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 Programming Resources | Programming Tips and Tricks | Atari 2600 Programming Site Links
 
 
 
 Programming Resources
 
Below are many useful resources for programming the Atari 2600, created and shared by homebrew authors.  Links to the original location of the resource are provided when available.
 
 Stella Programmer's Guide    Atari 2600 Schematics    Color Tables    PlayerPal / PlayerPal2    Playfield Pal  

 

 

 

 

 
                   
 Document  

Description

 Link
2600 Programming   Transcription of Andrew Davie's Programming for Newbies Link
Programming 101   Kirk Israel's excellent 2600 programming tutorial Link
Stella Prog. Guide   Stella Programmer's Guide Link
Music Guide   Paul Slocum's Music Programming Guide Link
Atari2600 Schematics   Atari 2600 Schematic Diagrams Link
6502 Illegal Opcodes   6502 Undocumented (Illegal) Opcodes Link
2600 Sound Chart   2600 Precise Sound Values and Distortion Breakdown Link
2600 Memory Map   Atari 2600 Memory Map (by Kroko) Link
2600 RIOT Map   Atari 2600 RIOT Map (by Kroko) Link
2600 TIA Map   Atari 2600 TIA Map (by Kroko) Link
Bankswitching   Kevin Horton's document on bankswitching. Link
FrequencyGuide   Frequency/Waveform Sound Tech guide from Eckhard Link
TIA Color Chart   Glenn Saunder's HTML TIA Color Chart Link
Cycle Counting   Nick Bensema's Guide to Cycle Counting Link
Cartridge Sizes   Info on Cartridge Bankswitching by Kevin Horton Link
1Step Assembly   Assembly in One Step Link
Disassembling 8K   How to disassemble 8K games with Distella Link | Link | Link
Tia Hardware Notes   TIA HW Notes by Andrew Towers (.Doc format by djmips) Link
Kirk Israel's PlayfieldPal   A Tool for generating playfield graphics for the Atari VCS Link
Kirk Israel's PlayerPal   A Tool for generating player graphics for the Atari VCS Link
Kirk Israel's PlayerPal 2   A revised tool for generating player graphics for the Atari VCS Link

 

  
 
     
 
 Programming Tips and Tricks
 
Below is a collection of Atari 2600 programming tips and tricks pulled from the Stella Archives.
 
 Tricks  

Description

 Link
Reading Paddles   A quick way to read a paddle in your kernel (Thomas) Link
Reading Driving Cntrls   More super efficient controller reading code from Thomas. Link
48 Pixel Sprite   Big sprite you can move on-screen with the joystick. Link
Horizontal Reposition   Efficient routine for repositioning objects in Battlezone. Link | Link
Pitfall 2 Sound   Sound code like Pitfall2 but with no special hardware. Link
HMOVE Timing   Shows what HMOVE does when executed at odd times. Link
Scrolling Text   Eckhard's efficient scrolling text demo. Link
No Flicker 13Chr Text   13 Character text routine, displays 15 lines. Link
No Flicker 13Chr +2   13 Character text routine, displays 15 lines + 2 on side Link
VDEL Explained   Explains how VDEL works & how it was meant to be used Link
SkipDraw Explained   Explanation of Thomas's Skipdraw kernal sprite routine. Link
MultiSprite Trick   Multi sprite trick explained Link
Score 3x2   Inverted Graphics/3 Color Score (Thomas) Link
Fractional Positioning   Moving objects fractions of pixels w/16bit pos. variables. Link

 

  
 
     
 
 Atari 2600 Programming Site Links
 
Below is a list of links to useful sites related to Atari 2600 Programming.
 
 Link  

Description

  
AtariAge   AtariAge 2600 Programming Information Page  
AlienBill.Com/2600   Kirk Israel's 2600 Website.  
2600 Cookbook   Kirk Israel's collection of useful tidbits from the Stella Archives  
2600 101   Kirk Israel's Beginner's Programming Guide  
2600 Workshop   Eckhard Stolberg's VCS Workshop  
DanB   Dan Boris' Website  
Mini-Dig   Paul Slocum's Atari archive  
Stella   Stella Mailing List  
AtariArchives.Org   Large collection of digitized classic computing books  
6502.org   Definitive source of information for the 6502 series of processors  
Bensema   Nick Bensema's Atari 2600 Programming Page  
Programmers Links   AtariAge Thread with that is consistently updated with programmers links