Atari
Memories
Atari Memories
Programming info, tools, history, and more.
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Page Table of Contents
If you always wanted to make your own Atari 2600 games, but Assembly Language was too hard to learn, your dreams are about to come true. Now you can finally make the games of your dreams with an easy-to-use BASIC-like language called batari Basic.
Most of the code from batari Basic example programs is right on the page for fast copying and pasting.
Learn about Visual batari Basic, the bB IDE. VbB has all kinds of useful tools that make creating games with batari Basic more fun and speeds up the process so you can get your game from idea to reality faster than ever before.
Offers unique features like one-click 360° sprite rotations, double view for wide sprites, rotoscoping, auto-extraction, and PNG project saving to streamline and enhance homebrew game creation.
Draw DPC+ and standard kernel Atari 2600 playfields.
Convert sprites from classic games to bB sprite data.
Quickly convert hex, decimal, binary and more with the programming equivalents tool. You can also play around with bits, use the simple calculator, and spellcheck your REMs.
Play real Atari 2600 sounds online and create data for your bB programs. (Turn your sound down!)
batari Basic Sound Effects Library
A bB version of RevEng's sound player by Karl G.
Make Atari 7800 games using BASIC.
Creating 7800basic Graphics With Gimp
Adapted from a post by Atarius Maximus.
Creating 7800basic Maps With the Tiled App
Adapted from a post by Atarius Maximus.
General Atari 2600 Programming
Includes an NTSC/PAL color conversion tool and Atari 2600 color compatibility tools that can help you quickly find colors that go great together (possibly saving you a lot of time and energy).
Use it like a toy or use it to find new sound effects for your games.
Atari 2600 Music and Sound Page
Adapted info and charts related to Atari 2600 music and sound. Includes and adapted version of the Atari 2600 VCS Sound Frequency And Waveform Guide by Eckhard Stolberg.
The official Atari 2600 Game Standards and Procedures document from 1987 with errors corrected.
Personal guidelines and player advocacy.
Can we increase the fun and reduce frustration, aggression, fear, and stress?
Atari's Promise Means it's Not Cheating
The Atari 2600 is a permanent part of a home entertainment center.
The Motivation and Creativity Page
For programmers who procrastinate, have writer's block, lost interest, or can't get started.
Based on aphorisms, proverbs, and common sense concepts.
Things I wish and don't wish to see in games.
Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies
Atari 2600 programming tutorial by Andrew Davie that was originally posted at AtariAge.
Session_01 Session_02 Session_03 Session_04 Session_05 Session_07 Session_08 Session_09 Session_10 Session_11 Session_12 Session_13 Session_14 Session_15 Session_16 Session_17 Session_19 Session_20 Session_21 Session_22 Session_23 Session_24 Session_25
Create a simple game in 14 steps with Darrell Spice, Jr. (SpiceWare). Originally posted at AtariAge.
Step_00 Step_01 Step_02 Step_03 Step_04 Step_05 Step_06 Step_07 Step_08 Step_09 Step_10 Step_11 Step_12 Step_13 Step_14
Assembly language programming lessons by Robert Mundschau that were originally posted at AtariAge.
Lesson_01 Lesson_02 Lesson_03 Lesson_04 Lesson_05 Lesson_06 Lesson_07
The easy way to deal with a few of the timing issues of the 6502 and TIA. By Nick Bensema.
Covers concepts of program flow on the Atari 2600, as well as an in-depth look at a simple display routine. By Nick Bensema.
Atari 2600 Video Game Release Dates
An incomplete list of Atari 2600 video game release dates by month in the USA.
1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1991
Activision Release Dates From the Archives
To What Degree Do You Love E.T.?
This is a 5 page subsection about E.T. with opinions, tips, videos, manual scan, and a map.
Manual Scan Map Tips E.T. Appreciation Page Cake
A list of my favorite games.
What is the Harmony Cartridge?
The Harmony Cartridge is a simple, affordable, time-saving, space-saving, hassle-free way to play hundreds of games on your Atari 2600 console.
I owned a Bandai Packri Monster handheld game around 1983 and stupidly sold it a couple of years later when I grew tired of it. I regretted getting rid of it for many years because it was my most important and only handheld game at the time. I no longer have to kick myself thanks to the Packri Monster Simulator (freeware). It's as close as you will ever get to the real thing without hunting down a used one. No emulator needed. Just download and play. Real images, real sounds, and close attention to every move and cut scene.
The first game I made for the Atari 2600.
Have you ever scanned in a page from an Atari-related magazine or game manual or an ad in a magazine or newspaper and had the other side of the page show through? To fix that ugly problem, slide a piece of black construction paper behind the page when you scan and it will usually make the ghost image disappear like magic. You don't have to cut anything or use tape. Just slide a piece of black construction paper behind the page you want to scan. It's nondestructive, very easy to do, and it should give you a nice clean scan.
Another thing some people get are ugly patterns throughout their images. That's pretty easy to fix too. Just use the built-in Descreen filter that comes with your scanner software. If you don't have that filter, scanning the image at a high resolution, then resizing the image to a smaller width and height with your favorite image editor should get rid of the pattern.
I use a Descreen filter and scan at a high resolution, then resize to make sure my scans look as perfect as possible.
Descreen to remove Moiré Interference
This section of my web site is an extension of a silly little Atari 2600 VCS club that I created for me and a couple people I knew back in 1982. That club was called The Fortress of infinitude. I made club membership cards, a few posters, and some T-shirts.
In 1983, The Fortress of infinitude was transformed into a future arcade idea for a school project. The slogan I made up for it was, Warning: Once You Enter, You May Never Want to Leave. The Fortress of infinitude was to be a sanctuary for older games with an infinite supply of new games adding to the list. I liked the idea of a fortress that protected the old games, but had new games coming in all the time. No game would ever be lost. This new F of i was a giant futuristic castle with walls that looked like old stone. The basement would look like a huge cave with realistic looking cave walls and would have indoor miniature golf and a mini-amusement park, including my favorite ride, the Tilt-A-Whirl. Since most people like the look and feel of original arcade and pinball games, The Fortress of infinitude would have many floors dedicated to the games of the late 1970s through the 1980s. It would probably have 2 years of games for each floor.
Not only would there be arcade games on the other floors, but there would be a library of home video games and computer games that people could select from an arcade-game-like control panel. Each player would have credit card sized memory cards that would remember all of their individual game playing information. For example, If you were in the middle of playing a game and you had to leave, the card would remember your place so you could continue playing another day.
If AtariAge isn't loading, click the link above and see if it's just you or if the site is down for everyone. If the server isn't responding, you can report it at Facebook or Twitter.
| Toggle Debug Colors | Alt + Period | |
| Toggle Player0 | Alt + z | |
| Toggle Player1 | Alt + x | |
| Toggle Missile0 | Alt + c | |
| Toggle Missile1 | Alt + v | |
| Toggle Ball | Alt + b | |
| Toggle Playfield | Alt + n |
If you use Save As before making any significant changes to your program and your latest version won't compile, don't worry. You can use WinMerge to compare the latest file that works with the one that doesn't. You can see the differences and quickly track down the problem.
The best Atari 2600 VCS emulator for testing your games.
Bandicam is the best screen/emulator recording software for making YouTube videos of your games that I have ever tried (I don't have a Mac and I don't use Linux). It really does seem to have less lag (as they claim on their main page). When I start recording video games in Stella with other programs, there is a noticeable, jarring slow down, but not with Bandicam. (When using Stella, remember to press Alt + P to enable the phosphor effect before recording.)
The program makes it very clear what you are going to record. There is no irritating flashing rectangle around the area you're recording and you can easily disable the FPS overlay (under the FPS Tab), so you can record a game you're playing without any irritating distractions.
Unlike some other programs, you won't have to spend time just trying to find the record button. There are no mysteries or weird, complicated problems. It just works.
Create animated GIFs directly from an emulator such as Stella. Using 33 FPS instead of 30 FPS seems to give a smoother result without increasing the file size by a huge amount. Program recommended by walaber. When using Stella, remember to press Alt + P to enable the phosphor effect before recording. You can also use a free online tool to resize your GIFs.
Produces authentic looking Atari 2600 Labels including the famous "Picture Label" using your own image and title. Related link: Atari Cart & Box Fonts
If you want to make arrows to point out things in a photo (like the arrows you might see in magazines and Atari game manuals), there are two freeware programs that I know of with that ability:
Makes the kind of arrows you might see in an Atari 2600 game manual. Select the Line Tool and click on the arrow checkbox.
Makes arrows with larger heads. These arrows have nubs that you can grab to deform them. Great for making curved arrows. Select the Line/Curve Tool and choose the type of arrow you want from the Style menu.
YouTube playlist of the real songs from the early 1980s. YT (HQ)
Alan: A Video Game Junkie from SNL
Famous video from Saturday Night Live.
Everything Atari.
"The most genuine and best documented Atari 2600 ROM collection in the world."
The most popular Atari 2600 emulator.
A very good emulator that can also be embedded on your own web site so people can play the games you make online. It's much better than JStella.
The place to go to find information about arcade games.
Feel the nostalgia.
Hunt for pics of your favorite classic handheld games.
Common terms specific to arcade games.
Look at those old pages you use to drool over.
Scans of almost every issue of the magazine.
Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser (#ad)
An eraser can be used to clean cartridge contacts too.
Disclaimer
View this page and any external web sites at your own risk. I am not responsible for any possible spiritual, emotional, physical, financial or any other damage to you, your friends, family, ancestors, or descendants in the past, present, or future, living or dead, in this dimension or any other.
If these pages help you make a video game, then you become rich and famous, I am not responsible if your fans try to rip you apart at a convention so they can own a piece of you. Become famous at your own risk.