MAC/65

MAC/65 is a 6502 assembler written by Stephen D. Lawrow for Atari 8-bit computers. MAC/65 was first released on floppy disk by Optimized Systems Software in 1982¹, with the program requiring 16 KB RAM. A bank switched "SuperCartridge" from OSS followed in January 1984 for US$99, occupying only 8 KB. MAC/65 is structured similarly to the Atari Assembler Editor cartridge, combining a line editor, assembler, and debugger into a single package. Its reputation was based on being much faster than either the Assembler Editor or the standalone Atari Macro Assembler. Brian Moriarty of Infocom wrote, "No assembler [at the time] on the C64 even comes CLOSE to MAC/65. Take it from someone who looked for one." It was used to write numerous commercial games and applications, and the majority of assembly language listings in ANALOG Computing were written with MAC/65. According to Lawrow, MAC/65 was used to compile not only itself, but BASIC XL and BASIC XE.

MAC/65 is a 6502 assembler written by Stephen D. Lawrow for Atari 8-bit computers. MAC/65 was first released on floppy disk by Optimized Systems Software in 1982, with the program requiring 16 KB RAM. A bank switched "SuperCartridge" from OSS followed in January 1984 for US$99, occupying only 8 KB. MAC/65 is structured similarly to the Atari Assembler Editor cartridge, combining a line editor, assembler, and debugger into a single package. Its reputation was based on being much faster than either the Assembler Editor or the standalone Atari Macro Assembler. Brian Moriarty of Infocom wrote, "No assembler [at the time] on the C64 even comes CLOSE to MAC/65. Take it from someone who looked for one." It was used to write numerous commercial games and applications, and the majority of assembly language listings in ANALOG Computing were written with MAC/65. According to Lawrow, MAC/65 was used to compile not only itself, but BASIC XL and BASIC XE. ==MAC/65 ToolKit== The ToolKit was a floppy diskette filled with source code and examples for use with the MAC/65 assembler. The ToolKit required an Atari 8-bit with 48K of memory, a disk drive and the MAC/65 cartridge. The following is example code for Hello World! using the MAC/65 ToolKit: 0100 .OPT NO LIST 0110 ; 0120 ; HELLO.M65 0130 ; --------- 0140 ; 0150 ; THE HELLO WORLD TEST USING 0160 ; THE MAC/65 TOOLKIT 0170 ; 0180 RUNAD = $02E0 ; RUN ADDRESS 0190 EOL = $9B ; END-OF-LINE 0200 *= $4000 0210 ; 0220 MSG .BYTE "HELLO WORLD!",EOL 0230 ; 0240 .INCLUDE #D:KERNEL.M65 0250 ; 0260 START 0270 PRINT 0,MSG ; CHANNEL 0 0280 RTS ; RETURN TO DOS 0290 ; 0300 *= RUNAD 0310 .WORD START 0320 .END ASM ,,#D:HELLO.COM DOS HELLO.COM ==External links== retrobits.net Dan's OSS Supercart Page MAC/65 Online - MAC/65 Assembler Cartridge (manual) Compute! Magazine - Review: MAC/65, Issue 43, Dec 1983 Antic Vol. 2, No. 7 - Oct 1983 Nightmare Mission - MAC's the one for the job (Atari assemblers review) Antic Vol. 4, No. 1 - May 1985 Product Review - MAC/65 Toolkit

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