4.2 First steps using GB-Basic

After the hardware had been built the functionality should be checked. An easy way of doing this is to write a short GB-Basic program. This requires an EPROM with the latest version of Jeff's GB-Basic (ver 1.22) in it. After pluging in the EPROM and switching on the GB the 'Nintendo' start screen should appear. If the screen is blank or 'snow', stripes appear on the screen the hardware should be checked.
Begin with a check of the EPROM (Programmers can read out the ROM's and cross check it with the source file), then re-check the layout. If GB-Basic is up and running you're more than half way home!
To check the 82C55 requires access to the 82C55 at the hardware addresses 7FF8h to 7FFFh. This can be achieved by reading and writing to these addresses using the Basic commands peek and poke.
To output a bit combination at a port simply write it with 'poke <port-adr> <value-to-write>. To read a bit combination from a port use 'peek <port-adr>'. TO display the returned value on screen use 'print peek <value>'. The address and value can be in decimal or hex (put a 'h' behind the value then). Don't forget that the ports of the 82C55 have to be set to either input or output mode before reading or writing data. This is done by writing the control word to 7FFFh (the control register) - see paragraph 3.2.
To generate a bit combination for testing use pull up or pull down resistors of aproximately 5k. Note that the driver capacitiy of the 82C55A is limited. To drive an LED for example requires an additional transistor.

4.3 The program

> See the program source
> download the program