Re: 6502 illegal opcodes questions

[heuser.marcus@freenet.de]

> It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If enough people write applications
> that depend on undocumented behavior, then that behavior becomes
> a "feature" that cannot be changed in future versions--usually
> preventing useful improvements.

IMHO Atari didn't even seriously consider replacing the 6502. The 8-bit
platform was virtually unchanged for ten years. The machines were cash
cows and the Tramiel-aera Atari concentrated in making them cheaper and
cheaper (to compete with Commodore and reach the Eastern Europe market)
- so there was small room to get innovative.

The case with the 2600 is even clearer IMHO: It used the cheaper 6507
and the video game market crash in 1983 did the rest.

I really don't think that Atari even had the telephone number of WDC...

> (Not that I think of the 65C02 as much of an improvement.  All the
> changes made in the 65C02 were what is known technically in the
> computer architecture community as "mouse nuts".  ;-)

Ha ha - now that's a technical term I can learn quickly!

bye
Marcus