[Coco] Mission Accomplished!

[Steve Batson]

So it sounds like the main advantage to putting a 6809 into Atari or Atari 
Like hardware will be allowing people already familiar with 6809 
programming the ability to ramp up and write code faster than if they had 
to learn 6502 programming.

----------------------------------------
From: "Steve Bjork" <6809er at srbsoftware.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2012 3:38 PM
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject: Re: [Coco] Mission Accomplished! 

While the 6809 was the big "Pro" for the CoCo, the even bigger "Con" was 
the Bit-Map graphics system for games.  There was too much screen memory 
that needs to updated on each game frame and why most CoCo games are 
slow.  The Atari graphics system allowed for dramatic updates with very 
little memory updates.  (Good for any CPU.)

Yes, putting a 6309 CPU will improve some stuff.  But its the graphics 
system that limits most games.

Steve

On 3/1/2012 1:08 PM, Boisy G. Pitre wrote:
> On Mar 1, 2012, at 2:48 PM, Steve Bjork wrote:
>
>> As someone that programed "a few games" on both CPUs, the main advantage 
of the 6809 over the 6502 is handling large data-types.  The other problem 
with 6502 is the limited support for Object-oriented programming.  6809 and 
68000 series CPUs are geared for Object-oriented code, even in Assembly.
>>
>> The 6502 does lend itself to very tight and fast code.  (Important to 
fast games.) So, most (re-coded) games will not see much (if any) 
improvement because the CPU was changed to a 6809.
> Steve, I would think that there would exist inherent advantages in having 
a processor with more registers and a richer instruction set.  Granted, the 
Atari graphics and sound hardware make for the CPU having to do very 
little, but with fewer responsibilities, I would imagine that the 6809 
could edge out the 6502.  As I stated in the other post, having a 6309 
would definitely be an advantage over the 6809, as it is in the CoCo 
itself.
>
> Anyway, it's now possible to find out.
>
>> Steve
>>

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