>> Bwahahaha. Now that would be neat to write! It's definately the
>> ultimate insanity. Hmm. I can imagine the pain of a joystick driven
>> command prompt, though. Heh, it would be neat to try and write games
>> for the emulated machine, so you'd have a game console within a game
>> console. ;-)
>
>Since there are only 20 op codes, I think the keypads would be the ideal
>input devices...
Of course, my curiosity was always piqued as to how the Atari 2600 read
the Star Raiders keypad. I hooked it up to the C= 64 hoping to use it as
a numeric keypad (with the appropriate ML hooks), but could never figure
out how it read keypresses from the third column. From my foggy memory,
it was read similar to the paddle inputs.
The first thing I though of when I read the original message was GPSS, a
language used long ago (and still today!) to model queueing simulations
(primarily). The point being, the inventor had envisioned block
programming ("object-oriented"ish) with just a few opcodes. GPSS would
be beyond the capabilites of the 2600, however.
Wasn't there an Apple ][ program that would simulate the operation of the
6502 in some kind of block mode? Having the 2600 step through and show
the opcodes would be a nifty trick, but again, beyond the capabilities.
I got as far as drawing the screen layouts for a glorified screen saver
for the 2600, loosely based on Cracker's clock code. It wouldn't be a
game at all, just something to keep the console occupied in a nifty way.
The Super Game Boy borders is a good idea of the kind of stuff I'd like
for it to do.
(ob. 'Who we are' stuff)
BTW, I am (was?) in lurk mode on this mailing list; most of my current
time is spent doing PC programming and finishing a Master's Degree in CS.
I've done my share of C=, Apple, and Mac programming as well, mostly
personal stuff. I hoped programming the Atari 2600 would be easy since
it was loosely basedon the 65xx architecture; reading this list has given
me hope of writing an Atari 2600 game sometime in the near future. :>
~
--
Stella list is Administered by krishna@xxxxxxxxxxxx <Glenn Saunders>
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/stella.html
+-shameless plugs-------------------------------------------------------+
| Stella documentary at http://www.primenet.com/~krishna |
| Nick's VCS links via http://www.primenet.com/~nickb/atariprg.htm |
| Write the best game, win framed autographs of famous Atari alumni!! |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
