Atari PCS (8-bit Family)#
Open 8bitworkshop IDE
Click here to program the Atari 800 in the 8bitworkshop IDE now!
Atari PCS Specifications#
- Lifespan
1984-1992
- Media
Floppy disk, cassette tape, ROM cartridge
- CPU 8-bit
MOS Technology 6502 @ 1.79 (NTSC) / 1.77 (PAL) MHz
- Memory
16 - 128 KB dynamic RAM
- Controllers
Joystick, mouse
- Notable games
Rescue on Fractalus!, Pac-Man, Miner 2049er
History#
The engineering team from Atari Grass Valley Research Center started work in 1977 on a successor to the just-released VCS. The new system would have a suite of custom chips – ANTIC to fetch data from RAM, CTIA/GTIA to convert the data into colors and overlay sprites (called player/missile graphics), and POKEY to read input devices and generate sound.
The system would be released in two forms, the Atari 400 (16 KB, membrane keyboard) and the Atari 800 (48 KB, two cartridge ports, composite output, full keyboard). FCC regulations forbid the use of slots, so peripherals had to be hooked up to the slow serial SIO bus.
The Atari 5200 game console used the same architecture, but the 800XL computer with 64 KB would prove to be the most popular model.
Memory Map (Atari 800)#
Start |
End |
Description |
Alternate Use |
|---|---|---|---|
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RAM, zero-page |
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RAM, CPU stack |
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RAM |
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RAM |
Right Cartridge ROM |
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RAM |
Left Cartridge ROM |
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RAM |
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GTIA |
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POKEY |
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PIA |
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ANTIC |
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BIOS ROM |
CC65#
Config Files#
You can add #define CFGFILE atari.cfg (or atari-xex.cfg) to compile your C program to RAM instead of a ROM cartridge.