11 replies to this topic

[happy_comrade]

Hello everyone,
I'm trying to return to Atari programming after a very long hiatus (think 1980's). In the past I just used plain old Atari basic.

Can anyone point me to compilers that are available for the Atari 8-bit computers, that would be suitable for game programming?

Back in the 1980's I remember there was one language compiler (could have been a version of Forth?) that retailed for something like $500 at the time. Ouch. And I've heard of Turbo Basic which I believe is a compiler, but I am unsure how suitable it may or may not be for game development. I guess too some people are using C, but I'm not sure what software package this is and again if this is game-suitable or not.

Any comments are welcome, and thanks for helping a n00b.

[GroovyBee]

For "C" look at http://www.cc65.org

[Synthpopalooza]

Best compiled language on the Atari is Action! It is easy to learn, not too different from BASIC, but has the structure of C and other similar languages. It also compiles into 100% macine language executables.

[MaPa]

I don't know what you want to program on little Atari, but I would recommend to forget compilers and start to learn assembler

[fox]

What MaPa said. Here's my cross-assembler.

[JAC!]

Depends on the level of programing experience you already have.
- Are you familiar with other languages?
- Which platform do you plan to use as development environment (Atari itself/Cross Development)

On Atari itself:
Turbo Basic: very powerful, complete fast basic, easy to learn. Not compiled by default, short edit/run rountrip types, but final result can be compiled for speed. Assembler sections can be loaded into memory.
Action: Structured , support procedures and functions like c, powerful libraries. Assembler sections can be integrated directly.
Many non-commercial (and even some commercial) games were written in both languages and they are very good to start with.

Cross Development:
- Assemblers: ATASM, MADS, XASM, you can check me site http://www.wudsn.com, there you can find a complete IDE and the download archive which contains all compilers for all platforms.
- CC http://www.cc65.org

[happy_comrade]

JAC!, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:29 AM, said:

Depends on the level of programing experience you already have.
- Are you familiar with other languages?
- Which platform do you plan to use as development environment (Atari itself/Cross Development)

On Atari itself:
Turbo Basic: very powerful, complete fast basic, easy to learn. Not compiled by default, short edit/run rountrip types, but final result can be compiled for speed. Assembler sections can be loaded into memory.
Action: Structured , support procedures and functions like c, powerful libraries. Assembler sections can be integrated directly.
Many non-commercial (and even some commercial) games were written in both languages and they are very good to start with.

Cross Development:
- Assemblers: ATASM, MADS, XASM, you can check me site http://www.wudsn.com, there you can find a complete IDE and the download archive which contains all compilers for all platforms.
- CC http://www.cc65.org

Thanks everyone for your comments. I have programmed in several languages before - Basic, C, Fortran (ho! ho! I feel old), and some machine language on the 8080 and 6502. This includes ATARI basic on an 800xl that I no longer have. However I haven`t done any programming of any type, for at least 15 years.

I'm expecting that I'd do development directly on the ATARI 8-bit itself. But this isn't finalized, & I need to (re)construct an 8-bit system for myself.

ACTION is the language that I remembered reading about (the one that I believe cost $500 in the 1980`s).

-HC

[MaPa]

It depends what you want to achieve... what you want to program, games? demos? utilities? It can variate from programming just for fun in Atari BASIC on real HW to "fast" cross-development of higher quality software on PC with emulator and cross-assembler. I would be glad if it would be the second case as there is never enough of good stuff.

Edited by MaPa, Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:43 PM.

[danwinslow]

CC65 is nice because it lets you mix C and assembler freely. Plus the C alone is pretty fast.
Action! is great for on-atari development, as is Forth and Turbo-basic.

Edited by danwinslow, Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:36 PM.

[Irgendwer]

happy_comrade, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:34 AM, said:

I'm expecting that I'd do development directly on the ATARI 8-bit itself. But this isn't finalized, & I need to (re)construct an 8-bit system for myself.

Then I would give 'Quick' a try: http://www.dgs.clara.net/quick.htm

[happy_comrade]

Irgendwer, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:00 PM, said:

happy_comrade, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:34 AM, said:

I'm expecting that I'd do development directly on the ATARI 8-bit itself. But this isn't finalized, & I need to (re)construct an 8-bit system for myself.

Then I would give 'Quick' a try: http://www.dgs.clara.net/quick.htm

I'm intrigued, I never heard of Quick before. Thanks for the link

[snicklin]

Quick is a great little language and extended my programming skills a few years back.

The only thing that puts me off it now though is that I would like to be able to do all my coding on the PC and then cross-compile over to the Atari.