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Publication date 1983, 1985 Dewey Decimal 005.265 19 Originally published 1983 Publisher Compute! Country United States of America | 4.8/5 Goodreads ISBN 0-87455-004-1 LC Class QA76.8.A82 C424 1985 Subject Atari 8-bit family OCLC 13271042 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mapping the Atari, written by Ian Chadwick in 1983, is a location-by-location explanation of the Atari 8-bit family's memory map. It was one of the "must have" references for programming the platform, although it was published somewhat late in the machine's timeline. An updated version covering changes to the operating system and newer machines like the 130XE followed in 1985.
The book contained not only the memory map, but often included details of how to use them as well. For instance, location 756 (2F4) CHBAS contained the starting memory address that told the ANTIC where to find the character set. The book goes into several pages of detail on how to use this feature to build custom character sets. One "problem" with the book was that the memory locations controlling a particular feature, character sets for instance, would be spread out over many pages of the text, each with their own little snippets of code.
Reception
The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984 recommended Mapping the Atari, calling it "the most valuable reference book for machine language programmers".