Part I: Why develop for Retro Systems?
Seriously, why anyone would still like to create games and programs for computers of a long forgotten time?
Today we have so much cool tools like Unity3D and Unreal Engine which allow you to create amazing experiences on a high level. And of course for almost every platform you can imagine. That’s the daily business and i love it but…
I’m sure every enthusiast like me has it’s own reasons for spend time on retro computing. Some do it for nostalgia’s sake, others for the challenge of working with old hardware. Maybe also just because they appreciate the history of computing, and want to experience it. But almost all of them can agree that one of the most exciting aspects of retro computing is the low-level access to the hardware.
Of course retro games can be created (and also played with emulators) on modern systems like a PC, a Mac or even a Smartphone. But usually a game engine is used that hides the complexities of the underlying hardware. It’s these complexities that teach how to get the most out of the hardware and maximizing efficiency. A skill that’s very valuable and in high demand, even in todays game industry.
With the recent revamping of retro systems such as the C64 Mini, Atari VCS or the ZX Spectrum Next, it’s again a great time to learn the inner workings of these systems and get your own games out there. Even with the possibility of having your creation released as a physical box or a cartridge. How cool is that?
Interested to know more about it?
Whether you’re a curious newcomer or here for nostalgic reasons, it seems that you are interested on retro computing. So i hope with the coming articles i can provide a creative collection that leads to more games for us all to enjoy ;)
We will use Assembly language, because the operations in BASIC Interpreters are too slow for all but the most rudimentary of games.
The development tools i use are for macOS , but i will provide all of the links you need to setup a retro development environment for the PC. Every game will run on a emulator but of course the real fun comes when it runs on the real, now 40 years old, hardware.
Part II: Setup a development environment for Atari retro programming on macOS. You find this article (and many more about retro computing) on my blog.
Visit also my blog at rogerboesch.com where I write about VR&AR on Magic Leap One and Oculus Quest, but also on retro game development for the machines of the 80s like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL, Atari 2600 and many others.
