Emulators and Debuggers

[PAH]

I'm just getting started programming for the 2600. From what I can find, Z26 is generally accepted as the most accurate emulator, but PCAE is the only one with a debugger. Anybody have a different opinion?

 

Is PCAE what most of you are using for debugging 2600 programs?

 

As far as emulation accuracy goes, is it safe to assume the differences typically only show up when doing rather advanced graphics register timing stuff?

 

Thanks,

 

Pete

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I am solely using z26's trace file for debugging.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Same here.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[+Andrew Davie]

I do not use any debugging aids at all. I go purely by my understanding of the system, code, and analysis of various effects caused by code changes. Often, the use of onscreen colour changes is a suitable technique for indication of various happenings.

[Bruce Tomlin]

I do coding on real hardware using a CC2. I wish I had a 6502 ICE (I have Z-80 and 6809 units that I can use for Colecovision or Vectrex, though), but the fact is that I don't.

 

So I wrote a debugger that uses 2400 baud serial communication through the right joystick port. This won't work for the 2600 because there's not enough room for 2K of debugger (2600 code has been small enough for me to debug without needing to single-step), but it works great for 7800 code as long as the Maria is turned off during serial I/O. (It messes up the timing when it steals CPU cycles.)

 

For Colecovision coding (I still haven't even lifted a finger toward the Vectrex yet), my EM-180 ICE (in-circuit emulator) works great. It has hardware breakpoints, 64K of overlay memory so I can override the entire address space with write-protected RAM, a 9600 baud serial port to load new code images, and a 250-cycle trace buffer. Super-deluxe.

[PAH]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll have to check out z26's trace file feature. I wasn't aware of that.