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ChristopherJam
Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 1409 |
How did you get started?
I noticed a lot of reminiscing on PAL's "I want to code" thread, which was interesting to read, but pretty off topic so I'm starting a new topic over here :)
I, too, got my c64 coding off the ground with a copy of the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference guide (pdfs of which can now be found at http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_programmers_reference/c64-p.. ). Initially I was assembling by hand, and entering the code as BASIC DATA statements - I don't miss those days at all.
I switched to FASSEM as soon as I got hold of a copy (in 1986 IIRC), and did a lot of debugging of my own code and examining of others' using my brother's Final Cartridge, before eventually graduating to an Action Replay (don't ask me to remember which versions!) I particularly remember spending hours poring over a disassembly of Walker's music routine as extracted from Armalyte, and printed out on sheets of green and white paper.
My fastload coding bible was and still is Immers & Neufeld's "Inside Commodore DOS" - one of the few paper books I still refer to.
How did you guys get going?
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SIDWAVE
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2238 |
I learned from using/watching Kaze's sourcecodes for our demos, TST. Then i learned from ripping tons of music, seeing all kinds of code in games and demos.
I had an assembler from the start in 86. Whole TST used CBM macro asm, with Kwik-Write (word processor) as editor.
I didnt get the PRG book before 1993, and then i knew it all.
Using assembler from the start, has made me a very structured coder, and i hardly make any bugs.
The very first "start" of anything, was to use a diskmonitor, and write greetings to myself in various crackintros. (85) :-) |
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spider-j
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 498 |
I really started with Puterman's article (already mentioned in the other thread):
http://codebase64.org/doku.php?id=base:demo_coding_introduction
Then I bought 'Alles über den C64' (which I think is the german version of the programmers reference guide) and '64 intern' as books. |
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MagerValp
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1078 |
Datormagazin's assembler school circa 1988 and the FC3 monitor. |
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Mr. SID
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 424 |
FC3 monitor too, later Giga-Ass, then Turbo-Ass. Rodney Zaks' 6502 book stolen from school library (still have it!) + I/O register guide from C64 manual. |
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Bob
Registered: Nov 2002
Posts: 71 |
this was back in 1985/1986
I was merely 15 years old and had a desire to do stuff other then playing games, luckily there where some good coders around me that could guide me..
like Gullum/CCS (computer brains cracking service) he was basically the one that showed me initial that you need a final cartridge to start with... floppy drive etc..
and he was a heavy name already back then, I was merely a noob hangaround back then ;) how ever not long before some friends and I started swapping games and that proved to be Contring, Swallow and Euzkera ;) anyways who really got me to start coding was Lorien / Defjam
thats where every thing startet, he was a subscriber of zzap64 :) and there where some minor articles about demos and coding but that was enough to light our fire and so it startet a loong journey ;)
so the big WOW's where 1001 crew the judges with think twice,, those demos where absolutely stunning, I forgot about games and used to watch these for hours and they where my heroes.. and one or two years later I was doing the same things ;) ish..
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Street Tuff
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 88 |
started in smon and later in fc3 monitor. learned from some articles in 64er magazin and from the rodney zacks book that i stole like mr.sid from the school library. what a coiincidence :-D |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386 |
i blame my father :) he is a math teacher and back in 85 the school got a dozen c64 setups sponsored from commodore. math teachers were supposed to become cs teachers, so he brought the thing home at weekends and holidays, including a ton of literature on general programming, algorithms and BASIC :) somehow i was so fascinated about it that i didnt even miss the games - and it turned out that after a few weeks i would be the one to explain things to my father, instead of the other way around =) somehow it then showed quickly that what i wanted is making demos, this is something i could rescue from the very first tape i had =) a year or two later i was introduced to The Famous Five and Florasoft and eventually formed my own shitty local lamer group International Cracking Entertainment .....
as for coding, i have used SMON and then AR-monitor - i did not know about "real assembler" until 1995, when i re-joined the scene :) |
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algorithm
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 705 |
Started out by reading and following tutorials in a book (think it was from jim butterfield) used smon for coding until I got an AR cartridge. Then would look into code in demos from this and get an idea how irqs were set up etc. At the period 1994 to 1995 I must have coded around 80 demo parts using AR and tape deck. All of which was ofcourse rubbish.
Did not touch c64 assembler at all until i had a pc. Started making c64 demos again with previous knowledge on amiga and pc probably some time in late 2006. |
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Martin Piper
Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 722 |
Quoting ChristopherJamInitially I was assembling by hand, and entering the code as BASIC DATA statements - I don't miss those days at all.
While I started on the ZX81 with BASIC it was really the C64 where I started to really fall in love with machine code.
Write assembler on a note pad. Write hex codes next to the assembler. Poke, lots of poke. Crash. Try again.
Lots of screen/border effects and raster split tests.
I wish I still had my original notes. They were in my old C64 box stored at my parent's place, but during a move many moons ago the old note pads got lost.
I do not miss the 1KB of memory or the wobbly 16KB RAM expansion. Not one bit. |
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Radiant
Registered: Sep 2004
Posts: 639 |
I started writing shitty BASIC "games" and even some simple demos when I was 8-9 years old (1990-ish). I knew back then that you were supposed to use machine code if you wanted to get any good results, but I only had one friend who was into programming and neither he or I had any idea how we'd go about learning it, nor what software/hardware we would need to do it... Needless to say we didn't have any money of our own either.
Then I got an Amiga and stuck with various BASIC dialects such as AMOS and Blitz Basic 2 until I was 15 when I finally learned C. From then on I've coded stuff in many different languages, tried my hand at for example OS programming as well as web development, application coding, games development and even some PC demo coding, but it wasn't until I finally got a Retro Replay and diskdrive for my C64 in 2004 that I found what I'd been searching for programming wise. I remember basically coding all day and night back then, in a state of total bliss over what I'd found. :-)
Puterman's tutorial helped me a lot, but it was actually Cruzer's tutorial over at C64.ch that got me started with the first baby steps. |
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