The 2600 actually did have a BASIC interpreter cartridge available. It was both an incredible engineering feat (interpreter and IDE in 4K ROM and 64 bytes of RAM) and completely useless (because your program only had the other 64 bytes of RAM).
64 bytes is quite a lot if you use it cleverly enough. Sure, it's not enough for media but it's plenty to implement control loops and algorithms... Unless your code had to share that 64 bytes too, I guess.
The 2600 didn't have BASIC. Not viable with only 128 bytes of RAM.
BASIC Programming, Model# CX2620. I have 5 or 6 of the carts (not sure off the top of my head, I never touch my 2600 stuff, only my 8-bit computer stuff. My daily driver is one of my 800xl's with s-video out and a Rambo 256k).
Atari Age is a great forum, not just for Atari machines either. There's still a lot of hardware and software development for Ataris. Also you might want to check out:
- ANTIC the Atari 8-bit podcast https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/ (part of the fun here is when those interviewed find out people still use the machines today!)
Both have a lot of interviews with people that worked on Atari hardware and software for ANTIC and all sorts of vintage machines on Floppy days. Randy Kindig, one of the hosts, leads the Indy Vintage Computer Club here in Indianapolis, hopefully are meeting this weekend doesn't get snowed out!
There's also gobs and gobs of stuff, contributed by one of the hosts for the podcasts above, to Archive.org
Comments
The 2600 didn't have BASIC. Not viable with only 128 bytes of RAM.
It was written in assembler: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/185693-halo-2600-source/
The 2600 actually did have a BASIC interpreter cartridge available. It was both an incredible engineering feat (interpreter and IDE in 4K ROM and 64 bytes of RAM) and completely useless (because your program only had the other 64 bytes of RAM).
64 bytes is quite a lot if you use it cleverly enough. Sure, it's not enough for media but it's plenty to implement control loops and algorithms... Unless your code had to share that 64 bytes too, I guess.
Fair enough, looks like viability (or being "totally useless") didn't stop people back then!
I had the cartridge. It was indeed useless.
BASIC Programming, Model# CX2620. I have 5 or 6 of the carts (not sure off the top of my head, I never touch my 2600 stuff, only my 8-bit computer stuff. My daily driver is one of my 800xl's with s-video out and a Rambo 256k).
I stand corrected.
I'm not familiar with the console anyway, but I remember it had a ridiculous amount or RAM, so I assumed BASIC was out of question.
Thanks, that sparkled my curiosity and turns out the source code is available!
Atari Age is a great forum, not just for Atari machines either. There's still a lot of hardware and software development for Ataris. Also you might want to check out:
- ANTIC the Atari 8-bit podcast https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/ (part of the fun here is when those interviewed find out people still use the machines today!)
- Floppy Days podcast https://floppydays.libsyn.com/
Both have a lot of interviews with people that worked on Atari hardware and software for ANTIC and all sorts of vintage machines on Floppy days. Randy Kindig, one of the hosts, leads the Indy Vintage Computer Club here in Indianapolis, hopefully are meeting this weekend doesn't get snowed out!
There's also gobs and gobs of stuff, contributed by one of the hosts for the podcasts above, to Archive.org