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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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TheRyk
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2246 |
Guess I was simply too young, didn't know the right ppl, read the one mags (mostly those focused on games) and had terrible IT teachers in the mid/late eighties. I 99% consumed and produced nothing really worth mentioning, unless sb gives a damn about BASIC at home (Atari800XL in the mid80s, C64 V2.0 later) and Comal/Pascal in school. Though my father was a professional coder, he didn't bother teaching us kids assembler, cause my mother was (rightly) of the opinion my bro and me spent far too much time indoors with the computer (gaming) anyway.
The rest is well-known (PC era --> roughly 15 years hardly any thought about 8bit apart from nostalgic talks with friends and booze --> ePay bargain --> hobby --> "collection" because friends gave me their ancient hardware/disks/whatsoever --> obsession? --> Codebase, Groepaz and other German forum users started teaching me what my father didn't back then...) :)
@Skate: In terms of gaming, Atari made you an outsider/weirdo at that time, C64 was the latest shit. But Atari Basic was really much better than C64 V2.0. You could do sooo many things so easily with intelligent commands instead of POKE/PEEK/SYS combos. |
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spider-j
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 498 |
Quoting TheRykGroepaz and other German forum users started teaching me what my father didn't back then...) :)
Yeah, maybe this is a good hint for beginners: learn german first and come to Forum64 :-) I think without guys like Groepaz, Peiselulli, Enthusi, Crossbow, Graham, etc... (sorry, can't list you all) who are so nice to spent their precious time patiently answering questions there to us 'newbies', we wouldn't even be able to do effects that - how Groepaz would say - were already old in 1985 :-) |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386 |
ugly sprites in sideborder never get old though :o) |
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Flimsoft
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2013
Posts: 2 |
I have just began reading on assembly language. I am reading the Commodore Reference Guide to begin with. It seems a challenge but BASIC did when I was learning that, suddenly things click into place.
I think once I understand what different memory locations do I might be onto a winner! Many things to grasp in the world of assembly.
I just ordered a beginners book by Shiva which I also have for BASIC programming. So hopefully in a couple of years time I might just be releasing my own demos :) |
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Adam
Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 323 |
first got started? well, it all started in 1987 (when i was 7yo) when my school teacher introduced us to BASIC programming. the man was light years ahead of other teachers and the education department. he knew computers were the future and educating his students to know how to use them was high on his list of teaching priorities. I didn't bother to learn assembler for the c64 until many years later. during my time on the amiga i did try and learn 680x0 but never got too far. music, girls and partying was more important then ;D
Here's what I used to try and learn machine language for the C64:
1. C= programmers reference guide
2. Commodore 64 Exposed by Bruce Bayley, published by Melbourne House (ISBN: 0-86161-133-0) (c)'83 beam software
3. How to program your Commodore 64 by Sam D. Robers, Ing.W. Hofacker (ISBN: 3-88963-184-3) (c)'84 Ing.W.Hofacker (germany)
4. Machine Code Graphics and Sound by Mark England and David Lawrence (ISBN: 0-946408-28-9) (c)'84
..and a few other books ;) |
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Conjuror
Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 168 |
I got started in 1982 when my primary school teacher introduced me to the VIC-20. A year later I got one at home and started to create clones of hand held Nintendo games in VIC-20 basic. I created about a dozen of these very quickly when I was taught collision detection was just peeking the screen location. A few years later I got the c128 and started to learn assembly. That's when I began to notice intros on games. I was still more interested in writing games but saw writing intro type effects as a way to learn the skills needed.
My only reference was the c64 programmers reference guide and for quite a while I used the action replay 5 monitor to do all my programming. In 1988 I met a lot more people locally from who I learnt about Zues64 Assembler, which I used for all my future c64 programming (until modern times - now its KickAssembler all the way) |
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Saxxon
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 12 |
How did I get started? Hmm..
I wrote a macro assembler specifically targeting C64, and then wrote some simple things in it. From this, I learned a lot about 6502 assembly. I then graduated to using cc65 and wrote lots of simple music routines until I got the hang of program flow and data control. This all started maybe two years ago, and was done in spare time in between work and other music projects.
The ultimate goal? To write a music routine that had a sound that I could call "mine", and also to crack some of my favorite old games. While I haven't written a music routine that I am (yet) satisfied with, I have had some success in cracking. |
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TPM
Registered: Jan 2004
Posts: 110 |
So you just started to write a macro assembler? You're a fast learner ;) |
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Saxxon
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 12 |
Quote: So you just started to write a macro assembler? You're a fast learner ;)
I was a programmer for many years before doing this project ;) Just never got into assembly, and of course it's so much more fun to roll your own when you know how! :D |
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Dr.j
Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 277 |
Hey I was never been in programming before ,was ripping'n'hacking
like most of the lamers in the good old days (when i was
at the Force '90-'91 ) started to study ASM from the beginners website of Richard Bayliss "The New Dimension" 4 years ago ,after then got big push from Steven Dalton who recommend to move to Kick Asm and send me over some examples he made , since then i hooked by Kick Asm. and started coding intros (big fun!) so i can say for myself you can always start coding 6502 no matter if you have or don't have coding background . |
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