Mucking around on the Atari VBXE

[mrbombermillzy]

Whilst this is more of a precursor post and eventually I will need to talk business with rubber_jonnie concerning modding my real 130XE...

I have successfully set up WUDSN - a feat in itself considering the little time Ive had recently - with the MADS assembler, Altirra emulation of a XE + VBXE + 1088Kb RAM.

This means I can start the cross-port of the DTV code over to the Atari.

However, other than the HW and assembler specifics (i.e. different MACRO syntax; woohoo! :( ), the A8 ecosystem is quite different to the C64 one so I will need to get hold of some literature and read up a bit on how things happen in the Atari world before you will see any pretty pictured posts here (loading system, ROM specifics, memory map, etc).

Once I get an idea of whats what, I can (hopefully) develop both builds in parallel, as at least the base code is the same for some of the 'higher level' functionality.

With that in mind, one interesting (some would say Amiga-esque) difference is the display lists system used. I was looking at a similar system when setting up the Atari ST blitter based work, as it seemed the most efficient way to feed the blitter. Im glad this is already baked into the system here.

@rubber_jonnie when you are well again and if the offer is still there, I will grab that A8 coding book if I may; just let me know how much and I can pop you over a payment. :)

[rubber_jonnie]

Whilst this is more of a precursor post and eventually I will need to talk business with rubber_jonnie concerning modding my real 130XE...

@rubber_jonnie when you are well again and if the offer is still there, I will grab that A8 coding book if I may; just let me know how much and I can pop you over a payment. :)

Glad to see you're moving on with this project. PM me and lets sort out the book I offered (Since I ended up with 2 somehow!!!), I'll need reminding of your address.

I can have a look and see if I have any more duplication, but the book I have for you is called 'Mapping the Atari' and it's classed as one of the better books. Should be super helpful.

Don't forget I do have VBXE machines an 800XL and a 65XE both also with U1MB and dual POKEY so I can do testing if required.