Loading...
 
Welcome to Atari coding wiki!        
Page actions
Print

Welcome to Atari coding wiki!

Atari random image
photo/design by Robson (https://sites.google.com/view/tercsirobi/home). Used by kind permission.


Site updates and news


date description
11.05.2024Latest GNU GCC 14.1.0 was released for m68k / TOS/ FreeMinT targets, as usual it can be downloaded from Thorsten Otto website. Secondly GGN's self hosted Compiler Explorer also contains this new version, so you can peek into m68k code generation. Matt Godbolt's Compiler Explorer website also contains gcc / clang versions for m68k targets, but GGN has also added few more old native compilers like Sozobon C, DICE, Pure C (Atari ST) or SAS/C (Amiga).
03.05.2024Sometime ago new Atari ST toolchain emerged "OmegaDev" created by Micael Hildenborg (TFE/Omega). It is completely stand alone toolchain, contains custom gdb server, which can be used for remote debugging via serial port with VSCode. Here is a demo, official repository with OmegaDev is here. Probably there will be more material about it in the future. Worth noting is also new version of Atari TOS/FreeMint toolchain by Vincent Riviere, which is still experimental and lacks few needed features (like generation of native Atari debugger symbols), but probably will replace older one soon. It was sucessfully used during development of Atari TOS / FreeMint port of ScummVM emulation engine. New toolchain can emit Dwarf debug info, which can be leveraged in the future and doesn't rely on unsupported a.out (old Unix format), which was removed from latest GCC versions. Additionally new wiki page has been opened for Apollo Vampire Standalone(+) FPGA computer, which can be turned into nice Atari TOS machine / clone.
08.05.2022Published Docker image with all the latest development tools for 16/32 bit Atari's. Great for setting up continous integration / automated Atari builds, local development or for playing around with latest compilers without extra time and effort to set up everything. Image can be mounted right away with Docker Desktop and launched locally, you have to only download sources from the web or remote repository and adjust paths to gcc compilers if needed. More details on Docker hub.
17.12.2021Here is a link to article describing coders process behind creating Atari ST demo FirST Love / Making-of / Coders point of view by RATI & Janek from Overlanders. Recommended read! Another quite interesting article which showed up recently is about programming VME interface graphics card ET4000 on Atari MegaSTe by Fenarinarsa.
16.12.2021Documentation/Books files are back. Hopefully most of them should be fine. But if anything is corrupted or missing tell us. Also updated recommended sites section, some links expired or moved.
15.09.2021Most of the files in file gallery are corrupted. Currently trying to restore them from backup. Sorry for inconvenience.
8.11.2019Vincent Rivière (known for his work on gcc Atari cross compiler) has published new series of videos about Atari ST m68k assembly programming, which might be wspecially interesting for beginners. Videos are unfortunately in french, but there are english subtitles. Watch it here on Vretrocomputing channel..
5.11.2019Ultra/Cream has announced new project called "ultraDev", which is fpga based development cartridge for Atari computers. After a reset the Atari stays in an upload screen and waits for an upload from the host computer. You can upload and start a prg-file from the host computer command line via USB. A prg file with 780kb needs around 0,94 seconds to start. So transferate is around 830kb/s. The execution time of the prg-file is right before the auto-folder executes files from the folder. So the system is so far initialized. With a small cable from inside the Atari the cartridge is able to reset the Atari. Which means you just run the command line tool again and the cartridge resets the Atari, uploads and starts the prg. No need to touch the Atari during development. The cartridge has internal memory which holds resident Bugaboo debugger and do not need to be uploaded every time. If you want to debug you can tell the command line tool to start bugaboo before and directly load the prg-file. More details / photos are on official site: ultraDev.
27.10.2019RMAC, the macro assembler for all Atari computers has recently reached version v2.0.0. New notable features include: DSP56001 support (outputting .lod and .p56 formats, embedding in ST .prg binaries planned), Object Processor (Atari Jaguar) mode, 68020+ support, 68881/68882 (FPU) support, 68851 (PMMU) support. Links: Official RMAC site.
10.05.2019Brown elf gcc 9.1.0 is out since the last weekend. Try it live in compiler explorer or build it yourself: Big Brown Build (link actual compiler build scripts) and brownout (tool for converting elf binaries made by brown elf compilers to atari TOS aout format).
26.04.2019We have released new version of our productivity tool named uIPTool, which can shorten your development time on Atari TOS machines significantly and is quite handy for transferring files. With the help of cartridge based ethernet card (Netusbee/Ethernec) you can easily deploy binary built on PC with cross compiler and quickly transfer them via local network to Atari TOS machine and execute it remotely. Additionally all Atari console input / output is redirected to console on PC which is quite handy during development. Tool requires minimal amount of memory and it can run on Atari models with even 512kib of ram. Full write up about what's new is on nokturnal. More information and download section is on an official project page.
09.09.2018Little late news from Atari cross compiler front. Due to ongoing efforts of GGN we have an access to latest GCC cross compilers 7.x.x and 8.x.x>. Currently there is possibility to build them by yourself for Linux/Windows and MacOs targets with minimal effort. All you have to do is to follow minimal set of instructions and run bash setup script. Visit official Big Brown Build project pages for more details. You should also check out Brownout utility too, because it is also required for elf->tos binary conversion. There is also other resource for Atari cross compilers prepared by Thorsten Otto, which also provide latest GCC compiler versions (7.3.x/8.x.x>). In comparison to "Big Brown Build" variant they don't need elf binary conversion step. Although there are elf output versions provided too. Author has readded m68k-aout format, which was removed from official binutils 2.31 project, so compilers work exactly the same like those provided by Vincent Riviere's GCC 4.3.4. Ready to use packages/libraries are provided for MinGW/ Cygwin/ MacOsX and Linux platforms. Additionally Bus Error wiki software was updated, old one was pretty outdated, if you spot problem with anything, then fill out Feedback/Contact form (link in main menu, on left part of page).
24.12.2016New version of GCC (6.2) was released for Atari targets. Thanks to GGN and DML. All details about this version can be found here. Due to technical matters building of TOS binaries is a little different than in 4.6.4 (there is one additional step, as compiler produces and operates on binaries/libraries in elf format, they have to be converted by external tool). Custom C/C++ startups has to be updated/reworked due to internal changes in GCC. New GCC has a lot of new features like link time optimisations and better dead code stripping functionalities. :-)
23.10.2016Updated article about reducing gcc binaries. Added reference to new repository which contains new and updated codebase for several Atari machine types.
02.09.2015Site now uses secure connection by default. If someone will have problems with signing in, then contact me.
16.01.2015Upgraded CMS from an ancient version. If you notice any problem with content or something missing then contact me through Contact/Feedback form.
21.10.2013Updated CMS, so if you notice any problem with content and broken links then contact me through Contact/Feedback form.
16.02.2013Uploaded STE & Blitter FAQ's by Paranoid. Both of them available from download files section. Essential read if you plan to mess with good old STe :-). I've also reuploaded Atari ST/STe/Falcon030/CT60 memory map, text file was broken.
27.07.2012New book added. This time ATARI ST GEM Programmer's Reference. Thanks to uicr0Bee for a scan! Have a good read. If you don't know what exactly GEM is, then read this
14.04.2012Vincent Rivière, author of m68k gcc cross compiler, has published an article in Software Development Journal Extra about process of making it. You can download the whole SDJ and read the "Porting GCC to new targets - the case of Atari ST computers" here.
10.04.2012Some sad news. 08.04.2012 at age 83 died founder of Atari Corp. and Commodore Jack Tramiel. Under his management the whole 16/32-bit Atari computer system emerged (to which this site is wholly dedicated). I think that the most important thing he did in his life, was making affordable computers for common people, so they could be used at homes. This statement can look ridiculous from the modern perspective, but thirty years ago computer technology wasn't so widespread and affordable as it is now. So long, Jack! And thanks for great computers!
09.04.2012Check out the workshop about oldschool Atari ST demo coding by Gunstick/ULM. It contains good overview of the Atari ST platform from technical and historical point of view. Two, potentially most interesting parts are still missing though. Here you can read something more about ULM
14.03.2012 Great addition today. First official, public Supervidel hardware info. Supervidel is an add-on expansion card for CT60/CT63 equipped Falcon 030 computers. It's fully compatible to graphics Videl chip found in all Falcons, is completely transparent from software point of view and needs no drivers. Additionally it will provide resolutions present in modern desktop computers, faster/dedicated video memory, dual monitor output and optionally ethernet support. Here: Supervidel VHDL overview and Supervidel memory map. Card will be produced soon, preorder has started :-).
04.02.2012 Whoa! Another update this day. Second great thing is Abacus ST Internals 3rd edition. If you're Atari ST programmer or you want to be one, this is absolutely must read. Every Atari ST subsystem is described on hardware and software level. Book contains also BIOS/GEMDOS/XBIOS/Line A/AES/VDI reference which is great help while coding, description of m68k processor architecture and operation, m68k instruction set/addressing modes reference, listing of important system vectors and much more. Nearly everything you should know. With Atari Compendium and ST/TT Profibuch (which was never translated from german) ST Internals is one of the best hardware/software references for Atari ST range of computers (and personally my favourite). At the end of the book there is disassembled system startup sequence. This is updated revision, contains information about blitter which was missing in previous editions. Thanks to uicr0Bee for a scan.
04.02.2012 New article added. It explains how to use Jam player plugins in your own Atari programs in few easy steps. It comes with C API wrapper especially written for this article, which makes life of a coder alot easier. Wrapper can be downloaded from here, but direct link is provided on the first page of the article too. From the other things, comments were disabled due to spam issues. Content rating is turned off too, who uses it anyway?
07.12.2011 New article added. It explains how to reduce executables size and remove standard gcc 4.3.x library dependencies. It might be useful for people writing games/demos 'near bare metal' (close to the hardware) and with standard system calls (BIOS/XBIOS and so on). It's now possible to use gcc even for lower spec machines like Atari ST (512kb RAM), where every byte is precious. Before this gcc 4> binary size was a real problem for standard machines. Thanks to Sqward!
27.11.2011 Added new wiki page describing usage of python based SCons build system with gcc cross compiler and VASM. The information can be useful for using other compilers too.
17.07.2011 Added new books: Learning C on Atari ST (scan by uicr0Bee), Atari ST machine language, Atari ST Basic to C and 68000-68010-68020 Primer.
04.07.2011 Added new book/reference manual Modern Atari System Software A Programmers Guide by HiSoft. Thanks to uicr0Bee for a scan, more to come! :-) New front page Atari ST images/photos were provided by Robson. Probably there will be more in the future. I hope you will like them. I encourage everyone interested to subscribe to RSS feeds. Separate feeds were created for download section, wiki pages and articles. Subscribe and be informed every time something is updated or added, so you will not miss anything.
23.06.2011 Added new book Atari ST 3D Graphics Programming - Concepts And Techniques by Uwe Braun. Thanks to uicr0Bee for a scan.
21.06.2011 Added new tutorial ATI Radeon programming with XBIOS which should give you an idea how to program ATI Radeon on Falcon. It also exposes limitations of current versions of drivers, so you will know why there is no games or demos which can use this new hardware.
25.04.2011 Added wiki page "Creating TOS binaries with CMake and cross compiler" based on similar MinGW tutorial. Info is very basic, but it's a good start if you can't live with GNU make. biggrin
24.04.2011 Removed alot of annoying links under wiki pages. Cleaned up download section view.
23.04.2011 Mirrored U.L.S.(Universal Loader System) by D-BUG, all documentation, source code and examples.
23.04.2011 Site maintenance. Upgraded system to the new version. If anyone will encounter any errors then let me know via contact form or e-mail.
20.01.2011 Added RSS feeds for several sections(found on bottom of the page). You can get direct information about updates everytime something has changed or has been added. Individual RSS feeds were set for wiki pages, article section, file downloads and links. So grab your favourite RSS feed manager and subscribe! :-) Links section has also been improved.
26.10.2010 Initial version.






Created by admin. Last Modification: Saturday May 11, 2024 16:34:06 CEST by buserror@nokturnal.pl.