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Vintage Studio video# Vintage Studio

Visual Studio 2010 based IDE for creating programs for vintage (8-bit) computers.

Features:

• Building 8-bit programs from Visual Studio
• Running 8-bit programs from Visual Studio in an emulator
• Starting 8-bit programs in emulator debug mode
• Syntax formatting (on demand and interactive)
• Syntax coloring

Supported platforms:

• Commodore 64
• Commodore VIC 20
• Atari 8-bit

Support for 6502/6510 based platforms can be added without modifying sources (requires some hacking though).

See Vintage Studio video on youtube

Set up

Requirements:

• Visual Studio 2010 Professional edition (or higher)
• Compiler
  64tass compiler - manual and link to download here: http://singularcrew.hu/64tass/
• Emulator
  Commodore 64 / VIC-20
  Vice emulator - http://www.viceteam.org/
  HINT: make sure you download the "Binary for MS-Windows" and NOT the "SDL based binary for Ms-Windows"
  Atari 8-bit
  Atari800Win emulator - http://atariarea.krap.pl/PLus/index_us.htm
  Setup instructions - http://www.myatari.co.uk/issues/jun2002/emulate.htm
  HINT: If you see "BOOT ERROR" in the Atari emulator some settings are probably screwed up (e.g. you have spaces in the path but the path is not enclosed in quotes (")) you need to fix the problem and then start the emulator and detach all disks (File -> Disks -> Detach All (Alt + 0)), and try again.

It is useful to add paths to the compiler and emulator(s) to your %PATH%. (for non-administrator accounts here is how to do that: http://superuser.com/questions/165909/how-can-i-set-user-environmental-variables-such-as-path-from-a-non-administrato). If you don't you will have to set full paths to the compiler and the emulator in the project settings for each new proejct. Otherwise it should work pretty much "out of the box".

Extensions Installation

Download extensions from the Downloads page, double click *.vsix files and follow instructions.

How To Use

Creating New Projects

• File->New->Project (Ctrl+Shift+N)
• Open "Vintage Studio" in Installed Templates
• Select plaftorm
• Enter name of the project
• Press OK

Building

• Build->Build Solution (F6 or Ctrl+Shift+B) If the path to the compiler is set correctly it should build without errors. Compiler output is written to the Output window.

Running

• Debug->Start Without Debugging (Ctrl+F5) If the path to the emulator is set correctly the emulator will open and the program will run in the emulator.

Debugging (only in Vice)

• Debug->Start Debugging If the path to the emulator is set correctly the emulator will open in the debug mode and break on the first instruction of the program

Hint: If you change the start address of the program (at the moment it is $1000) you may need to set it in the settings as well to be able to debug your program in Vice. Atari800Win does not support starting in debug mode

Settings

• Right click the project node in the solution explorer and select Properties (Alt+Enter)

Unistalling extensions

• Tools->Extension Manager...
• Disable/Uninstall extension