8 replies to this topic

[Dones]

As a beginner in atari programming, I have toyed with the idea of getting a disassembly dump of a game, study it and see what I learn from there. I know there are sources out there with dumps nicely commented by other fan's previous efforts (that's a good start), but I was wondering what videogame the more experienced guys would recommend as a starting point for disassembly study.

Now yes, I know you need some pre-requisites before embarking on such exercise (please don't scold us newbies for that . I am curious as to what game you would consider could better educate a newbie. Say, I know Pitfall is a bad start (because of its complexity) but I am sure a simpler game would do better. Considering that even a simple atari game isn't so simple at all, what would you guys recommend?

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

Hm... I think that when you have an idea for writing a game yourself, you should best study a game that meets similar requirements.

If you just want to learn how to program the 2600 at all, your probably better off studying Andrews tutorials first.

Greetings,
Manuel

[Albert]

We need to point Dennis Debro at this thread, as he's probably disassembled more 2600 games than anyone at this point and can probably offer you some good advice.

..Al

[Big Player]

Someone on these forums (I believe Robert M but I'm not sure) said to learn to program the 2600, take one of the 2k games and take it apart, learn what every instruction does. Then you can add code to it up to 4k and see what happens without having to worry about bankswitching.

I'm probably going to be forever a newbie so someone correct me if I'm remembering this incorrectly. I'll look for the thread.

[Big Player]

Found it. It's towards the end of the thread.

http://www.atariage....pic.php?t=47940

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The Combat disassembly should be helpful for beginners.

[Albert]

Thomas Jentzsch said:

The Combat disassembly should be helpful for beginners.

We have a copy of that archived here:

Definitive Combat Disassembly

..Al

[Robert M]

Albert said:

Thomas Jentzsch said:

The Combat disassembly should be helpful for beginners.

We have a copy of that archived here:

Definitive Combat Disassembly

..Al

Al,

There is a typo in that listing which prevents the code from compiling. The line:

BVC  BMisDec         ; branch if not Pong game (PF_PONG bit 6)

Should be:

BVC  MisDec         ; branch if not Pong game (PF_PONG bit 6)

Can you please fix it sometime?

Thanks!

[xucaen]

Robert M, on Mon Nov 1, 2004 1:36 PM, said:

There is a typo in that listing which prevents the code from compiling.  The line:

BVC  BMisDec        ; branch if not Pong game (PF_PONG bit 6)

Should be:

BVC  MisDec        ; branch if not Pong game (PF_PONG bit 6)

I just started studying the combat disassembly. I got a sneaky suspician that little bug was put there as our first lesson.


Jim