For developers, the recently released source code of the Atari 7800 ProSystem OS and many of its games may seem a bit too late. After all, a good deal of the compiled game ROM dumps can be found online. However, Atari is offering the code uncompiled in addition to a few development tools for interested developers. With Ms. Pac Man, Dig Dug, Robotron 2084, Centepede and nine other games available to download, programmers learning the trade may get a kick out of how Atari created the 7800 versions back in the mid-80's.
As stated on the Atari Museum, the original source code was recovered from Atari ST diskettes that were thrown out in the dumpster behind the Sunnyvale, CA Atari building (recovered at 3am no less). Along with the games, Atari provided the 7800 base operating system (NTSC), the PAL operating system, the development system, and the animation tool in separate Winzip compressed files. The company also provided the original Joust source code from the classic Atari 2600 console.
"Hey! That's my code!" said Jeff Bell over on Reddit, seemingly ecstatic that his original programming was still around twenty-six years later. "I worked on Robotron in the Summer of '83. I was going into my Junior year at MIT, and I was working at General Computer Corporation in Cambridge. The next summer I worked on Rescue on Fractalus. Then Jack Trameil bought Atari and it all ground to a halt. It was 6502 assembly. There was 4k RAM, and carts could be 16K or 32K. I'm not sure how you would run it without a Maria chip emulator."
The 7800 ProSystem was Atari's third home gaming platform, following the unsuccessful 5200 and the highly popular 2600. The Atari 7800 tried to regain the company's stance as a leading console manufacturer, however eventually trailed behind the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Head here to Atari 7800 source code packages.
