Tag: 6502 Assembly

Woz to the Rescue! RetroChallenge 2018/04 – Update #11

One of the things I’m trying to do in this RetroChallenge is write a game for the Commodore CBM II series, while teaching myself Assembly. In my last update, I described the game engine I am working on, which is a sort of pseudo-3D FPS view mode (err, without the “S” part of FPS). As with just about any piece…

Designing a Game for a Failed 8-bit Platform With No Graphics – RetroChallenge 2018/04 – Update #10

This is my 10th, and presumably final RetroChallenge update: tomorrow is the end of the contest. Most people would say “Hey, you were crazy to set that goal in the first place, let alone start with only a day left.” Ah, what do they know? I just a game design, and write some code. Sure, I only started learning assembly…

Debugging 6502 Assembly Doesn’t Have to be Awful – RetroChallenge 2018/04 – Update #9

I do not remember how I debugged BASIC programs back in the 80s. To be honest, I do not even want to remember. I’m sure it was convoluted, ugly, and painful. You know what’s really nice? Modern development environments where you can step through your program, statement by statement, watch the variables change, maybe even change some yourself as you go,…

Setting Up a Modern Development Environment for 6502/6509/6510/8502 Assembly Language – RetroChallenge 2018/04 – Update #8

If you are following along from the last update, you now have assembled the pieces you need to start programming in 650x Assembly language. Since my RetroChallenge is focused on the Commodore CBM II (“B Series”) machines, I am going to be showing how to set a development environment for that machine. But the same environment will work just as…

The Only Thing We Have to Fear, is Assembly Itself – RetroChallenge 2018/04 – Update #7

  Assembly language: the very name strikes fear into the hearts of retro-computing oriented nerds everywhere. “I used to program my (Atari|Commodore|TI99|Apple|ZX Spectrum) in BASIC, and I always meant to do something in Assembly, but… ” If that sounds familiar to me, then this is the blog for you! Or rather, this is about the 100th blog for you, because…