I only recently decided I wanted to be a programmer. I know I'm going to have to be just a hobbyist for a long time, and I'm the artsy type, so I figured that 8-bit demos might not be a bad place to start. I think I have the fundamentals of BASIC down, though most of what I've done is in QBASIC and VBScript, and I'm wondering how to start. I downloaded an Atari 800 emulator the other day but am still trying to figure out how to work the disk and tape emulation.
I was hoping someone could answer my questions:--
1) How hard is it to dive into 6502 Assembly straight from BASIC? Am I wasting my time with old type-in programs like 101 BASIC games, etc? Alot of the books I've found seem to want you to go straight to Assembly from BASIC. Should I detour into C?
2) Is there a better emulator than this one: http://atari800.sourceforge.net/?And are there ROMs online of a different implementation of BASIC? And Assembler? Or C?