Making Games for the Atari 2600 (8bitworkshop)

Amazon says I have the Kindle edition but I have the paperback. I'm only up to chapter 6 at the moment but so far Steven Hugg has been very informative and, best of all, interesting. So often programming books can just be a drag to read, not this one. I found an error and searched for an errata online but haven't found one. On pg. 40 some changes to the video kernel are made but the snippet is incomplete, to save space I assume. On the third line of this snippet (ldy counter) 'counter' is not defined and people picking this up without some prior knowledge may get frustrated. There are a few other parts of the kernel that have to be changed in order to produce the image on the adjacent page (pg. 41). First CTRLPF should be set to #1 to mirror the playfield. Second, if you don't zero the PF0, PF1, and PF2 registers of the TIA in the overscan or vblank you will end up with what was left over in them when the screen starts to redraw again after vsync. $BF is last stored in them. This leaves the top not being a flat line (as it is on pg. 41). The top line will look like this ##_##_############_##_##############_##_##. You could also 'sta WSYNC' after storing A into PF0, PF1, PF2 in 'lvscan' to solve this without wasting extra space. These types of mistakes can make learning to program from a book difficult. I have a background in programming and in 65xx assembly, in particular using dasm (not for the VCS though), so I didn't have too much of an issue, but not all readers will have my background. So far I'm enjoying the book and by no means is this a bad book. Very good actually. All programming books have mistakes. The VCS was a unique machine. Sometimes it will make you cry for a frame buffer, but it's so satisfying to unlock this little machine and make it bend to your will. I'll update this review as I move through the book. EDIT: I'll correct my above statement. It seems the book wants you to rely on examples on the companion website to further explain the code snippets. So what I perceived as an error was simply me not realizing that the info was in a different location.

I purchased this book for the sole purpose of getting a better grasp on 6502 programming. I had already gone through the "Easy 6502" tutorial by Nick Morgan and was ready to see more code in practice. This book did not disappoint! This book contains virtually everything you need to know to get started programming on the Atari 2600, but of particular concern to me was the competent usage of 6502 assembly. I was able to see good examples of assembly techniques such as jumping with pointers, stack tricks, BCD mode, bank switching, ROM data layouts, assembler macros, and much more. I followed along with some of the earlier examples on both the 8-Bit Workshop web site and offline using the Stella emulator and the ca65 assembler. This approach worked perfectly with the book! If you think this topic interests you at all, give this book a shot. The author covers a ton of ground in the 200 pages, making it a fast and informative read. Just make sure to look at the handful of errata so you don't get tripped up.

I'll preface my review by stating that I've always been a die-hard lover of the 65XX and have always enjoyed writing software for the various hardware that it's been employed by over the years. I purchased this book strictly to review from a programmer's perspective. I wanted to give it a thorough reading before recommending it to aspiring programmers and game design hobbyists who strive to work in an environment that requires the programmer to get as close to the bare metal as possible. Through the early chapters, the author gently leads you into 6502 programming fundamentals. This books does an excellent job in not only teaching the reader how to write code, but to take command of a feature-rich assembler with marcro's and labels. After the introduction, you're immediately lead into the hardware of the Atari VCS. THIS is where the book REALLY shines. The author does an excellent job illustrating programming principles in a simple, readable way that can be reasonably understood by someone with little to no programming experience. This is where MANY technical writings (especially in machine code / assembly language programming) fail miserably. As you learn about the 6502's load/store instructions, bit-wise logic, conditional loops and the various addressing modes you will quickly understand these concepts as you: Draw a sprite on the screen, change the background color, manipulate the playfield registers and how to use the processor to keep track of CPU cycles/color clocks for time sensitive operations. Rather then spending 2 hours explaining to someone how indirect Y addressing works with the 6502, I can show someone a few paragraphs in a chapter in this book and they will IMMEDIATELY understand how it works and why. Trust me, I've already done it! Each chapter becomes a building block, step by step. I doubt many people will feel overwhelmed by the book providing that you take it slow, one chapter at a time. The trick is to get "good" at the exercise in one chapter before moving to the next. While this book isn't a complete bible for the Atari VCS, it's an excellent complimentary piece to the Stella Programmer's Handbook. I do feel that some of the more important aspects of VCS programming were a bit rushed and not as thoroughly fleshed out as they should have been for clarity. But it still reads well. To anyone who is interested in learning how to program the Atari VCS or any 6502 based console/computer, I highly recommend this book as it translates the technical jargon of the 6502/VCS into an easily understood and smooth read. This is something that you won't hardly find in the 6502 "Bibles" by Rodney Zaks and Lance Laventhal.

It's a fun read with a lot of great takeaways for even people like me who were born a decade later and got started with x86 instead of 6502. Very interesting to read about how high-level constructs in the TIA were used to make the retro games of the past. If you know assembly already even x86, you can breeze through the first section on 6502 pretty quickly, but it's extremely well-written to the point where anybody can get up to speed. Atari 2600 programming is a very challenging, unappreciated art, and this book does an excellent job of conveying this to the reader! Buy the book and support the author, he worked hard and did a great job.

Questo libro, scritto ovviamente in inglese è chiaro e ti guida passo dopo passo a capire cosa è, come funziona e soprattutto come implementare l'assembly. Inoltre il poter provare il codice direttamente su browser senza dover scaricare nulla, permette di usufruire del libro in ogni dove. Il prezzo di Amazon Italia è il più vantaggioso rispetto agli altri store e se volete provare a fare un gioco per Atari VCS (o 2600) questo è il vostro libro. Assolutamente consigliato

Excelente guía!, recomendable 100%, buenos ejemplos, entorno de desarrollo excelente y fácil de usar

That was big surprise for me. I bought that book without reading any opinions and after seeing cover I thought it will be not so good. But this book is fantastic. It cover all subjects for atari 2600 in very good way. It uses best programming way in online assembler and emulator . Everything described very well with all informations, memory map and list of opcodes as appendix. Must have for every retro developer!

Firstly this book is nicely written and would be a superb introduction for anyone interested in programming. It's going to be a great handy reference for refreshing good old assembler code etc and certainly a valuable resource for those who may not be familiar with early programming required for working with older CPU's etc. However here's the things that disappointed me and apologies to the author if I am expecting way to much. 1. The IDE was my first groan. It's all web based and obviously that means being connected to the internet. What if I want to have a set of stand alone tools and develop my game idea off line? To be honest this has surely got to be my preferred method of programming. I get JAVA for web development etc and have something that ALL computers can use when they work with the internet. However having tools that can be used offline and learning about compilers, coding software and producing stand alone files will be necessary for creating ROMS etc. 2. That leads me into the next peave. I was expecting with the exciting new wave of HDMI compatible Atari 2600's (Yes you read that correctly there still making them.) That I would also get information on programming and producing my own ROM's and making cartridges that can be put in any Atari console and run. 3. I wasn't after only the programming side alone, I was after a complete overview and guide to going from software to hardware cartridge. So on those points, that's why I had to lower the stars. Again in fairness to the author the chapters are displayed and perhaps I was thinking these important aspects were going to be incorporated into the overall work but for me, this is only 2/3rds of the picture, I was hoping for the full process. With new cartridges coming out for the Atari 2600(seriously just check out what you can purchase right here on Amazon, it's amazing that the love for this classic console endures and you can indeed purchase some new cartridges that will run on the new Atari's and the original Atari's. Incredible.) If you have a great game you have now developed for Atari, you will be happy to know there are companies who can produce your cartridges for you, but it would be nice to know that your untested software could at least be prototyped to ensure it runs well before paying bucket loads of money for a cartridge run of say 100 cartridges. The world does not want another Atari - ET The extra terrestrial game out there for example.

Llegué a este libro mediante una recomendación en un curso de Udemy sobre el mismo tema y... muy muy muy contento! No sólo me parece la guía más completa sobre el tema que he visto por estos lares sino que encima, el autor aporta un entorno web mediante el cual puedes programar, testear e incluso jugar SIN DESCARGARTE NADA. No sé qué más se puede pedir, la verdad.