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VCS-Dle

Download the ROM here!

Emulator screenshot

This is a clone of a hit game Wordle for Atari 2600 video game console. It was made mainly as a challenge and a curiosity on what is the most limited platform that could run this simple game. For a quick refresher, released in 1977, this system has:

  • 1.19 MHz 6502-based 8-bit CPU, only 76 cycles per scan-line
  • Only 4 KiB of address space available for banked ROM
  • Only 128 bytes (yes, no prefixes) of RAM for variables and stack
  • No frame buffer or tile maps, the CPU has to drive graphics line-by-line on software
  • Only one timer source, no any kind of interrupts at all

Features

  • All of gameplay from the original game, including hard mode
  • Switchable color scheme between yellow/white and white/green through BW/Color console switch
  • Timer for how long you've been keeping the streak
  • Sound effects!

Limitations

  • No sharing
  • Only 5378 words out of original 13k are valid, since I really want to fit this under 16K for extra bragging points
  • Not all edge cases for wrong spot letters are handled, specifically those that are repeated to the right
  • No detailed statistics such as Win % or guess distribution
  • Only not-in-word letters are marked on the keyboard, due to hardware limitations
  • Only NTSC build for now, although colors are chosen to be compatible with PAL too

Controls

Both controller ports are accepted and treated as a single one

  • Up, Down, Left, Right - Move cursor around the virtual keyboard
  • Fire - Push the selected keyboard button
  • Select - Select between easy mode and hard mode, only works on the first guess just like the original game
  • Reset - Opens a GIVE UP? prompt, push again to immediately lose the current game
  • BW/Color switch - Switch between color schemes as described above, only effective in the next game

Building

64tass is required to assemble source files and build the ROM. Grab it and then run this in a command line:

64tass -C -a -b -o wordle.bin src/main.asm

Additionally, there are two Python 3 scripts that generate graphics binary and word list. Although not all source files for them are supplied.