
Show HN: 8bitworkshop IDE for Atari 2600 - sehugg
http://8bitworkshop.com/?platform=vcs
======
sehugg
Enjoying the attention this is getting! It's been fun making it and learning
the VCS tricks of the trade.

I'd like to credit a couple of projects that it depends on, Javatari by Paulo
Augusto Peccin ([http://javatari.org/](http://javatari.org/)) and DASM by
Peter King and others
([http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~pjbk/scholar/dasm.html](http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~pjbk/scholar/dasm.html)).
Oh yeah and Codemirror ([https://codemirror.net/](https://codemirror.net/)).

~~~
pryelluw
This is the kind of project that makes visiting HN worthy. Im going to spend
some good time with it during the nexr few days.

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jeffdubin
For those curious to play with a commercially published 2600 game, the source
for Imagic's Dragonfire was released by the author. It pastes nicely into the
IDE, fully working without modification. See
[http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/source/Dragonfire_sour...](http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/source/Dragonfire_source/)
for info and the .tar.gz release.

For ease of copying and pasting it into the IDE, see
[http://pastebin.com/4nrYTt2X](http://pastebin.com/4nrYTt2X).

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t0mek
This is perfect! I was thinking about creating a simple game for a classic
system for a long time. Now I have no excuse not to do it - a browser IDE with
the live preview and a bunch of examples is everything I need. Also, it's much
more than developers had these 39 (!) years ago.

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RodgerTheGreat
I've been tinkering over the last few years on something very similar for the
CHIP-8:
[http://johnearnest.github.io/Octo/](http://johnearnest.github.io/Octo/)

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Hydraulix989
I bought their (EDIT: @sehugg's) book "Making Games for the Atari 2600" too:

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1541021304](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1541021304)

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anthk
Now do the same for the Z80 and the Spectrum :D

    
    
          ORG 40000
          LD HL, 50000
          LD DE, 16384
          LD BC, 2016
          LDIR
          RET
          END 40000

~~~
stevekemp
Copying the 2016-byte chunk of memory at 50000 over the screen-area, which
starts at 16384?

I can almost remember well enough to be sure, but not entirely!

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asciimo
Great timing! I just picked up a 37 year old copy of 6502 Assembly Language
Programming by Lance Leventhal. This IDE greatly reduces the stress of finding
the right emulator and assembler and whatnot. Thank you!

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mysterydip
This is great! I've read up on "chasing the beam" and how programming for the
2600 is unlike any other console. Always wanted to try my hand at it but
didn't want to go through all the steps. This essentially eliminates the
barrier to entry. Definitely will check it out. Thanks!

~~~
matthewwiese
I can personally recommend Montfort & Bogost's book: _Racing the Beam_ for
this exact topic :)

~~~
Timethy
One of the most illuminating technical books I have ever read. I now grok 2600
and can die happy.

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qwertyuiop924
Honestly, I'd rather have an editor and assembler running on my system
(probably WLA-DX and Emacs). But I can't deny this is impressive, and it's a
nice primer for a system that I would love to learn to program.

~~~
tlb
I've been experimenting with application-specific IDEs too, where the compute
power needed is >> my laptop. When I'm using it I edit locally and rsync to
the cloud machine where it runs and shows me the results in a browser.

I've had on my TODO list to integrate codemirror so other people can do
everything remotely, but I don't think I'd use it myself. In principle it can
be a bit faster to update, but a function key in Atom to rsync is pretty
quick.

Do other people have positive/negative experiences with local/remote editing?

~~~
qwertyuiop924
I run Emacs remotely from my school-issued chromebook. The major issue is that
any sort of fluctuation in network speed/connectivity can freeze or upset it.

~~~
swiley
Tmux is great for this. When the connection goes down just kill ssh,
reconnect, and run tmux a.

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jstewartmobile
From what I've read, a lot of the guys who worked on the Atari consoles and
8-bit home computers went on to do the Amiga once the ownership changed.

Both systems were outstanding, and I have to wonder how far personal computing
has been set-back by having IBM's attempt to poison the well as its basis
instead of fine systems like the Atari 8-bit series.

~~~
zubat
As much as I adore all the Jay Miner-led designs, in the grand scheme of
things most of the advantages they posed come from being brilliant - and
highly customized - relative to their time frame. The Sharp and NEC computers
marketed in Japan offer an "alternate history" look at things but even they
eventually succumbed to Wintel in the 90's.

~~~
pekk
"Wintel" is not really a thing. Apple fans misunderstood that every other
platform was the same as their vertically integrated walled-garden platform.
The PC clone market was different from the Mac market in an important way
which made it fundamentally inaccurate to think about Apple's competition as
if it were coming from one monolithic entity. I was really hoping to stop
hearing this silly, inaccurate term "Wintel" when Apple started using Intel
processors (ages ago now).

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mmjaa
This is very nice. I hope to see an update in a few months with support for
other consoles - might I suggest Oric-1/Atmos at some point? :)

~~~
cpayne
I'd never heard of the Oric before. The Wikipedia article seems incredibly
biased. What software would you run on it?

~~~
homarp
[http://hirudov.com/oric/](http://hirudov.com/oric/) or
[http://www.oric.org/software/](http://www.oric.org/software/)

or type all kind of old basic games:
[https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/your-
computer-80s-comp...](https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/your-
computer-80s-computer-magazine-scans/)

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ksherlock
cool.

[https://github.com/sehugg/8bitworkshop](https://github.com/sehugg/8bitworkshop)

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hoodoof
Are there any "new" Atari 2600 games?

i.e. stuff developed in recent times?

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bryan11
Nicely done! I'll have to to play with this.

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sambull
awesome fun.

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the_arun
thumbs up!!

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madengr
Nice work!

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rreabe
Nice

