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    Default The Atari Assembly Language Virtual Machine

    The Atari Virtual Machine

    -------------------------

    What exactly is this program?

    Its a Virtual Machine, NOT a Emulator.. It interprets Atari 800 Assembly Language
    with a few extra instructions for modern computers
    NO you cannot run Atari 800 ROMS but if you get the assembly source than it can be
    interpreted...
    This is meant to help you learn how to write a interpreter/virtual machine as well
    as teach you the foundations of modern programming languages.

    So how did this project get started?
    Well its a long story actually, but here goes:

    I got a book from my friend a long time ago
    it was called The Atari Assembler by Don Inman and Kurt Inman
    It was written in 1981 and explains about the atari 400 and 800 (6502 Instructions)
    I wanted to use the language, so I decided to write a interpreter that would
    preform the same tasks as the old assembly language..I always have been interested
    in compilers / interpreters / assemblers, so I thought writing something like this
    would help me Understand. Plus ive always wanted to write a program which interprets a
    older systems way of operating kind of like a emulator.
    Through doing this:
    Learning the instructions and there opcodes, I began to have a firmer grasp
    on my C and C++ programming .. This language is still very basic but i plan on making it
    into a full virtual machine.. with special instructions that were not avialable back than
    but still keeping the same look and feel of the old assembly language.

    What this program contains:

    The ability to output debug information in HTML instead of atari machine language
    so you can look at what the
    assembly code would be translated to, which mnemoics stand for which machine instructions
    etc..

    The ability to produce debug output into the stdout so you can see what is going
    on after the program finishes execution.. like what memory locations it changes..
    and the status of the registers and flags

    new additions to the language:
    Ability to use a Register as a variable on the instructions
    Interupt Instruction to have the program be able to preform
    special operations via a interupt system call which can point to addresses
    of functions written in C.


    Why use this program?
    To help understand the foundations of current programming languages


    --------------------------------------------
    Command Line Arguments:


    --debug
    print debug to the stdout and a html file
    now this mode should only be used if your applications dosent enter graphics mode
    because it prints out to the stdout every instruction and the status of the registers
    if your using a graphics mode application, than use the following

    --debug=gfx
    this will print the status of the current instruction pointer, and the status
    of the registers to window its running in
    this can be usefull for finding bugs

    the first argument is the name of the script file
    example
    atari-vm script.ats
    or
    atari-vm script.ats --debug
    of
    atari-vm script.ats --debug=gfx


    Section A:
    --------------------------------------------


    Notes on the language:

    $ stands for Hexadecimal Address
    # stands for decimal constant
    #$ stands for Hexadecimal Constant

    The Flags

    0 = Negative Result Flag
    1 = Overflow Flag
    2 = Expansion Flag (Not Labeled)
    3 = Break Command Flag
    4 = Decimal Mode Flag
    5 = Intereupt disable flag
    6 = Zero result flag
    7 = Carry Flag


    Instructions:

    ADC - Add Memory to Accumulator with Carry
    AND - And Memory to Accumulator with Carry
    ASL - Shift Left One Bit (memory or accumulator)
    BCC - Branch if Carry Flag is clear
    BCS - Branch if Carry Flag is set
    BEQ - Branch on result Zero
    BIT - Test bits in accumulator with memory
    BMI - Branch on result minus
    BNE - Branch if result not zero
    BPL - Branch on result plus
    BRK - Unconditional break
    BVC - Branch on overflow clear
    BVS - Branch on overflow set
    CLC - Clear Carry Flag
    CLD - Clear Decimal Flag
    CLI - Clear Interupt Flag
    CLV - Clear overflow Flag
    CMP - Compare memory and accumulator
    CPX - Compare Memory and Register X
    CPY - Compare Memory and Reigster Y
    DEC - Decrement Memory or accumulator
    DEX - Decrement X Register
    DEY - Decrement Y Register
    EOR - Exculsive Or memory or accumulator
    INC - Incrmeent Memory or accumulator
    * INT - New Instruction: Interupt ( See Section B )
    INX - Increment register X
    INY - Increment register Y
    JMP - Unconditonal Jump to Code label or address
    JSR - Jump To Subroutine
    LDA - Load accumulator with constant or memory
    * LDM - New Instruction: Load Memory from at X register with constant string
    LDX - Load X register with constant or memory
    LDY - Load Y register with constant or memory
    LSR - Shift right one bit
    NOP - No operation
    ORA - Or accumulator with constant or memory
    PHA - Push accumulator onto the stack
    PHP - Push proccesscor flags onto the stack
    PLA - Pull (pop) accumulator from the stack
    PLP - Pull (pop) proccesscor flags from the stack
    ROL - Rotate bits one left
    ROR - Rotate bits one right
    RTI - Return from interupt
    RTS - Return from subroutine
    SBC - Subtract memory and borrow from ac$#@!
    SEC - Set carry flag
    SED - Set decimal flag
    SEI - Set interupt flag
    STA - Store accumulator in memory
    STX - Store register X in memory
    STY - Store register Y in memory
    TAX - Transfer accumulator to X register
    TAY - Transfer accumulator to Y register
    TSX - Transfer stack pointer to Index X
    TXA - Transfer register X to accumulator
    TYA - Transfer register Y to accumulator

    ------------------------------------------
    Section B:

    New interupts:
    The interupt instruction is followed by a constant
    to stand for what will be called.. It manipulates the X,Y,A registers
    and takes them for information for the specific interupt.

    Current Supported New interupts

    0x1
    ------

    Syntax:

    INT #01 - Print to the Screen

    - Registers Effected
    X contains the value of where to start to print the data to the stdout
    Y register contains the value of where to stop printing the data to the stdout


    INT #02 - Read From stdin
    - Registers Effected
    X contains the value of where to start to store data typed to the stdout
    Y contains the value of where the input stops (length of the inputed string)

    Examples:

    ------ Begin Code Snipit ---------------

    *= $1000
    ; simple echo of what the person types
    START ; code label
    LDX #100 ; load X register with constant (#) value 100
    INT $02 ; Interupt (*New*) 0x2 in Hex ($)
    INT $01 ; Interupt (*New*) 0x1 in Hex ($)
    END ; end code label

    ----------------------------------------

    What this code does is Load the Register X with constant variable 0x100
    than calls the interupt to 0x02 which asks the user for input
    then calls the interupt with value 0x1 which prints to the screen

    So how did it know where to stop printing?
    the length of the string was stored in the Y register
    and the start was stored in the X register
    so when we call INT $01 it automaticly knows where to print
    the data the user typed..

    -----------------------------------------------

    INT #03 - Read a decimal value
    - Registers Effected
    X contains the value of the variable read in from the stdin

    INT #04 - Read a Hexadecimal value
    - Registers Effected
    X contains the value of the variable read in from the stdin


    INT #$13 - Set the Video Mode
    - Registerse Effected
    X contains the value of the video mode being successfully set

    INT #$14 - Proccess Events
    - Registers Effected
    X contains 1 if the program is going to end
    - Keyboard Input
    the keyboard offset is 0xFFFF
    so the keys when there pressed are there regular values + 0xFFFF
    notice you must use the full hexadecimal value to grap input from the keyboard

    INT #$15 - Update Screen
    - This will swap the current screen with the buffer stored in memory
    so you plot the pixels, than swap the data in memory to the data in video memory

    INT #$16 - Plot a Pixel
    - Registers Effected
    X contains the value of the X cordinate of the screen
    Y contains the value of the Y cordinate of the screen
    A contains the value of the pixel to be set


    Notice were working in 8 bit mode since the accumulator is 1 byte
    So $FF is white and $00 is black


    INT #$17 - Fill Accumulator with Random value
    A Contains a random number 0x0 - 0xFF

    INT #$18 - FIll accumulator with random value range
    X contains start of random value range
    Y contains end of random value range

    INT #$19 - Test key value from Register Y and put state in Register X
    X contains the value of whether the key is pressed
    Y contains the key to test

    INT #$056 - Print String to Video Buffer
    Use the special Instruction LDM with a string (allows backslash escape character sequence)
    Example:

    LDA #100
    LDM "Test\n"

    will load Test\n into Memory location 100 (decimal)
    and store the end point of the memory in register Y

    $56 has special memory locations that you should be aware of
    $FFE13
    and $FFE14 contain the X,Y cordinate for printing of the screen
    how to use:
    ; ------------------------ begin code snipit ------------------------------
    LDA #$0
    LDM "Score: \n"
    STA $1FE11
    STY $1FE12
    INT #$13
    LDA #$25
    STA $FFFF25
    LDA #255
    STA $FFE13
    LDA #0
    STA $FFE14
    LDA #$FF
    STA $1299
    GAME
    LDA $1FE11
    LDY $1FE12
    INT #$56
    LDA $FFE19
    STA $FFE17
    LDX #$FF
    STX $FFE15
    LDA #270
    LDX #55
    LDY #0
    INT #$58
    JSR DRAWSCREEN
    INT #$15
    ; test if escape key was pressed
    LDY #$1B
    INT #$19
    CPY #0
    BNE END


    ; test for now
    JSR ADDSCORE

    ; fill the screen with black
    LDX #0
    INT #$57

    JMP GAME ; loop back up to the start of the game loop
    END

    ; draw rectangle subroutine

    DRAWRECT ; takes X,Y, and accumulator
    ; ------------------------------------------------------------------
    STA $FFFF15
    STX $FFFF11
    STY $FFFF1
    LDA $FFFF25
    ADC #5
    STA $FFFF25
    MAJOR
    LDY $FFFF1
    MINI
    LDA $FFFF25
    INT #$16
    INY
    LDA $FFFF1
    ADC #16
    STA $FFFF15
    CPY $FFFF15
    BNE MINI
    INX
    LDA $FFFF11
    ADC #32
    STA $FFFF2
    CPX $FFFF2
    BNE MAJOR
    RTS

    ; draw of the screen subroutine

    DRAWSCREEN
    INT #$14
    LDX #5
    LDY #5
    STX $FFFF18
    STY $FFFF19

    BIGLOOP
    LOOP
    LDA #$FF
    LDX $FFFF18
    LDY $FFFF19
    JSR DRAWRECT
    LDA $FFFF18
    ADC #36
    STA $FFFF18
    CMP #0
    BNE LOOP
    LDX #5
    STX $FFFF18
    LDA $FFFF19
    ADC #20
    STA $FFFF19
    CMP #0
    BNE BIGLOOP
    RTS

    ; Add to Score subroutine
    ADDSCORE
    LDA $FFE19
    ADC #1
    STA $FFE19
    RTS


    ; ---------------------------- end code snipit

    INT #$057 - System callback
    X contains the Address of the callback

    - Address #$0 is fill screen with black (fast)

    - more to be implemented soon or you can add your own callbacks

    INT #$058 - Print Decimal Value to the string
    X contains the screen X cordinate
    Y contains the screen Y cordinate
    Accumulator contains the value
    Memory location: $FFE15 contains the color

    Section C:
    -- Tutorial on the Language

    Okay so why would we want to learn a very old assembly langauge?
    To better understand the roots of current programming languages:

    First thing you need to learn about the VM's registers and what they do..
    There are 3 general purpose registers, X,Y,and A (Accumulator)
    There is also a special register called the flags register which contains
    information that the instructions act on.. For example

    LDA #0
    LOOP ADC #1
    CMP #$FF
    BNE LOOP

    In the above statements first we use the LDA mnemoic (or Load Acumulator instruction)
    and give it the operand of $0001 hex or 1 Decimal
    Then we set a code label and name it loop . than we ADC ( Add with carry to acumulator )
    with the operand of $0001 hex or 1 decimal
    Now heres the important instruction
    CMP $#FF compare the value FF with the value in the acumulator and set bit 0 of
    the flags register with ethier 1 or 0 depending on the result of the compare

    Most of the instructions explain themselves...

    But heres some examples anyway: They can be found in the demo scripts folder..
    Im workin on MasterPiece in the Atari Assembly Language, ill release it soon as i finish


    Notes for PSP
    -------------
    name your font term.mxf (use a MasterX Font)
    name your script default.ats
    place default.ats in the same folder as EBOOT.PBP
    load the game as normal



    Im releasing this as ALPHA since its not done yet so it might not work 100%, and the source code will be released very soon.. as soon as I finish writing masterpiece in atari assembly,
    its tough.

    Also any feedback or ideas for possible new instructions is always welcome.. If you have any questions email me [email protected]

  2. #2

  3. #3

    Default

    hehe I think its fun to try and write stuff in older languages helps me look at problems in different ways

    http://www.lostsidedead.biz/projects.php?id=AtariDebug

    to check out some example debug output from the program

  4. #4
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by LostJared
    hehe I think its fun to try and write stuff in older languages helps me look at problems in different ways

    http://www.lostsidedead.biz/projects.php?id=AtariDebug

    to check out some example debug output from the program


    Hmmmmm, OK

    I want to port a Z80 Virtual Board Machine (the old days.......)

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