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Fun projects for your Atari 8-bit home computers and video game consoles

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Tag: Atari BASIC

Learn to Pass Parameters to Procedures in FastBasic (15-30 mins)

July 25, 2021 moorejh Programming

Task: Learn to Pass Parameters to Procedures in FastBasic Needed: Web Browser, Altirra Emulator Time: 15-30 mins Introduction I have previously posted and introduction to a modern BASIC for Atari 8-bit computers called FastBasic. One of the nice features of FastBasic is the ability to

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Learn to Implement Horizontal Scrolling in BASIC on Atari 8-Bit Computers (30-60 mins)

March 27, 2021 moorejh Graphics, Programming

Task: Learn to Implement Horizontal Scrolling in BASIC on Atari 8-Bit Computers Needed: Web browser Time: 30-60 mins Introduction Scrolling games like Defender, Caverns of Mars, and Eastern Front are tons of fun and I always wondered how the cool scrolling effects were programmed. This

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Try Programming in FastBasic on an Atari 8-Bit Computer (15-30 mins)

February 13, 2021 moorejh Programming

Task: Try Programming in FastBasic on an Atari 8-Bit Computer Needed: Altirra emulator Time: 15-30 mins Introduction I have previously posted about the diversity of different BASIC programming languages for the Atari 8-bit computers. Among these is FastBasic which is a modern BASIC for the

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Explore Error Codes for Atari 8-Bit Computers (10-15 mins)

January 9, 2021 moorejh Programming, Web Resources

Task: Explore Atari Error Codes Needed: Web browser Time: 10-15 mins Introduction If you have spent any time programming for the Atari 8-bit computers then you have experienced error codes generated from typos or bad code. There is a nice page on the Atari Wiki

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Explore Bugs in Atari BASIC (15-30 mins)

December 13, 2020 moorejh Programming

Task: Explore Bugs in Atari BASIC Needed: Revision A of Atari BASIC Time: 15-30 mins Introduction The first version of Atari BASIC (revision A) for the Atari 400 and 800 computers had a number of bugs which could be quite annoying for serious programmers. I

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Explore BASIC Programming Languages for the Atari 8-Bit Computers (30-60 mins)

August 29, 2020 moorejh Programming

Task: Explore BASIC Programming Languages for the Atari 8-Bit Computers Needed: Web browser Time: 30-60 minutes Introduction Nearly all of us who grew up with Atari 8-bit home computers learned to program in BASIC. This was especially true in the early days given software was

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Learn About Checksum Programs for Checking Type-In Programs (15-30 mins)

July 25, 2020 moorejh Games, Magazines, Programming

Task: Learn About Checksum Programs for Checking Type-In Programs Needed: Web browser, Altirra Time: 15-30 mins Introduction It was common in the early 1980s to get software by typing in program listings from magazines like Antic or Compute!. This was partly because new Atari home

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Tips for Speeding up Atari BASIC Programs (15-30 mins)

July 1, 2020 moorejh Programming

Task: Tips for Speeding up Atari BASIC Programs Needed: BASIC Time: 15-30 mins Introduction Atari BASIC is notoriously slow which is why many game developers worked with assembly language to do anything serious. However, if you want to develop in BASIC there are a number

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Explore Atari XL BASIC Listings (15-30 mins)

May 17, 2020 moorejh Games, Software, Web Resources

Task: Explore Atari XL BASIC Listings Needed: A web browser Time: 15-30 mins Introduction I recall several friends remembering when they got their first Atari 8-bit computer. They brought it home, took it out of the box, and quickly discovered they had no software to

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Use Strings to Store Assembly Language Code in Memory for Execution from BASIC (10-15 mins)

January 4, 2020 moorejh Programming

Task: Use Strings to Store Assembly Language Code in Memory for Execution from BASIC Needed: A BASIC cartridge or Altirra emulator Time: 10-15 minutes Introduction I previously demonstrated how to POKE assembly language code into page 6 of memory for execution by BASIC using the

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Explore the Antic Software Archive (30-60 mins)

November 29, 2019 moorejh Games, Magazines, Programming, Software, Web Resources

Task: Explore the Antic Software Archive Needed: Web browser Time: 30-60 minutes Introduction As I mentioned in my last post about Antic Magazine, one of the great features of Antic was the software that came in each and every issue. Most of these were software

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Read the Book “Atari BASIC” (1-2 hours)

July 21, 2019 moorejh Books, Programming

Task: Read the Book “Atari BASIC” Needed: Atari Basic by Albrecht et al. (1979) Time: 1-2 Hours Introduction My first two books were Your Atari Computer and Atari BASIC. They are still a great way to get familiar with the Atari 400 and 800 if

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