OK I think I'm gonna give this a try....a few questions first...

[godzillajoe]

Forgive my inane questions but I have some down time at work so I thought I'd investigate seriously getting into some attempt at 2600 programming to make the days pass quicker.

 

My questions are these.....

 

I have some programming experience with C, C++, Visual Basic, a bit of Java. I even did some VAX Assembler back in college but that was half a lifetime ago.

 

So, in the interest of getting started should I grab one of the Machine Language For Beginners books from the AA text archives and run through that first or just jump right into Session 1 of the programming tutorial that Andrew did?

 

Second, and this is a dumb question but if I decide to check out the MLFB book, that was written for Atari and C= 64 so how would I go about working with that? On a C= 64 emulator?

 

Any input would be great.

[SeaGtGruff]

So, in the interest of getting started should I grab one of the Machine Language For Beginners books from the AA text archives and run through that first or just jump right into Session 1 of the programming tutorial that Andrew did?

 

Second, and this is a dumb question but if I decide to check out the MLFB book, that was written for Atari and C= 64 so how would I go about working with that? On a C= 64 emulator?

I don't think the MLFB book would help much with the 2600 (i.e., I think any examples it gives will probably be geared toward the 800, C64, or maybe an Apple), but it might be helpful for getting familiar with 6502 assembly and common sorts of assembly routines. You could actually get a lot of information about 6502 assembly from www.6502.org; they have one page that nicely summarizes the different opcodes and address modes.

 

You will also want to get the Stella programmer's guide, which is available on several web sites. This will help you with the 2600 and TIA.

 

If you're going to be programming the 2600, I wouldn't worry about trying to learn 6502 assembly on a C64 emulator, unless you're going to be programming the C64.

 

MR