PiST - the Atari ST Assembly IDE with batteries included

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK]

https://github.com/idontwantyourspamthanks/PiST/releases

This is PiST. Program In ST. Sorry, couldn't help myself. It works definitely on Linux, almost certainly on Windows and possibly on Mac (I can't afford one so the build for Mac is purely theoretical - testers welcome).

What do you get?

- Full IDE with built-in Hatari fork and vasm - no config required
- Great debugging tools - registers, memory editing, breakpoints, symbols, a guide to GEMDOS calls, all in one package
- Mcp server if you want to do any vibe coding

Oh yeah and it comes with a sprite editor.

And that sprite editor that can read and write a bunch of formats including exporting pre-shifted and masked sprites and palette data ready to use, including a sample file to show that sprite moving around the screen.

Coming soon, a whole bunch of learning tools built in.

I'm incredibly proud of the work I've put into this, and trust me it's a hell of a lot. 25 years of software development and this is the coolest thing I've ever made, I hope you guys like it too.

[u/blu_fox01]

Well done, congrats

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/blu_fox01]

Thank you. I hope people build cool things with it. If they do, mission accomplished.

[u/braveness24]

This is so cool!

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/braveness24]

Very kind of you, I’m rather proud of it. It may be vibe coded but it’s been done with love, a lot of time, energy abd brainpower and billions of tokens! 

[u/ANewDawn1342 → u/KoalaSoftwareUK]

Dude everything is going to be vibe coded from now on, do not put it down.

AI IS the programming language.

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/ANewDawn1342]

True, in my day job basically all code is vibe coded. We get more done, the code is less buggy and I enjoy doing it. 

[u/jrherita]

This is great!! :)

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/jrherita]

Thank you! I really hope it helps people who want to build something cool. 

[u/garyk1968]

Nice, I did 6502 on my c64 but never got in 68K when I bought an ST but might jump back in.

You might be interested to know I asked Gemini: "any modern dev tools that allow you to target the st with tile and sprite editors?"

and it came back with:

Modern Tile & Sprite Workflows

Modern developers rarely use original 1980s software like NEOchrome or Degas Elite to design assets from scratch. Instead, they use modern pixel art software connected to conversion tools: [1, 2]

Modern Tool	Purpose	How it Targets the Atari ST
Aseprite	Sprite & Pixel Art Design	Industry-standard modern pixel editor. Developers draw tiles and animate sprites here, then use Python scripts, plugins, or community engines to convert the resulting .png grids into ST memory banks or raw bitplanes.
Tiled Map Editor	2D Level Design	A powerful, generic 2D map editor. You can paint tilemaps and design object layout grids. The data maps can be exported directly to formats compatible with custom ST code or active 16-bit frameworks.
Lemon & Lime / PiST	Native Sprite Bank Tooling	A newer, web-based open-source sprite utility built explicitly for retro development. It natively imports and exports STOS sprite banks (.mbk) and other raw ST image data directly, allowing you to bypass manual code converters entirely.

so boom showing up in the AI results!

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/garyk1968]

Woohoo, I’m AI-famous, Lemon and Lime is mine too!

[u/tstd0]

Impressive work, congrats and take this free reward.

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/tstd0]

Not sure how rewards work on Reddit, nor indeed what they are, i’m going to have to learn Reddit. Thank you though :)

[u/Subject-Hat7663]

Looks really awesome!! Thanks for your hard work!! I have a Mac so I can try to run it and report.

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/Subject-Hat7663]

Would definitely be interesting to see how it goes. I have a work Mac but it’s too locked down to do anything - almost works on that but not sure how much is corporate lock down and how much is just not working. 

[u/Subject-Hat7663 → u/KoalaSoftwareUK]

I made a plug-in for VsCode to edit and compile C code for 68000 Ataris using vbcc as backend, if you ever need something like that.

[u/pl0nk]

Time to get Pist with the lads.  Cool

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/pl0nk]

Everyone can get PiST, even kids. It’s fun for everyone. 

[u/sunrisebreeze]

Great contribution, thank you for sharing with the community!

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/sunrisebreeze]

I hope it’s a useful contribution. Ultimately if it gets a few more games onto the ST I’ll consider it a success. 

[u/Early80sDev]

I've literally just popped onto this sub to ask what IDEs / assemblers people are using to code ST games, and this is the first post I see! I shall give it a try.

[u/KoalaSoftwareUK → u/Early80sDev]

I really hope it hits the spot for you. I'm currently working on an update that is best described as "a bit fucking large" so hopefully in a day or two it'll be REALLY FUCKING USEFUL.