Atari 8 Bit Machines

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here has done any programming with the Atari 8 Bit machines.

If so, is the process for creating a cart the same as it is for the NES?

Thanks,
T

By "creating a cart" are you referring to the cartridge hardware itself as in ROM chips and bank-switching logic or just the process of writing a game for the system? I'd say the difference in hardware (not that I've actually built any cartridges for either system) is that unlike NES games the Atari games rarely, if ever, put any extra display hardware onto their cartridges (raster IRQs, CHR-ROM bank-switching and so forth).

Are you talking about the 2600 or the later computers and consoles?
They 2600 is in a world of its own since the CPU itself is responsible for half the work in creating the display, something which must be done with timed code in highly optimized so called "kernels". Nothing impossible of course but I'd stay away from the machine unless you want the focus to be on handling the hardware rather than writing a game.

The the home computers are virtually identical to the later consoles, except with a bit more memory, keyboards and disk drives and the like. Your best bet is probably to write a normal executable for one of computers which you may then eventually port to a cartridge for the consoles. Then you get access to all sorts nice development tools like native and cross assemblers, hardware for linking up with a PC, freezer cartridges and so forth.

I suppose you could even play with the Lynx which is Atari's most powerful 8-bit system by far, I remember even playing with a C cross-compiler for that machine.