In 8bitworkshop 3.1.0, we’ve given the VCS platform plenty of love:

  • Header Files: Header/include files are now viewable and editable via the IDE. But don’t use angle brackets in your includes, because they’ll pull in the old header file versions. Instead, use double quotes, for example:
    #include "vcs.h"
    #include "macro.h"
    #include "xmacro.h"

  • Bugs Squashed: The emulator was suddenly stopping and displaying a blank screen, requiring a browser refresh. There were also problems when trying to load a ROM of the wrong size. Also, the Program Counter is no longer wonky when single-stepping.

  • Advance Frame Button: Now supported on VCS.

  • Disassembler View: Handy for debugging those complex macros and self-modifying code. It uses the symbols generated by DASM to make it more readable.

  • Stack Info: Available in the Debug Info panel during debugging, it also uses the symbol table.

  • The TIMER_START and TIMER_WAIT macros have been updated to make every scanline count parameter reliable – we even tested it! We also force a WSYNC after TIMER_WAIT completes, so make sure you aren’t doing it twice in your code.

  • PAL Example: There’s a new example file which demonstrates how to set up a PAL frame.

There’s also some cool new features:

  • Instant Replay: Record the last 120 seconds of your game state, and rewind and replay it at will. You can go back in time and debug something, for instance.

  • Share Playable Link: Share a playable link to your game with your friends! The entire ROM is embedded in the URL and the emulator opens instantly. You can also embed it a website or blog post using an iframe. Here’s an example link that fits into 250 characters.

  • Download ZIP Archive: Download a full .zip archive of your project. You can also download a .zip of every file that you’ve changed in a given platform.

  • If you’ve noticed that we loaded the page twice when starting the IDE, we don’t do that anymore.

  • Oh yeah, there’s an Apple ][+ (64k) platform now, using an alternate Monitor ROM – so no Applesoft BASIC, but you can program in C (using the embedded CC65 compiler) and 6502 assembler. Go check out the examples!

BTW, if you still see “3.0.0” in your browser URL, clear your cache or navigate directly to the new version.

Happy Coding!