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Microtan 65 Users Manual
 

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Enter the contest and feel again the 1980 atmosphere: Yes,in an attempt to re-group all 6502 programmers, I'm proposing here a great programming contest on the smallest 6502 computer (I'm speaking of features, not of physical dimensions !). All 6502 programmers are used to their own favorite computer (eg. Atari XL/XE, Apple ][, C64 ), so it's not easy to group everyone on a common format... I think the Microtan65 is quite interesting as a smallest common denominator : no special chip, just the 6502, a simple video-memory, and you 8-)  The Microtan65 has died a long time ago and there's no active user. So, show your skill at 6502 programming, just for the fun (hey, you can win an Oric computer, that's all the 6502-related prizes I can offer...)

Rules for the contest: valid programs must run on the 1 KB ram Microtan65, equiped with TANBUG v1 (1 KB rom) and no other rom. Programs are allowed to use routines in TANBUG although there's not a lot of useful stuff there, see Microtan65 Users Manual.
Programs may be as large as 512 bytes, or even 1 KB if code or data is stored in the screen memory. Submitted programs may be of any type (office tools, productivity enhancers, games, demoes...), but will only be accepted in the format of dump images as used by the Microtan emulator.
The winners of the contest will be designated by the programmers themselves ! (of course you won't be allowed to vote for your own entry 8-)
Entries have to be sent to me, so that I upload them to the web server. Well, there's no fixed deadline anymore, since all the people who declared their intention to participate have no calendar at home... ;-)

How to get ready for the programming contest ? What's great with the Microtan is its simplicity. Being familiar with the 6502 processor is enough to enter the contest since the microtan hardware is really very simple (6 I/O ports and you won't use them all). So you just have to concentrate on what you want to display on the screen, which takes half of the memory !

Microtan programming FAQ
I'm trying to provide you with all the information you may require: I've re-typed most of the Microtan manuals with my poor fingers, and I'm making public my cycle-based Microtan emulator. Please read the Microtan 65 Users Manual as it contains all the needed information about how to display block graphics. Also, here is something which can help you develop for the contest: the Frankenstein cross-assembler (if you don't know how to build it, here is a DOS executable and a Linux executable). Also, here is the short program example running in the microtan applet on this page, just in order to demonstrate how you can build a dump image for the contest with the Frankenstein cross-assembler.