feature for a book like this.

The reason that the Stella Programmer's Guide and the 6502 Instruction Set Guide are coil bound, is that these are reference guides and used while you're programming, so people want them to stay opened on the table.

For @nanochess's upcoming book, I think it makes more sense to have it a paperback, just like @Andrew Davie's book Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies. But tastes are different, of course 🙂

 

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9 hours ago, JetSetIlly said:

 

Did you have any success getting Dall-E to draw something resembling an Atari 2600 or even a joystick? I've had amusing results but nothing anyone would recognise.

 

(A recently launched alternative to Dall-E is "Stable Diffusion". You can get access straight away and also run it locally.)

 

I didn't try to ask for an Atari 2600 drawing, as I have my own as a model for pictures.

 

You made me curious about the subject, but so far I've used my quota of pictures! 😅

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/31/2022 at 2:04 AM, JetSetIlly said:

 

Did you have any success getting Dall-E to draw something resembling an Atari 2600 or even a joystick? I've had amusing results but nothing anyone would recognise.

 

(A recently launched alternative to Dall-E is "Stable Diffusion". You can get access straight away and also run it locally.)

 

Today got my extra 15 credits, and tried to get an Atari 2600 using this catchy phrase "kid with bright color clothes playing an atari 2600 console in a futuristic environment with spaceships, robots, and television screens. high-resolution."

 

You're right. It doesn't know what an Atari 2600 looks like, and probably it isn't even in its "memory".

 

And joysticks curiously always look like Playstation 1 controllers.

 

DALL·E 2022-09-17 11.46.14 - kid with bright color clothes playing an atari 2600 console in a futuristic environment with spaceships, robots, and television screens. high-resoluti.png

DALL·E 2022-09-17 11.46.21 - kid with bright color clothes playing an atari 2600 console in a futuristic environment with spaceships, robots, and television screens. high-resoluti.png

DALL·E 2022-09-17 11.46.30 - kid with bright color clothes playing an atari 2600 console in a futuristic environment with spaceships, robots, and television screens. high-resoluti.png

DALL·E 2022-09-17 11.46.37 - kid with bright color clothes playing an atari 2600 console in a futuristic environment with spaceships, robots, and television screens. high-resoluti.png

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  • 1 month later...

I'm very happy to say that finally the book is available for ordering! :party:

 

You can order now from Lulu as paperback: https://www.lulu.com/shop/oscar-toledo-gutierrez/programming-games-for-atari-2600/paperback/product-pq9dg4.html

 

As hard-cover: https://www.lulu.com/shop/oscar-toledo-gutierrez/programming-games-for-atari-2600/hardcover/product-n8z9r6.html

 

And as ebook: https://nanochess.org/store.html

 

Amazon will follow in a few months.

 

Enjoy it!

 

 

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1 hour ago, nanochess said:

I'm very happy to say that finally the book is available for ordering! :party:

 

That's awesome Oscar, congratulations! Looking forward to checking out your new book!

 

In the book listing there are five game titles, but I've never heard of them and neither has Google!

"Game of Ball, Wall Breaker, Invaders, The Lost Kingdom, and Diamond Craze."

 

Are these new unreleased games?

 

- James

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