7 replies to this topic

[godzillajoe]

I'm just curious for the people who are using it to try and learn how to program the 2600 how effective it is and what you've done with your knowledge.

I'm slowly working my way through it.

Also, there was a PDF version at one point up to session 23, is there an updated one?

How many more sessions are there going to be or is the tutorial complete as of right now?

[Mord]

godzillajoe, on Wed Nov 1, 2006 3:00 PM, said:

I'm just curious for the people who are using it to try and learn how to program the 2600 how effective it is and what you've done with your knowledge.

I'm slowly working my way through it.

Also, there was a PDF version at one point up to session 23, is there an updated one?

How many more sessions are there going to be or is the tutorial complete as of right now?

It's a rock solid introduction, explaining everything you need to know to get started. After that it's a never ending learning experience as you find out things both here on the forums and on the Stella mailing list. I doubt I would have been able to do anything with the 2600 if not for Andrew's explanations on the basics which helped me understand what I was dealing with, why things are the way they are, and the sorts of limitations you're up against both on the scanline race and ram/rom limits. As for things I've done with it, well... I get distracted easily so I'd start tinkering, then get distracted and wander away for months so until recently haven't done much as far as actual programming is concerned.

But I'm progressing at a fairly nice pace for me now.

I seem to have the pdf version here, I can try to post it as an attachment if it's no longer available elsewhere, although it won't be updated compared to what use to be available. As for Andrew continuing, that's always up to him. But since it's been a few years since the last session...

[SpiceWare]

I used it to learn the basics. Medieval Mayhem is my first Atari game.

[Andrew Davie]

Mord, on Sat Nov 4, 2006 6:05 PM, said:

It's a rock solid introduction, explaining everything you need to know to get started.

[snip]

As for Andrew continuing, that's always up to him. But since it's been a few years since the last session...

Thanks for the nice review As to continuing, I realised that once people got to the point where I left off, they were probably able enough to continue on their own. It was really the fundamentals that needed to be in the tutorial. Perhaps someone could write something on sound, though, as that is a glaring omission.

Cheers
A

[lbaeza]

Hi

Here's the 2600 Programming for newbies PDF up to session 22...

Regards

Attached Files

•  2600_Programming_up_to_session_22.zip   1008.14K   6519 downloads

[MayDay]

Andrew Davie, on Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:43 PM, said:

Mord, on Sat Nov 4, 2006 6:05 PM, said:

It's a rock solid introduction, explaining everything you need to know to get started.

[snip]

As for Andrew continuing, that's always up to him. But since it's been a few years since the last session...

Thanks for the nice review As to continuing, I realised that once people got to the point where I left off, they were probably able enough to continue on their own. It was really the fundamentals that needed to be in the tutorial. Perhaps someone could write something on sound, though, as that is a glaring omission.

Cheers
A

First off Andrew- your tutorials were awesome. But for me, they left me right at a point where I knew what things needed to be done without being able to figure out how to do them. More information on missiles, sprites, the ball, and how to control them / make them interact more would be very useful. While boring, a game can be made without sound! Again, thank you for the time already invested, but know that further efforts would be heavily utilized.

-Jason

[Steril707]

I copied the whole tutorial into one big .doc file, and yesterday i printed it out. So i am able to read the whole thing on my way to and from work. Really helpful stuff. This and Kirk Israels into the breach tutorial really showed me the way.

Thanks a lot, this must have been a big load of work...

Michael

[SeaGtGruff]

Steril707, on Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:51 PM, said:

I copied the whole tutorial into one big .doc file,

Actually, the entire tutorial has already been accumulated into one big PDF file! I don't remember the link off the top of my head, but I got it from here somewhere (if I remember correctly, CPUWIZ posted the link).

Michael