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Step 3Gather the Needed Tools
There are really 5 "tools" you will need to have on hand in order to put a game together. The first four are from Andrew Davie's 2600 tutorials available at AtariAge.
First and foremost, you will need a text editor. For PC users, you likely already have this, I always just used Notepad when I was working on code. Two excellent text editors for the Mac include TextWrangler http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/ which is free, and TextMatehttp://www.macromates.com. TextEdit will work, but if you're going to do serious programming, TextWrangler and TextMate are much better.
Second, you'll need an assembler to convert the source code into a usable ROM. For Atari programming, there is only one real option, and that is a program called DASM. It has passed from caretaker to caretaker over the years and isn't always the easiest thing to track down. As of writing this instructable I tracked down what seems to be the current home of DASM here http://dasm-dillon.sourceforge.net/.
Next, is the emulator. Emulation of NES, SNES, Playstation and other systems has become a pretty big deal over the years, although the craze seems to have died down to some extent. Atari is no exception, and there are two emulators which seem to be worthy of the Atari programming community. The first is Z26 http://www.whimsey.com/z26/and Andrew suggests this is possibly the best solution for Windows users, yet he suggests using Stella http://sourceforge.net/projects/stella/ for users of other operating systems. I found z26 was able to perform all the tasks I asked of it, and can't recommend it enough.
The Stella Programmer's Guide is essential and will answer many of your questions. The 57 page .pdf file can be downloaded here: http://www.atarihq.com/danb/files/stella.pdf
Finally, my own suggestion is to start looking for hardware capable of downloading your ROM and plugging into your tv. There are a few options available including the Supercharger, Cuttle Cart, and the hardware I was able to get ahold of, the Krokodile Cartridge. While functional, the Supercharger is slightly less flexible than the other two options. None of these are currently being produced, and you may have to spend 150-300 bucks to get ahold of one of them. If you start looking now, you may be able to find a better deal before you actually need to use it.
While you technically don't have to ever play it on your tv (you can test in emulators) it's a lot more fun than playing your game on a keyboard and computer monitor. An alternative to the mentioned hardware is to get a socketed development board and then use an EPROM programmer and eraser to program an actual board for your 2600. You can either hack existing boards or just buy new ones. More information on these can be found at AtariAge.
First and foremost, you will need a text editor. For PC users, you likely already have this, I always just used Notepad when I was working on code. Two excellent text editors for the Mac include TextWrangler http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/ which is free, and TextMatehttp://www.macromates.com. TextEdit will work, but if you're going to do serious programming, TextWrangler and TextMate are much better.
Second, you'll need an assembler to convert the source code into a usable ROM. For Atari programming, there is only one real option, and that is a program called DASM. It has passed from caretaker to caretaker over the years and isn't always the easiest thing to track down. As of writing this instructable I tracked down what seems to be the current home of DASM here http://dasm-dillon.sourceforge.net/.
Next, is the emulator. Emulation of NES, SNES, Playstation and other systems has become a pretty big deal over the years, although the craze seems to have died down to some extent. Atari is no exception, and there are two emulators which seem to be worthy of the Atari programming community. The first is Z26 http://www.whimsey.com/z26/and Andrew suggests this is possibly the best solution for Windows users, yet he suggests using Stella http://sourceforge.net/projects/stella/ for users of other operating systems. I found z26 was able to perform all the tasks I asked of it, and can't recommend it enough.
The Stella Programmer's Guide is essential and will answer many of your questions. The 57 page .pdf file can be downloaded here: http://www.atarihq.com/danb/files/stella.pdf
Finally, my own suggestion is to start looking for hardware capable of downloading your ROM and plugging into your tv. There are a few options available including the Supercharger, Cuttle Cart, and the hardware I was able to get ahold of, the Krokodile Cartridge. While functional, the Supercharger is slightly less flexible than the other two options. None of these are currently being produced, and you may have to spend 150-300 bucks to get ahold of one of them. If you start looking now, you may be able to find a better deal before you actually need to use it.
While you technically don't have to ever play it on your tv (you can test in emulators) it's a lot more fun than playing your game on a keyboard and computer monitor. An alternative to the mentioned hardware is to get a socketed development board and then use an EPROM programmer and eraser to program an actual board for your 2600. You can either hack existing boards or just buy new ones. More information on these can be found at AtariAge.
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