How To Make An Atari Game

[focotech_ti]

Fantastic, the years go by (10 years ago), and as a php programmer I was always curious to know how it was made, this video will be legendary for many decades or more!

[GhastlyH]

As someone who actually did 2600 programming in the 6507 machine code it's really cool to see someone has developed an actual programming language for the machine.

[Tinkernut]

for the first tutorial i did about making games, i did use game maker. this is actually my 3rd game making tutorial. also, you can port it to atari cartridges...there's a link on my forum for how to do that.

[jacklazzaro]

2:26 Wow, I never knew that the Atari 2600 in Europe had less color than ours

[FluffyGameplay]

My dream has come true... I can now make a Mortal Kombat game for Atari 2600.

[Tinkernut]

@OuterSpaceRave yeah, you did right. youtube isn't really the best way to help you out. go to my forum and post this question and a screenshot (if you can) and i'll help you out.

[MagnusTV]

This is very generic and does not really teach how to create a game, but rather how to use that IDE you're using with an example program. There is a lot of stuff going on inside the hardware of a 2600 that needs to be understood in order to properly make games for a 2600.

This video makes it look easier than it is. First of all, if you run into a problem, you need to debug your game. In order to debug it, you need to use the Debugger included with Stella. This debugger not only shows the whole memory map, but also the status of every register of the emulated 6507, as well as the flags, and the program being executed. And by the way, this information is not in basic.

Then comes all the features of the Atari 2600. The video says "you can only have two sprites in the Atari". Which is partially correct. There are different kinds of sprites. Bitmapped sprites, which is the two mentioned (mostly meant for player one and player two, as the IDE suggests). Then two "one-pixel" "missile" sprites (for projectiles for both player one and two), and the 40 pixel playfield.

Some games like Pacman go around these restrictions by placing the second bitmapped sprite into the position of each ghost, per "frame". You can notice the flickering this causes. Other games like frogger, has what looks like different sprites, such as trucks, cars, the trunks, etc. Some games do this through "multiplexing" sprites (drawing parts of different sprites in each sprite, then mixing them), or by drawing "software sprites" (The pacman trick, or using a ball to create a line that looks like a rope, etc).

Another thing to point out is that everything you need to create an atari game, is a 6507 assembler. For example, DASM, which comes included with the program. Of course, for that, you need to know not only the instruction set, but the hardware, memory mapping, how an old CRT TV works, how colors work in a specific TV, interlacing, etc. It's more tedious, but you also gain full control on how your program works.

If you are not interested in learning all this stuff because it's too complex for you, DON'T BOTHER. It's not going to be rewarding for someone who only want to create a game. Instead, try making regular games for Windows with a regular WYSIWYG IDE such as Game Maker, or Unity. With those you don't need nearly any advanced programming skills, or hardware knowledge, sine everything is managed for your convenience.

I'm not criticising the video, which is good as a starting point. I'm just pointing this out for all these people who is having troubles during the process, or understanding how it works.

[Tinkernut]

@OuterSpaceRave did you install stella before installing visual bb?

[TheGroovySideOftheTube]

Make sure you have "Add Bb to Environment Variable" & "Add Bb Compiler to system path" checked under settings. If you are getting compile errors, make sure you add a space to the start of the line where the error happened (check messages tab) - it's pretty fussy with the way it handles indents.

[antonnym]

Cute game! BASIC was my first computer language. This one is different, but at least the atari is programmable in a high-level language. I did Z-80 and 8080 assembly languages, so I'm sure I could do the 6502 assembly, but the BASIC looks very capable of doing the job. Nice tutorial!

[Chris-yjdi]

Word of warning, this does NOT work in Windows 10. Just to save someone the time.

[fredricgreenblott]

This was really helpful, as I have absolutely no coding experience whatsoever, even BASIC, so thank you sir.

[AloanMoreira]

btw, you will be making games using original atari 2600 sounds, original atari 2600 colors, and original atari 2600 resolutions. It's all in the download page. You will be downloading the sound pack and the game making engine (or example)

[Tinkernut]

@snasebrase coding style? that's just like saying you don't like the "style" of mathematics. coding doesn't have a style, you have to write what is necessary to get the desired output. if you change things around for the purpose of style, then the program doesn't work.

[Malik-oeps]

Thank you for this guide, I'm a complete noob to programing and this is working great on my test game.

[fosterpuggy]

Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the 2600 and the 2600's Television Interface Adapter (TIA), with the external links being especially good at explaining the low-level technical details of the 2600, and some about the original dev environment used back in the 70's and 80's.

[antonnym]

I used to program in z-80 and 8080 assembly, also APL and BASIC. I knew about the 6502, but didn't own one, but my friends had some Kim 1 and Apple computers so I've been exposed to the assembly on that. This is super interesting. The only thing I would recommend for future videos is to have no background music while you talk. just maybe for the intro and outro. Im autistic, and background music sounds like foreground music to me. I can't concentrate on what you are saying. Keep up the good work. I gave you a thumbs-up. All good wishes!

[Tinkernut]

@chancescheatz ah, i see what you mean. thanks for the clarification! when i code projects for myself, i use those standards (as well as commenting), but when i'm teaching others, i find it makes more sense when you do it the long way.

[random_ann]

14 years ago this vid was made?!?! holy f! pro quality video for that early yt era

[ramgladore]

I just bought the Atari 2600+. I'm excited to be able to play the older games but also I wanna see more people making games for legacy hardware. I understand too many people making bland shovelware games is what killed the Atari but maybe things will be different this time now that we have a talented modding community.