piders7 Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 I'm having a lot of trouble getting started with assembly. Any tips? Example programs? Anything of the sort would be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Your question is _Very_ open ended, can you be more specific? -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eshu Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/47479-atari-programming-workshop-chapter-links/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 And this: http://atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-11104-lets-make-a-game/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piders7 Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 Sorry about that. Lemme put it this way: if you know Assembly, where or how did you first learn it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eshu Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Sorry about that. Lemme put it this way: if you know Assembly, where or how did you first learn it? Wow - didn't think I'd be able to find this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTcHNXalEtYkVtU00/view- learnt as a child from books from the library - seems like Usborne's released pdf's of all there cool computer books from the 80s: https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-coding-books/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Sorry about that. Lemme put it this way: if you know Assembly, where or how did you first learn it? Nobody really "knows assembly" in the general sense. Different types of processors have completely different assembly languages, although learning one does go a long way toward learning others. I first learned x86 assembly in college, as well as PIC assembly, but I've forgotten all the PIC stuff. I learned 6502 assembly a few years ago just by reading various online articles and browsing the books at http://www.atariarchives.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 1. get dasm, learn how to use it to assemble code into a binary.. for VCS programming, you need to use -f3 (to do raw output) 2. use Darrell Spice's Collect tutorial (google for it) 3. get any book on 6502 assembly that you can. Lawrence Leventhal's book is particularly excellent for algorithms 4. get a quick reference sheet for 6502 instructions. Learn and memorize the instructions AND THEIR CYCLE COUNTS. 5. experiment, experiment, experiment. 6. repeat step 5 endlessly. -Thom Addendum: you also need the Stella Programmer's Guide. This is a hardware manual for the system, and it is required so that you know the registers of the machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackAttack Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Don't forget to read the Stella programming guide a few times. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Here's a related link: randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories.html#assembly_language Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Don't forget to read the Stella programming guide a few times. I second this, I love the guide! Without knowing the ins and the outs of the hardware I'd never have been able to make my scrolling kernel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDS Games Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Sorry about that. Lemme put it this way: if you know Assembly, where or how did you first learn it? Bit of background: I had immense problems learning Assembly back in the 80s...my younger brother was writing programs with ease and I couldn't even figure out a single instruction. It was very intimidating for me. I eventually learned it from hacking. I wanted to customize games so I would open them up in Stella and start by tweaking graphics code. Then I would study some disassemblies and eventually learn how the program was calling that code. Started with Combat, Air Sea Battle, moved to Superman and other games, and started to see patterns. I'd come on this forum and ask question--how do you bankswitch, is my problem here too many cycles, etc? The hacking projects got progressively more complicated until I got to the point where I could blank out code I didn't need and write whole new routines from scratch. If you're having trouble with abstract code instruction, try messing around in some games that have a good disassembly. Combat's great to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeChuck Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Sorry about that. Lemme put it this way: if you know Assembly, where or how did you first learn it? I learned x86 assembly in high school using a Peter Norton book from the library. Like most good tutorials, it started out assuming you know nothing and built onto a project piece by piece. It also got you familiar with using a debugger, which is just as important as being able to write and build code. I learned Motorola 6800 assembly from college classes, and various other instruction sets from work and side projects. The suggestions above are spot-on - find a good book or online tutorial, get a simple program building, and start experimenting and stepping through your code with a debugger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr SQL Posted December 17, 2016 Share Posted December 17, 2016 Sorry about that. Lemme put it this way: if you know Assembly, where or how did you first learn it? Great question - most of us who know Assembly did not learn it starting with the VCS because the architecture is not predisposed to learning Assembly unless you use a Framework like bB or vwB which offer phantom hardware for a framebuffer and x,y addressable sprites. Otherwise you have to create your own video driver and graphics card in software (kernel) for your Assembly program to use which is very advanced difficulty level; starting with Assembly 500 instead of Assembly 100 can make it a lot harder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 Sorry about that. Lemme put it this way: if you know Assembly, where or how did you first learn it? I learned it when I was back in Jr High, from this awesome book: http://fd.fabiensanglard.net/prince_of_persia/Inside%20the%20Apple%20IIe.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 I eventually learned it from hacking. I wanted to customize games so I would open them up in Stella and start by tweaking graphics code. Then I would study some disassemblies and eventually learn how the program was calling that code. Started with Combat, Air Sea Battle, moved to Superman and other games, and started to see patterns. I'd come on this forum and ask question--how do you bankswitch, is my problem here too many cycles, etc? The hacking projects got progressively more complicated until I got to the point where I could blank out code I didn't need and write whole new routines from scratch.That about how I started learning assembly back in the 80ies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piders7 Posted December 25, 2016 Author Share Posted December 25, 2016 Any kinda example, novice program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 Any kinda example, novice program? My Collect series has lots of comments in the code, should be fairly easy to follow. The blog lists newest entry first, so go to the bottom of the last page to start from the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piders7 Posted December 25, 2016 Author Share Posted December 25, 2016 (edited) Thank you so much! Edited December 25, 2016 by piders7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 Random Terrain converted my Collect series to a set of web pages, which you may find to be easier to follow. If you have questions about a particular entry use the link at the top-right of each page to get back to the original blog post, then post your questions there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 Look for "How to draw a playfield", that id weldocumented and simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 Look for "How to draw a playfield", that id weldocumented and simple. Here's a related link: randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories.html#assembly_language 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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