Bally Alley - The Newsletter for Astrocade Users

Astrocade Machine Language Tools

Using these tools, you can create programs for the Astrocade and use them with the Astrocade emulator or burn them to an EPROM and use them with the real thing.

1) DZ80 Dissassembler (Ver. 1.5) 2) DZ80 Dissassembler (Ver. 2.0) 3) Lua (For use the DZ80 2.0)	DZ80 Dissassembler A very nice Z-80 Disassembler for Windows. Version DZ80, version 2.0, requires Lua, which is a powerful, light-weight programming language designed for extending applications. A direct link to DZ80's homepage is here.
DZ80 Dissassembler Script	DZ80 Dissassembler Script A Script for use with the DZ80 Disassembler, version 2.0. This makes it so that there is no more adjusting garbage code following RST $38 syssuk'ed routines! Created by Richard Degler. You can read Richard's full comments here.
	Color Viewer, Color Matcher, and Color Table. By Ryland Dagger. 2025. These three utilities for the Bally Astrocade run on a cartridge that help developers preview, compare, and select colors on real hardware. These tools make it easier to design palettes for games and demos while seeing exactly how colors appear on an actual console rather than an emulator. Ryland continues to update these utilities and posts them to GitHub: "Most Up-to-Date Version" Included Utilities 1. Color Viewer Browse through the Astrocade color palette eight colors at a time. Features Displays eight consecutive colors per page. Joystick cycles pages. Knob allows fast color jumps with a trigger interlock. 2. Color Matcher Compare and adjust multiple colors at once. Features Four independent color rows. Select a row and adjust its color using the joystick. Knob allows fast cycling, also with trigger interlock. 3. Color Table (New) Displays all 64 colors per page in a large grid with an independently adjustable background. Features Displays full 64-color tables per page. Joystick left and right moves between pages. Pulling the trigger limits movement to a single column shift. Joystick up and down changes the background color. Knob provides fast background color cycling. Very helpful for choosing contrasting foreground and background colors on real hardware.
Howdif	Howdif A small program to compare the differences between binary files. The Windows Command Line provides a command called FC (File Compare) that works well too.
HVGLIB.H	Home Video Game Library Equates. This is an equate file for Bally / Astrocade assembly language programming. If you're going to be creating machine language programs with the Nutting Manual, then you need this Astrocade equate file. This is version 3.02, with updates from Richard Degler.
IDA Disassembler	IDA Disassembler An interactive disassembler for the Z-80 (be sure to set it for use with the Z-80!).
MESS Debugger Tips	MESS Debugger Tips Notes from Richard Degler (March 2, 2008, Message #5387): MESS debugger's command-line errors only tell you "unknown command" or "not enough parameters for command". And the on-line help is not much better if you don't know what you need help with. It's like looking up the spelling of a word in the dictionary when you don't even know the word exists in the first place! So here's the help text ripped from MESS v.0.123(debugger)'s messdlib.dll file. Giving it the once over will let you know what it can do better than just seeing "MAME new debugger, etc" Although the next line: "Currently targeting astrocade (Bally Professional Arcade)" sort of lets you know it's doing Z-80 disssembling. [One other change was made. Line breaks were added after 79 characters.]
PSPAD Code Editor Website Link	PSPAD Freeware Code Editor PSPad is a great code editor. Using it in conjuction with the Zmac Z80 assembler really makes programming for the Bally Astrocade a much easier affair. Try it out and see what you think! Once you get used to it, you'll never want to go back to using just the command line and Notepad ever again!
PSPad Editor Tip	PSPad Editor Tip: How to Launch MESS from within PS-Pad - By Richard Degler PSPad is a great code editor. It is a wonderful way create Z80 source code for use with the ZMac Z80 assembler. The ability to launch MESS from within the editor after the source code has been assembled brings PSPad very close to being an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
PSPAD New Z-80 INI	PSPAD: New Z-80 INI - By Richard Degler This is a Highlighter definition file with all of HVGLIB.H words included. This will make working with Z80 assembler easier to read.
WinHex	WinHex The best Windows hex editor that I've seen. A direct link to WinHex's homepage is here.
Zmac13_win32	Zmac Assembler (Windows Command Line Version) A Z-80 cross assembler compiled for the Windows command line. HVGLIB.H works great with this assembler.
zmac-linux	Zmac Assembler (Linux Command Line Version) A Z-80 cross assembler for RH Linux. HVGLIB.H works great with this assembler.