138 replies to this topic

[EricBall]

Mitch, on Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:03 PM, said:

There's a slightly later version of it on this page. I did not due a compare to see what changed however.

GroovyBee, on Thu Nov 18, 2010 3:15 AM, said:

I'd say its a different document entirely .

The front matter is certainly different between the March 84 and the October 84 documents, but there's a lot of common stuff. However, I haven't looked hard enough to confirm that everything in the March 84 document is in the October 84 document.

Huh, it looks like there was a planned 68K bus version. For arcade games maybe?

[Metal Ghost]

Hi all....I apologize if this was mentioned somewhere, but I didn't see it. Does anyone else experience the inability to access any of the links posted by kamakazi that are pointing to pages on atari7800.net? I can't get to any of them.

Ahh, hang on, I just saw where kamakazi edited his post to mention the broken links and re-linked to 'Whimsey'.

Anyway, thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. I'm having a ball reading Mark Chasin's book!

[GroovyBee]

Metal Ghost, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 11:51 AM, said:

I'm having a ball reading Mark Chasin's book!

I'm not familiar with that book but the A8 video and sprite system is nothing like the 7800s. Other than teaching you about 6502 assembler and POKEY (if it covers that) you might find it hard adapting any examples to the way the 7800 does things.

[Metal Ghost]

GroovyBee, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 11:59 AM, said:

Metal Ghost, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 11:51 AM, said:

I'm having a ball reading Mark Chasin's book!

I'm not familiar with that book but the A8 video and sprite system is nothing like the 7800s. Other than teaching you about 6502 assembler and POKEY (if it covers that) you might find it hard adapting any examples to the way the 7800 does things.

I thought it would be a good place to learn assembly for the 7800.

[GroovyBee]

Metal Ghost, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 3:18 PM, said:

I thought it would be a good place to learn assembly for the 7800.

The A8 emulators are much more developer friendly than the ones for the 7800. So learning the ropes on the A8 is probably a good way to go. You might also consider setting your own goals and mini projects too. Then you have more reasons to stick at it because you personally want something out of the learning experience.

[The Usotsuki]

Well, a "hello world" is a good place to start and if I could get that far I'd prolly be able to do something with the 78. but I come from the Apple world and the 78 is a loooooooooooot more complex.

[GroovyBee]

The Usotsuki, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 6:28 PM, said:

Well, a "hello world" is a good place to start and if I could get that far I'd prolly be able to do something with the 78. but I come from the Apple world and the 78 is a loooooooooooot more complex.

Have you found the character/indirect mode and sprite demo by PacManPlus in the programmers forum?

[JonnyBritish]

GroovyBee, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 6:33 PM, said:

The Usotsuki, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 6:28 PM, said:

Well, a "hello world" is a good place to start and if I could get that far I'd prolly be able to do something with the 78. but I come from the Apple world and the 78 is a loooooooooooot more complex.

Have you found the character/indirect mode and sprite demo by PacManPlus in the programmers forum?

You mean this - http://www.atariage....l-dll-template/
?

[JonnyBritish]

JonnyBritish, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 8:54 PM, said:

GroovyBee, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 6:33 PM, said:

The Usotsuki, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 6:28 PM, said:

Well, a "hello world" is a good place to start and if I could get that far I'd prolly be able to do something with the 78. but I come from the Apple world and the 78 is a loooooooooooot more complex.

Have you found the character/indirect mode and sprite demo by PacManPlus in the programmers forum?

You mean this - http://www.atariage....l-dll-template/
?

If so examples like this are great - not too much code and assuming you can assemble and run it..well now you can try tweaking it to modify its behaviour. Great way to learn 7800 I hope :-)

[The Usotsuki]

I might've. Not sure it was anything like I was trying to do though. :/

[GroovyBee]

JonnyBritish, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 8:54 PM, said:

You mean this - http://www.atariage....l-dll-template/
?

Yep! That's it!

The Usotsuki, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 11:40 PM, said:

I might've. Not sure it was anything like I was trying to do though. :/

OK. How about starting a new thread and explaining what you need help with and what you've done so far.

[The Usotsuki]

GroovyBee, on Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:48 AM, said:

JonnyBritish, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 8:54 PM, said:

You mean this - http://www.atariage....l-dll-template/
?

Yep! That's it!

The Usotsuki, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 11:40 PM, said:

I might've. Not sure it was anything like I was trying to do though. :/

OK. How about starting a new thread and explaining what you need help with and what you've done so far.

I had one. I think I just drowned in the information because all the stuff out there assumes I'm using the system to make *games*, when I'm trying to turn the Maria into, more or less, a 6845... a 40x25 text display... and everything is more complicated.

[GroovyBee]

The Usotsuki, on Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:21 AM, said:

I had one. I think I just drowned in the information because all the stuff out there assumes I'm using the system to make *games*, when I'm trying to turn the Maria into, more or less, a 6845... a 40x25 text display... and everything is more complicated.

OK. Post the code you've got so far and your font as a bitmap and we'll take it from there.

[The Usotsuki]

GroovyBee, on Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:45 AM, said:

The Usotsuki, on Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:21 AM, said:

I had one. I think I just drowned in the information because all the stuff out there assumes I'm using the system to make *games*, when I'm trying to turn the Maria into, more or less, a 6845... a 40x25 text display... and everything is more complicated.

OK. Post the code you've got so far and your font as a bitmap and we'll take it from there.

I don't have any usable code because I got drowned in the details just trying to do hello world and get it to boot (flash the fuji). :<

I did paste the font in the other thread, though - it was this

- I can try to create a raw bmp or something, I actually keep it stored in 6845 format which is the native format of my PC code.