Atari 16/32 bit Development Resources

A collection of resources for developing software for the 16/32 bit Atari series of computers.

Community Websites

• AtariAge
• AtariCrypt
• Atariforum
  • A forum dedicated to Atari ST development and discussions.
• AtariAge Forums
• Atari Mania
• atariscne.org
• D-Bug
• Exxos Forum
  • A forum focused on Atari ST hardware and software development.

Books and references

• Atari Document Archive
• The Atari Compendium
  • Probably the most extensive technical reference ever published for the Atari ST and derivatives.
• The Atari Wiki
• The Documentation for TOS
  • The famous tos.hyp pages.
• BIOS/XBIOS ROM listing
  • Atari ST ROM fully commented BIOS/XBIOS ROM listing.
• Free eBooks
  • Written in French, German, English, or Dutch.

Blogs, wikis, articles and other resources

• Beyond Brown
• BUS ERROR Atari 16/32 Bit Development Info Page
  • Has some very useful information about cross compilation and assembly, hardware reference materials and tools.
• DrCoolZic Atari ST Site
  • Contains a lot of detailed information about the hardware and software side of the Atari ST.
• Overscan Techniques
• MiKRO's homepage

Discord Servers

• Atari FreeMiNT User Group
• Atari Scene/Demoscene
• Atari ST 16/32bit
• GFABASIC
• SidecarTridge

Emulators and virtual machines

• Hatari
  • Hatari User manual
  • Hatari Debugger manual
• STeem
• ARAnyM
  • ARAnyM is a software virtual machine designed and developed for running 32-bit Atari ST/TT/Falcon operating systems.

GFA Basic Programming

GFA Basic is easily the most popular programming language for the Atari ST.

• GFA Basic Manual (ST Format Edition)
• GFA Basic Version 3.0 Interpreter User Manual
• GFA List
  • Reads tokenized GFA BASIC version 3.x source files (.GFA) and converts them to human readable ASCII listings (.LST).

C Programming

C is the primary programming language used for professional Atari ST development.

• Makefile tutorial
  • A very useful guide to writing Makefiles.
• Object Oriented Programming in C
  • Explains how to implement object-oriented programming concepts in C.
  • The references at the bottom of the page are also very useful.

C cross compilation

This section contains resources for cross-compiling Atari ST software from other platforms. Developing on the Atari ST itself is often limited by its hardware capabilities and with cross-compilation, you can leverage more powerful development environments.

• Thorsten Otto's m68k-atari-mint cross-tools page
  • A page full of resources for cross-compiling for the Atari ST using GCC.
• Vincent Rivière's m68k-atari-mint cross-tools
• M68k LLVM documentation
  • Resources for users of M68k LLVM toolchain.
• VBCC
  • A highly optimizing portable and retargetable ISO C compiler.
• GCC online documentation
• GNU Binutils User Guide

Assemblers

• RMAC
  • A great, modern assembler for 68k based on the old Madmac assembler by Atari.
• VASM

Assembly programming

• 68000 assembly tutorials for Atari ST by perihelion of poSTmortem
• Devpac 3 Manual
• Bugaboo usage
  • Some very interesting and useful Bugaboo debugger tips and tricks.
• M68000 Programmer's Reference Manual
  • Original Motorola Version (PDF) (HTML)
    • Integer instructions
    • Supervisor instructions
  • NPX version (PDF)
• autohatari
  • A fast turnaround development tool for hatari/linux and VASM.

Assembly-level code optimization

• Cycle Times
  • A handy click-through table to find CPU cycle times.
• Cycle counting in the Atari ST
• Yet Another Cycle Hunting Table
• Optimizing 68000 code

Hardware intrinsics

• Concise Atari ST 68000 Programmer's Reference Guide: Atari ST hardware
• ST/STE Scanlines
  • This page provides pseudocode descriptions of various processes involved in the generation of each frame of the video output, in both the Atari ST and the STE.
• hardware-register-listing
• Recovering Atari ST ASIC designs

Software tools

• Compiler Explorer
  • Handy tool to see live compiler output asembly. Supports M68K GCC compilers and M68K assembly.
• Compiler Explorer (ggn version)
• Amiga & Atari Bitmap Converter
  • A command line tool to convert bitmap images into ready to use binary data.
• CycleSpitter
  • A cycle-accurate scanline splitter tool for Atari ST fullscreen (sync) programming.

Game development libraries and tools

• Agtools - Game prototyping system for Atari ST/e
• ReservoirGods/GODLIB
  • An extensive C library by Resevoir Gods that provides many features that can be useful for game development.
• MapEdit
  • Map editor dedicated dedicated for games development (2/16/256 colors or true colors).
• PS2M
  • Means « Pixels to Sprites & Masks »: image tool dedicated for games development (2/4/16/256 colors sprites).
• half-sprite
  • Sprite generator for the Atari ST and compatibles.

Music composition tools

• MaxYMiser
• Arkos Tracker

Source code collections

• Atari ST source code repository
  • A large repository of Atari ST (and family) source code.

OS ROMs

• EmuTOS
  • EmuTOS is a free OS similar to TOS, which powered the Atari ST and its successors between 1985 and 1994.
• TOS Images Collection

Hardware tools

• SidecarTridge
  • Various devices that make working with legacy hardware in modern times more pleasant.
• Lightning ST
  • The Lightning ST is a pcb with two USB 1.1 compatible ports, an IDE interface and an adressdecoder for TOS2.06.
• UltraDev
  • ultraDev is a FGPA-based development cartridge for Atari computers.

FPGA

• zeST
• MiSTer
• Suska
• Atari STE MiSTery core for the Tang Nano FPGAs

Technical background information for specific games

• Turrican II
• Anarchy
• Encounter

Other link aggregation sources

• Atari ST Documentation (atari-st.lovely.net)