RE: [stella] behold, i am become shiva, destroyer of kernals!

Subject: RE: [stella] behold, i am become shiva, destroyer of kernals!
From: stella@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 02:21:54 -0600
Been lurking for about 73 messages and have to say this list is the best!
Kirk, it'd be nice to have a one-stop shop for all of my Stella development
needs.  Honestly though, it's been a blast sifting through the materials
scattered around the net, including your 2600 101 which got the ball rolling
for me.  I've been spending way too much time over the past week playing
with code and have learned so much about 2600 architecture and 6502
assembly.

Prior to this fling with Stella, I was doing quite a bit of Apple II
"programming."  Mainly in Applesoft, but with some assembly.  Problem is,
when I was a kid I wanted to learn assembly, but just didn't have the
resources.  So trying my hand at it on the Apple today was tedious and only
mildly rewarding due in part to the complexity of the machine (specifically,
the peculiar mapping of graphics memory to the screen).  The Atari 2600, on
the other hand, is a different story.  It offers unique challenges in a very
finite amount of space (and time).  As I've learned the ins and outs of the
TIA, I've been sharing that information with co-workers and friends (mainly
programmer types), who have to laugh as I tell them there is no video memory
and only two 8-bit sprite registers.  How times have changed!

Anyway, just really wanted to say hi to everyone.  Sorry I haven't helped
solve your problem, Kirk.  I don't have a real Atari 2600 yet, but I did try
to (unsuccessfully) assemble your game code.  Probably using the wrong
header.

Happy coding...
-Lee

PS: Man, I love your Joust Pong title screen.  All the other ones seem to
only take up the center 32 pixels or so.  The gameplay took some getting
used to, but once I figured it out, it's a pretty good match between the CPU
and player.  Constructive criticism: Could the Y delta on your winged-paddle
be set to zero when it hits the top of the screen instead of reflecting?  I
think that'd make hitting the ball near the top of the screen easier.  Right
now, I find myself resting at the bottom, waiting to flap once or twice to
hit the ball, fearful of smacking the top of the screen. :)

PPS: Other than that, great job!

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-stella@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-stella@xxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of KirkIsrael@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 10:51 AM
To: stella@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [stella] behold, i am become shiva, destroyer of kernals!


> Hi there!
>
> > At any rate, shouldn't it be:
>
>     CLEAN_START
>

Yeah, you're probably right. I'm not sure if there was the Macro
standardization when I started out, relatively a long while back.

Sometimes I can't believe I want to write "2600 102"...those
those who can, do, those who can't (at least not well), teach :-)

I used to think of as the old "Dig" as the canonical place for
stuff like VCS.H and the macros file.  The current Dig, while
cool, doesn't have much "hand posted" like that.  Does anyone
want to to suggest "the" canonical location for stuff, based on
consensus of Stella?

I guess what I'm thinking could be thought of as a homepage
for Stella.  Perhaps it could be a new page at the new Dig,
since Glenn seems to be a good and reliable webpage keeper,
and since it is related to the Dig's task of Stella excavation,
or maybe it could be a specific page hosted on Atari Age or
something.

It would be a list of tools (w/ local mirrors of everything!),
links to files we'd like to standardize on, the usual tutorials,
canonical documents (like the HTML version of the Stella guide...
though I think there's one or two mnemonics that don't jive with
the official VCS.H), links to the various existing programming
sites (preferably this list will be checked for dead links every
once in a while) etc.

Just some thoughts.

When I edit 2600 101, I will update to suggest people use those macros,
but encourage them to inspect them so they see what they're doing.

Thanks,
Kirk

--
KirkIsrael@xxxxxxxxxxxxx    http://kisrael.com
"If I knew who Godot was, I would have said so in the play" --Beckett


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