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Tag: BASIC

Explore Mandelbrot Set Fractals on an Atari 8-Bit Computer (10-15 mins)

January 8, 2022 moorejh Graphics, Software

Task: Explore Mandelbrot Set Fractals on an Atari 8-Bit Computer Needed: Web Browser, Emulator Time: 10-15 mins Introduction I have been a fan of fractals since I discovered them in college. I even wrote some software for exploring the fractal features of DNA sequences when

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Play Gold Rush! from Compute! Magazine on an Atari 8-Bit Computer (10-15 mins)

November 26, 2021 moorejh Games, Magazines, Software

Task: Play Gold Rush from Compute! Magazine on an Atari 8-Bit Computer Needed: Web Browser, Emulator, and/or Floppy Disk Time: 10-15 mins Introduction It was common in the early 1980s to get software by typing in program listings from magazines like Antic or Compute!. This

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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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Learn about Vertical Blank Interrupts in BASIC for Atari 8-Bit Computers (30-60 mins)

March 19, 2021 moorejh Programming

Task: Learn about Vertical Blank Interrupts in BASIC for Atari 8-Bit Computers Needed: Altirra emulator Time: 30-60 mins Introduction One of the frustrating aspects of programming in BASIC on Atari 8-bit computers is its speed. This particularly true for moving players through memory as part

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

February 28, 2021 moorejh Programming

Task: Learn to Implement Vertical Scrolling in BASIC on Atari 8-Bit Computers Needed: Turbo BASIC XL Time: 30-60 mins Introduction I never learned how to program scrolling playfields in BASIC back in the day, but have decided to take the plunge. Over the last few

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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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Read Assembly Language from Floppy Disk for Execution in BASIC (15-30 mins)

December 5, 2020 moorejh Programming

Task: Read Assembly Language from Floppy Disk for Execution in BASIC Needed: Altirra emulator or Atari 8-bit computer, BASIC Time: 15-30 mins Introduction I have previously written posts about calling assembly language commands from BASIC. The general idea is to convert assembly language mnemonics (e.g.

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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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Calculate Digits of Pi in Atari BASIC (10-15 mins)

June 28, 2020 moorejh Programming

Task: Calculate Digits of Pi in Atari BASIC Needed: BASIC Time: 10-15 mins Introduction The number pi (~ 3.14159265359) is a constant defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It has fascinated mathematicians for ages given the pattern of decimal values

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Explore Chatbots on the Atari 8-bit Computer (15-30 mins)

June 27, 2020 moorejh Software

Task: Explore Chatbots on the Atari 8-bit Computer Needed: Altirra emulator or original hardware with disk drive Time: 15-30 mins Introduction Chatbots have grown in popularity as natural language processing (NLP) has improved. An example is the Woebot developed by psychologists to assist people who

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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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Interact with Atari’s 6502 Processor in BASIC XL (10-15 mins)

March 14, 2020 moorejh Demos, Hardware, Programming, Software, Utilities

Task: Interact with Atari’s 6502 Processor in BASIC XL Needed: A BASIC XL cartridge or Altirra emulator Time: 10-15 minutes Introduction The 6502 processor developed by Chuck Peddle and his team at MOS Technology was the first inexpensive CPU available in the 1970s. This CPU

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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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Call Assembly Language Code from Your BASIC Program (10-15 mins)

January 1, 2020 moorejh Programming

Task: Call Assembly Language Code from Your BASIC Program Needed: A BASIC cartridge or Altirra emulator Time: 10-15 minutes Introduction In my previous post on writing, compiling, saving, debugging, and running assembly language programs with the MAC/65 assembler, I referred the reader to Chapter 5

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Try BASIC Programming on the Atari 2600 (15-30 mins)

December 24, 2019 moorejh Programming, Software

Task: Try BASIC Programming on the Atari 2600 Needed: BASIC Programming cartridge, keyboard controllers, Atari 2600 Time: 15-30 minutes Introduction Programming in BASIC on the Atari 2600 is one of the most interesting things I have done with that machine. The BASIC Programming cartridge was

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Learn How to Make a Game in BASIC XE (30-60 mins)

December 21, 2019 moorejh Games, Graphics, Programming, Software

Task: Learn How to Make a Game in BASIC XE Needed: BASIC XE and extensions Time: 30-60 minutes Introduction My previous posts have demonstrated many of the programming techniques needed to make a game in Atari BASIC. A common theme is how slow BASIC is

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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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Add Missiles to Player-Missile Graphics in BASIC (30-60 mins)

November 23, 2019 moorejh Programming, Software

Task: Add Missiles to Player-Missile Graphics in BASIC Needed: BASIC Time: 30-60 minutes Introduction I have previously demonstrated how to implement player-missile graphics (PMG) in BASIC, and how to combine a player with a background or playfield using redefined character sets. The latter post includes

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Combining Redefined Characters Sets and Player-Missile Graphics in BASIC (30-60 mins)

November 10, 2019 moorejh Games, Graphics, Programming, Software

Task: Combining Redefined Characters Sets and Player-Missile Graphics in BASIC Needed: BASIC Time: 30-60 minutes Introduction It takes time to learn the ins and outs of Atari graphics. This is especially true if you aspire to make a game. I have previously demonstrated how to

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