As someone who actually did 2600 programming in the 6507 machine code it's really cool to see someone has developed an actual programming language for the machine.

Fantastic, the years go by (10 years ago), and as a php programmer I was always curious to know how it was made, this video will be legendary for many decades or more!

2:26 Wow, I never knew that the Atari 2600 in Europe had less color than ours

My dream has come true... I can now make a Mortal Kombat game for Atari 2600.

Thank you for this guide, I'm a complete noob to programing and this is working great on my test game.

Cute game! BASIC was my first computer language. This one is different, but at least the atari is programmable in a high-level language. I did Z-80 and 8080 assembly languages, so I'm sure I could do the 6502 assembly, but the BASIC looks very capable of doing the job. Nice tutorial!

This was really helpful, as I have absolutely no coding experience whatsoever, even BASIC, so thank you sir.

I used to program in z-80 and 8080 assembly, also APL and BASIC. I knew about the 6502, but didn't own one, but my friends had some Kim 1 and Apple computers so I've been exposed to the assembly on that. This is super interesting. The only thing I would recommend for future videos is to have no background music while you talk. just maybe for the intro and outro. Im autistic, and background music sounds like foreground music to me. I can't concentrate on what you are saying. Keep up the good work. I gave you a thumbs-up. All good wishes!

This is excellent. I wanted wanted a video with more assemply, but this method is great. Awesome stuff, thanks for video.

I just bought the Atari 2600+. I'm excited to be able to play the older games but also I wanna see more people making games for legacy hardware. I understand too many people making bland shovelware games is what killed the Atari but maybe things will be different this time now that we have a talented modding community.

Super explanation, this is so easy to follow. Thanks for uploading.

what a retro throwback

for the first tutorial i did about making games, i did use game maker. this is actually my 3rd game making tutorial. also, you can port it to atari cartridges...there's a link on my forum for how to do that.

This is kinda cool, I didn't know there was a program to make atari homebrew games, thanks for the upload, I think I am going to check more of these kind of videos out, thanks for the upload

Wonderful, enjoying this so much! Thanks and happy gaming

Excellent tutorial, took a while to figure it out but it works great!

I couldn't compile my projects for a while, but i needed the "Add bB Environment Variable" and "Add Bb Compiler to system path" checkboxes checked, and then i go it working fine! I like it a lot!

Dude ur the best loving your channel keep it up ☺

I'm wondering, are you limited to the amount of RAM that the 2600 actually had when playing via the emulator? Could you write a game on a higher scale than what the standard cartridges held back in the day?

Incredible...this is a great start.

Those "if" statements, they made my brain set it's self on fire! LoL

Wow this is so awesome! Thank you so much! I can now make Atari 2600 games

Thank you Tinkernut. This video was awesome and I made a Duke Nukem Atari game. I liked this video and thank you for teaching me.

This is very generic and does not really teach how to create a game, but rather how to use that IDE you're using with an example program. There is a lot of stuff going on inside the hardware of a 2600 that needs to be understood in order to properly make games for a 2600. This video makes it look easier than it is. First of all, if you run into a problem, you need to debug your game. In order to debug it, you need to use the Debugger included with Stella. This debugger not only shows the whole memory map, but also the status of every register of the emulated 6507, as well as the flags, and the program being executed. And by the way, this information is not in basic. Then comes all the features of the Atari 2600. The video says "you can only have two sprites in the Atari". Which is partially correct. There are different kinds of sprites. Bitmapped sprites, which is the two mentioned (mostly meant for player one and player two, as the IDE suggests). Then two "one-pixel" "missile" sprites (for projectiles for both player one and two), and the 40 pixel playfield. Some games like Pacman go around these restrictions by placing the second bitmapped sprite into the position of each ghost, per "frame". You can notice the flickering this causes. Other games like frogger, has what looks like different sprites, such as trucks, cars, the trunks, etc. Some games do this through "multiplexing" sprites (drawing parts of different sprites in each sprite, then mixing them), or by drawing "software sprites" (The pacman trick, or using a ball to create a line that looks like a rope, etc). Another thing to point out is that everything you need to create an atari game, is a 6507 assembler. For example, DASM, which comes included with the program. Of course, for that, you need to know not only the instruction set, but the hardware, memory mapping, how an old CRT TV works, how colors work in a specific TV, interlacing, etc. It's more tedious, but you also gain full control on how your program works. If you are not interested in learning all this stuff because it's too complex for you, DON'T BOTHER. It's not going to be rewarding for someone who only want to create a game. Instead, try making regular games for Windows with a regular WYSIWYG IDE such as Game Maker, or Unity. With those you don't need nearly any advanced programming skills, or hardware knowledge, sine everything is managed for your convenience. I'm not criticising the video, which is good as a starting point. I'm just pointing this out for all these people who is having troubles during the process, or understanding how it works.

Excellent tutorial bro!

Very informative and helpful! Thanks!

This is great, will try this out when I get time

let's make E.T. Remake!!!!!

Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the 2600 and the 2600's Television Interface Adapter (TIA), with the external links being especially good at explaining the low-level technical details of the 2600, and some about the original dev environment used back in the 70's and 80's.

Word of warning, this does NOT work in Windows 10. Just to save someone the time.

Great intro video!

@chancescheatz ah, i see what you mean. thanks for the clarification! when i code projects for myself, i use those standards (as well as commenting), but when i'm teaching others, i find it makes more sense when you do it the long way.

@OuterSpaceRave did you install stella before installing visual bb?

Thanks TinkerNut. You're the man!

Awesome! Thanks. I’m an old Atari MIDI user and programmer. But I never pgm’d games.

Only thing left is to find empty ROM cartridges to write on so I can actually plug it into my physical atari

Make sure you have "Add Bb to Environment Variable" & "Add Bb Compiler to system path" checked under settings. If you are getting compile errors, make sure you add a space to the start of the line where the error happened (check messages tab) - it's pretty fussy with the way it handles indents.

The download is broken, program is outdated, find another program, such as Atari Dev Studio (ADS)

Tinkernut, Great tutorial! Learned a lot about Batari Basic, and it inspired me to start working on a game called Galactic Recon which is basically a combination between Berzerk, Asteroids, and Combat. I even got a title screen going, I don't know how though, I did that like three years ago and forgot how I did it! I was wondering how you can make a missile shoot downward? Is this even possible? I know I could do this using sprites, but that seems like a lot of tedious coding for something so simple. I'm not trying to learn 6502 assembly! Thanks!

I got it working, and the code here is great. Will post response later.

thanks gigafide, i really like creating games! but i dont know lots of coding.... love your tutorials, its was a good idea to subscribe to you :D

The good ol' days of Tinkernut.

You have to download some special files in order to get it work right depending on what system you're running it on. Took me a while but found all the right files required to run it.

14 years ago this vid was made?!?! holy f! pro quality video for that early yt era

Thank you so much! This is awesome

@OuterSpaceRave yeah, you did right. youtube isn't really the best way to help you out. go to my forum and post this question and a screenshot (if you can) and i'll help you out.

everytime i try to compile it anytime after setting the sprites on the coding page it comes up with an error and says syntax error. click play a popup comes up saying missing binary. message says could not locate default.bas.bin and could not recompile. please check to make sure it was compiled correctly. everything works perfectly fine before that, and it saves with no problem before and after that too.

Very professional looking!

great tutorial thanks mate

When I enter the coordinates for sprites, say for example *player0x=20:player0y:20* and hit enter, then save and compile, I get a syntax error in the line where the coordinates are.

i did all the instructions and got this error message: improve dasm reporting "precompilation failed"

never thought this was such a easy to learn code

btw, you will be making games using original atari 2600 sounds, original atari 2600 colors, and original atari 2600 resolutions. It's all in the download page. You will be downloading the sound pack and the game making engine (or example)

Can this be renamed to ‘How To Make An Atari Game Using BASIC’? I was expecting an Assembly tutorial. Btw: I’m always impressed how complicated simple INCs and DECs are in BASIC (7:40).

Thanks I always wanted to make a atari game!

I've always been into retro gaming myself for that same purpose. But, I still do play some more modern games, such as Oblivion. When I want something that doesn't pay much mind to graphics, I either flip on the NES or find a good indie game. There are some great ones out there that don't use very high graphics at all, such as Super Meat Boy, and Fez. I would recommend checking both of those out, though Fez is only on XBLA. Granted, I do see some charm in 2600, but not much variation going on.

Is the 2 sprite rule the reason why there is so much flicker in those games between characters? Are they alternating between 4 different characters by only showing 2 at a time?

i have a problem the player1 is not really moving that much at all and is going off the screen when i shot it couple of times

wow this a really cool vid there really isnt other vids as helpful thanks and i will subscribe

At the player0x=50:playerxy= etc. etc. line I get a syntax error. I heard that indenting helps but it hasn't done anything!! HELP

I have tried to add the compiler path to the environment proporties and adding the compiler to the setting where it stands bB Compiler. However, this is the only thing I get when I compile:

Hello, I want you to help me in trouble, I keep all your steps but when you open the .PLA "name" tells me that it can not open, if I open the note pad, and when I want to run I get error.

I seem to have associated Visual BB with Batari basic and the stella emulator (an important step not mentioned in the video) but when I double clicked on the play field, it said it couldn't open it and offered to open it in notepad.

Gotta love how the Atari has like 10x more colors than the NES.

today, atari games are old and simple. back in their day, they were new and complex. todays advanced games have the benefit of being leagues simpler to program, despite having tons of code in them. yesterday's programmers were the ones who were burdened with the task of solving many difficult algorithms which paved the way for programmers today.

it is possible because some people made a Halo game for the atari 2600 and put it on cartridges and gave some out at an event. The game is Halo 2600 if you want to look it up.

@Donflorgon just watch the tutorial i did on Game Maker and that should answer your questions.

You deserve 10 stars!

awesome video thumbs up

The included playfield/character does not appear to me. It asks me if I want to open it in Notepad. I click YES, it opens it on Notepad. I click NO, it does nothing. I´m using Stella version 4.7.2 and BatariBasic version 1.0 Also, when I am just clicking de Compile button it says me that the folder I got BatariBasic does not exist. I looked and it does exist. Help.

Whenever i try to compile, it says that System path does not include C:\Atari2600\bB, when its there and i had it set up exactly like you. Can you, or anyone, help me?

Man, after watching this I can't even fathom how complicated it must be making games for nowaday's standards.

Another great vid. @gigafide is the anyway to do the same on Game Maker? & how much would the code change?

@CsDy1395 Awesome tutorial I JUST started trying to learn how to program vintage systems (Atari, Commodore, etc). I have so many questions & this cleared some of them up. BTW, do you know how to use VbB & make/program Atari games? I'd like to ask somebody who knows how, a few questions. Like, can you program "platform" games with VbB? Or, take a game like Donkey Kong. How do the barrels know "where" to go? Does it have to do with "if/then" statements? How can you "climb" ladders/stuff?

Could you do one of those on SEGA Master System programming? Most games used assembly but a few (certainly the Tec Toy ones) used Basic. I would love to see a video like this about it :)

Hi. do,know if it is possible to use the joystick controller, and paddle controller at the same time, in a game? I have an idea for a home brew game, where you would use the mouse to aim, and the joystick, to of course move around the playfeild...

i am following this tutorial to the letter, and yet there's errors and al sorts coming up, and i'm starting to feel stupid :( i can't even get past looking at my playing field, the compiler just wont and i dont know what to do :(

i am having trouble at the missile part and yet everytrhing is typed perfectly but yet theres always something thats wrong but i dont see it

someone know how i can put more colors in the code COLUPF? or well...in the playefield colors? i want to add shaders in the background but i don't know how i can

can you help i installed and it tells me there is a path missing when i go to compile, i am making gta 2600 i need help please, the alt batch file, dictionary and commands are blank in the settings and i do not know what path to put it in

You sir, are a God.

A problem I've encountered is I have not seen any way to make the atari 2600 make more than 2(edit:SPRITES) appear... at least in tutorials. Can someone help?

If you want to make a video game arcade, atari, nes, snes, etc. Use Game maker to make the game that you fancy (if 3D is going to be tricky)

This is awesome! I'm gonna make an Atari game!

@TheJeli125 Well, I think this is more of a tutorial of what CAN be done with VbB. You'd need to know more about Batari Basic coding & stuff. I want to try....On some websites, I found the code to actual real games. I want to see if I can copy/paste it to VbB, then compile & then play them that way. If so, you can then examine the code, maybe tweak it. You can also see how it all works. Anyway, glad to see you go it working.

Successfuly compiles but when I click run a popup displays the message "Could not locate default.bas.bin and could not recompile. Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly." Can anyone help?

@TheGooseproductions i had the same problem..u gotta go to the settings tab and set the first folder to your atari emulator "Stella" and then u gotta select your second folder as atari2600 something like that which should be under your C:// then you HAVE to check 2 boxes called "Add bB Enviornment Variable" and "Add bB Compiler to system path"

When I do the sprite positioning, compiling always brings a random error placed at the end of player1y=20

@gigafide i think he means like how you can program things in slightly different ways to get the same thing, like how in gml instead of something unnecessary like: variable=variable+1 you could just use variable+=1 im not sure if that is exactly what he meant, but i think he meant something like that

My .SPR and .PLA editors aren't working, but i coded them both out manually, and if you want to change the color of a sprite, type "COLUP" then the number of the sprite, like player 0 is "COLUP0" and player 1 is "COLUP1" and so on, then you set it equal to a color value the same way you did for the playfield color. Example: "COLUP1 = $DA" would set Player 1's color to green.

A Wizard of Wor alike one with dozens of mazes would be veeery fancy

as a past DCL/DOS Dev - this vid is great on its own, for a start off point, or for bigger idea's.

HELP!!!!! I keep getting errors when I try to compile/recompile a code? even if I never change anything? I have windows 7. Sometimes I get "system path does not include" or sed.exe not founde. I dont get what im missing? I have visual batari, batari basic, the sound library, why cant i compile and play game? I can play if I dont try to compile, and sometimes it deletes the bas.bin?

when i try to run a game proggram says: cloud not locate defult.bas.bin and not recompile. Please check to make sureit was correctly. What i should do??((((

Amazing.

@TheJeli125 Hello. Do you know what I keep getting the error ""Could not locate default.bas and could not recompile. Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly"? It's annoying the hell out of me. I tried copy/pasting default.bas to every folder in VbB.

thank you, very good.

Is it possible to put this onto a flash cartridge and play on the actual atari console?

when i drag the sprites over they come as C:\Users\User\Desktop\gamessss\Game 1\Villan playerXXX: %00111100 %01111110 %11000011 %11000011 %01000010 %01000010 %01011010 %00111100 end what do i do? i cant complie even after fixing it up

Got any help for when the playfield just opens in notepad? Can't seem to edit it.