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Published: 29 December 2016

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Silly Venture 2016 is over, and it was simply outstanding again. Here are some videos to show you what you missed, in case you haven't been there. And what you will remember in case you have been there :-)

• Video Invitation #1
• Video Invitation #2
• Preparations to Devil's Show with our pretty dancer
• HARD greetings! with Teli Sandor from HARD
• Silly Venture 2k16 Trip and Party Summary by Piotr Nowicki
• Live performance during Atari 8-bit Covox MSX Compo

And ultimately, my favorite video of the party: Justice Done! With this journalistic masterpiece, Grey finally proved that this post from Commodore was fake news.

And in reality, the auto repair shops have been working with a genuine Atari 65XE for the past 25 years. Of course, as you can see in this video report ;-)

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Published: 29 December 2016

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Steven Hugg has released something nice for Christmas: The book Making Games for the Atari 2600, which is available as a paperback via Amazon.

The book targets the absolute beginner and builds up the required knowledge step by step. It is very well written and structured, with plenty of illustrations. Starting with the basics of the 6502, assembly language, the VCS, and TV hardware, you gain more and more insight into coding for the Atari 2600. And because the best way to learn to code is not to read about it but to do it, the author also provided a very lovely WebIDE where you can play around with the source code in your browser and run it immediately in the browser-based emulator called JAVATARI.JS. The WebIDE is available for free at http://8bitworkshop.com.

I'm pleased to see this book and hope it attracts more people to coding for the Atari 2600 by lowering the barriers to getting started even further. And once you have become familiar with coding for the VCS, WUDSN IDE can manage more complex projects with multiple files, including graphics conversions, and leverage Stella and its excellent debugger. So I look forward to seeing your first Atari VCS project come alive!

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Published: 10 October 2016

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Thomas Schulz (8bitjunkie) explains the basics of game development for 8-bit home computers in 6502 assembly language. He describes it using modern tools like Raster Music Tracker, WUDSN IDE, and cool retro T-shirts with source code prints. The video is in German and was recorded at the Vintage Computing Festival Berlin (VCFB) 2016

Thomas Schulz (8bitjunkie) erklärt die Grundlagen für die Entwicklung von Spielen für 8-Bit Heimcomputer in 6502 Assembler. Hierbei helfen moderne Tools wie Raster Music Tracker,  WUDSN IDE und coole Retro-T-Shirts mit Source Code darauf.

• Um was geht es überhaupt?
• Vorstellung des Spiels "GetUp!" (Live Demo)
• Übersicht über die Vorgehensweise und die Werkzeuge
• Der Hauptprozessor (CPU)
• Die Unterbrechungen (Interrupts)
• Die Grafik
• Die Musik
• Hilfreiche Quellen

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Published: 01 September 2016

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While everything in the world is turning into bits, some bits of WUDSN IDE have turned into some pages in an actual world book. Thomas Schulz illustrated what WUDSN IDE is and how cross-development works in his chapter of the book Time to Play - Zeit und Computerspiel published by members of the Humboldt University in Berlin. When I remember how I started with WUDSN IDE in 2009, I would never have thought of being an enabler for such great things as Dimo's Quest and so many other games and programs. Now, seven years later, my site has crossed the 30.000 views boundary, the IDE has over 130 active installations, and I have become friends with many new Atari users. All this is simply great, and I hope we'll have lots of funs together in the future. 

The IDE screen with the project, outline, editor, and message panel.

The rainbow example program explained step by step to learn what "racing the beam" means.