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How to use the system!

A project log for Atari 2600 development suite for a hackerspace.

A system of parts and a computer that would allow development of Atari 2600 games using older hardware.

cprossucprossu 04/22/2019 at 04:400 Comments

To use our system at Heatsync Labs, or if you replicate this yourself, once everything is going, you'll want to:

1. Write your assembly code using your favorite text editor first. We'll be saving them as .ASM files to avoid confusion once multiple files of the same game exist.

2. Make sure that it and vcf.h is inside a scratch directory and that you have made a PATH variable over to wherever you installed the DASM executable.

C:\ATARI>_ 

3. A Full example of the command you should then run to compile your code:

DASM GAME.ASM -f3 -oGAME.BIN

4. Once you have made the binary and the compiler throws no errors, make your binary file into a PCM WAV file:

MWDOS -ts GAME.BIN GAME.WAV

5. Make sure the Supercharger is inserted into the ATARI, and the Audio cable is attached to the Speaker Out of the Soundcard. Have the TV on (Ours is set to analog Channel 2), then use the XTX-PLAY program to play your WAV file to the cartridge.

XTC-PLAY GAME.WAV

6. Your code should then load into the Supercharger, and you will get audio and visual feedback of it loading, and then it should run. If the "Rewind Tape" message comes back up, then there was an error.

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