VCSIDE 0.1.0

What is new

The first version of VCSIDE, a small native IDE for making Atari 2600 games on macOS, Windows and Linux.

• Three kinds of project: assembly with DASM, batari Basic 1.9, and C for ELF cartridges (PlusCart, UnoCart, Chameleon Cart). New projects start from a template or an example, and folders that build with a Makefile of their own work too.
• Build, run and debug with F7, F5 and F6 in Stella or Gopher2600. Errors go to Problems, breakpoints go to the emulator on the right address and bank, and Go to address takes an address the emulator shows back to its source line.
• An editor that knows the 2600: the cycles of every instruction (click them for the line's address), 6502 page separators in assembly, the total of the selected lines in scanlines, help and completion for instructions, registers and your own symbols, folding, and Ctrl/Cmd+click on symbols and included files.
• Documentation for all 256 6502 opcodes, the TIA and RIOT registers, cartridge formats and TV standards, with its sources.
• Space report after every build: bytes per bank, RAM and stack, cartridge RAM, and for ELF the flash and RAM of the Chameleon Cart or the RAM of the PlusCart and UnoCart, as chosen for the project.
• Graphics editor for sprites built from the TIA's objects, flicker, animations and playfields, drawn as the kernel will draw them, with tables for DASM, batari Basic or C kept up to date on save.
• Sessions: closing VCSIDE keeps its windows, projects, open files, cursors and breakpoints, and opening it again brings them back. The project panel shows every file and dims what Git ignores.
• Themes (Dark, Light, Solarized and your own) and the interface in English and Spanish.

Download

System	File	What is in it
macOS 11 or later (Apple silicon and Intel)	VCSIDE-0.1.0-macos.dmg	Disk image with VCSIDE.app: drag it to Applications
	VCSIDE-0.1.0-macos.zip	The same VCSIDE.app
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit (Windows 11 on Arm runs it too)	vcside-0.1.0-windows-x86_64-setup.exe	Installer for your user, no administrator rights needed: Start menu shortcut and uninstaller
	vcside-0.1.0-windows-x86_64.zip	vcside.exe and its data folder: keep them together
Linux x86-64, glibc 2.41 or later (Debian 13, Ubuntu 25.04, Fedora 42)	vcside-0.1.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	vcside and its data folder: keep them together
Linux arm64 (Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 with a 64-bit system), glibc 2.41 or later	vcside-0.1.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz	vcside and its data folder: keep them together

VCSIDE needs OpenGL 2.1 or later and nothing else of its own: SDL3 is built in.

These builds are not signed yet. On macOS, the first time you open VCSIDE the system says it cannot check the developer: open System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway (or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine VCSIDE.app). On Windows, SmartScreen may stop it: More info → Run anyway.

VCSIDE does not bundle the tools it works with. Install the ones your projects need: DASM for assembly, batari Basic 1.9 and wasmtime for batari Basic, the Arm GNU toolchain and GNU Make for C on ELF cartridges, and Stella or Gopher2600 to run and debug. Settings → Tools says what it found, with each download page.

Checksums (SHA-256)

4fe44c4261cad9a027b6dd7b985272ce062a897501ac7179d2757507442197e9  VCSIDE-0.1.0-macos.dmg
8fc3aa61a075a66bb4f00acd94128f28de22c8d54da8df94272c76c0a015c5ec  VCSIDE-0.1.0-macos.zip
a4a83649db5370125df950643367bff30425bed3440eca3c0accff1b35cc8386  vcside-0.1.0-windows-x86_64-setup.exe
3c702addc80ee454cfa27dce38e1bd479a814b93ce3bf179839c0ad73a6e9581  vcside-0.1.0-windows-x86_64.zip
d9ba42b09cedfefe223df94b10b53d304c6c2224753793e8d7a305a8e48cd473  vcside-0.1.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
5938bae6f81fc802d340eae4ef532b8c44785703316960ffd59108ff1735c6c8  vcside-0.1.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz