It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

General discussion for topics related to the FreeBASIC project or its community.
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David Watson
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by David Watson »

I think it would be impossible to port FreeBasic to the 2600 because of the resources it requires, especially memory. You could create your own Basic, maybe like TinyBASIC which is designed to work on low-memory systems.
Provoni
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by Provoni »

From the link: - Superchip (128 bytes of additional RAM!) support

Where can we get this chip? :D 8) :lol:
angros47
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by angros47 »

Even if it were possible, it would be completely useless: Atari 2600 has 128 bytes of RAM , so it would be all taken by a single string.

Also, Free basic uses 2d graphics, while an Atari 2600 is so simple that it can render only 1D graphics: there is no graphic buffer (memory is not enough) and the program must send data to the video chip for each scan line. So, it would be impossible to port any program that already exists, a total rewriting would be needed anyway
angros47
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by angros47 »

I want also remind that, for developing Atari 2600 games in Basic, a compiler named Batari Basic exists: https://github.com/batari-Basic/batari-Basic

But don't expect to be able to port any FreeBasic game to it, it's too different
caseih
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by caseih »

While only tangentially related to this topic, thinking about FB on the 2600 reminded me of this presentation on using modern C++17 to program a Commodore 64 which was fascinating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkNBP00wJE

So it's not a completely unreasonable thought that FB could be of use even on an 8-bit CPU. Obviously the runtime library and many of FB's features (like strings, floats, etc) would be inaccessible. But the minimal language itself might still work as well as C++.
jevans4949
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by jevans4949 »

Reminds me of a spoof ad for Sinclair Z80 machine, saying you could use it for some purpose I now forget, but with the comment "Requires 16,000 1K RAM packs".
marcov
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by marcov »

jevans4949 wrote: Mar 09, 2023 10:05 Reminds me of a spoof ad for Sinclair Z80 machine, saying you could use it for some purpose I now forget, but with the comment "Requires 16,000 1K RAM packs".
Afaik z80 memory above 64k requires bankswitching on the address bus pins, and that is rarely automatically done in-compiler afaik, because there are many different wiring schemes.
jevans4949
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Re: It's it possible to translate FreeBasic for Atari2600 ?

Post by jevans4949 »

marcov wrote: Mar 09, 2023 11:32
jevans4949 wrote: Mar 09, 2023 10:05 Reminds me of a spoof ad for Sinclair Z80 machine, saying you could use it for some purpose I now forget, but with the comment "Requires 16,000 1K RAM packs".
Afaik z80 memory above 64k requires bankswitching on the address bus pins, and that is rarely automatically done in-compiler afaik, because there are many different wiring schemes.
True. Also apparenty the connection wobbled so much with even 1 RAM pack, the joke was how to fit 16,000.
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