Learning 68K Assembler

[ollygd]

Hi all,

I'm interested in learning (Amiga) 68k assembley language. I know its no small undertaking, but time is on my side! Can anybody recommend some material which would suit a complete beginner?

Plus, is the Motorola CPU emulated perfectly in WinUAE? Can I practice in WinUAE?

Thanks in advance,

Olly

[NovaCoder]

ollygd wrote:
Hi all,

I'm interested in learning (Amiga) 68k assembley language. I know its no small undertaking, but time is on my side! Can anybody recommend some material which would suit a complete beginner?

Plus, is the Motorola CPU emulated perfectly in WinUAE? Can I practice in WinUAE?

Thanks in advance,

Olly



This is a good place to start (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=27577).

Amiga Dev (http://www.monkeyhouse.eclipse.co.uk/amiga/dev.htm)


Code will run well in WinUAE but to really test it you'll need some real hardware.

[ollygd]

That was quick! Thanks very much. I'll let you know how i get on.

[Piru]

@ollygd
Plus, is the Motorola CPU emulated perfectly in WinUAE?
For most parts yes. There are some things that are not 100% but you'll probably never run into them.

Can I practice in WinUAE?
Yes.



_LVOOpenLibrary equ -552
_LVOCloseLibrary equ -414
_LVOOutput equ -60
_LVOWrite equ -48

Main:
move.l (4).w,a6
lea (dosname,pc),a1
moveq #0,d0
jsr (_LVOOpenLibrary,a6)
move.l d0,d7
beq.b .exit
move.l d7,a6

jsr (_LVOOutput,a6)
move.l d0,d1
lea (msg,pc),a0
move.l a0,d2
moveq #-1,d3
.loop:
addq.l #1,d3
tst.b (a0)+
bne.b .loop
jsr (_LVOWrite,a6)

move.l d7,a1
move.l (4).w,a6
jsr (_CloseLibrary,a6)

.exit:
moveq #0,d0
rts

dosname:
dc.b "dos.library",0
msg:
dc.b "Good luck with your studies!",10,0

[ollygd]

Haha! Cheers for that!

I wondered if you knew if Paul Overaa's books were obtainable in pdf format? Just following one of NovaCode's links brought me to a recommendation for these tites. They are available on ebay - albiet for around £90.

I don't mind ponying up if I have to but I wonder since they are out of print....?

[bloodline]

Ahhh, Masochism is still rife in the Amiga comunity I see ;-)

68K asm is actually quite fun, though I'm loathed to go near asm now... C++ really makes you life so much easier!

Paul's book is little more than a 68000 ref, wikipedia probably has a guide that will work for you... Other than painfully learning about addressing modes and setting up stack frames, there is not really much to learn... Make sure you get a good ref of the Amiga chipset regs... And you are away!


$0.02: My advice, learn C and SDL ;-)

[hardlink]

bloodline wrote:
$0.02: My advice, learn C and SDL ;-)


But there's nothing like being 'on the metal"!
When stepping through the program, the 68K CPU provides a built-in real-time 100% accurate interpreter of the code :horse:

[mongo]

You can download a copy of the 68000 Family Programmer's Reference Manual from Freescale.

[ollygd]

Thats what I was thinking. Very long term, I'd love to get into coding retro games for legacy amiga systems. I believe theres nothing like getting right down there to get the most out of the hardware.

Bloodline is right though....C is a hell of a lot less hassle! I have plenty of time though - no hurry. :-)

[ollygd]

mongo wrote:
You can download a copy of the 68000 Family Programmer's Reference Manual from Freescale.

Thanks, i'll take a look.

[DinGBaT]

olly, i may have a few old asm books laying around from back in the day. if your interested & i can find them your welcome to have them as long as ya pay the postage & give them a good home :) i have to tell ya though i am form .au the postage could be costly depending on where your located.

regards DinG.

[ollygd]

DinGBaT wrote:
olly, i may have a few old asm books laying around from back in the day. if your interested & i can find them your welcome to have them as long as ya pay the postage & give them a good home :) i have to tell ya though i am form .au the postage could be costly depending on where your located.

regards DinG.

Hey - that would be fantastic! Thanks very much...let me know if you find them and we can sort out the payment once we get an idea of cost/weight etc...

I think a slow postage would still be cheaper than getting them off ebay....and i can guarantee a good home! :-)

Whenever is convenient for you. Cheers!

[DinGBaT]

well your in luck :) the only two i have left are

68000 assembly language programming second edition
isbn 0-07-881232-1

and

amiga machine language by abacus
isbn 1-55755-025-5
i think this was the better of the two ?

around 1kg

pm me with a location so i can look up the postage cost :)

[ollygd]

DinGBaT wrote:
well your in luck :) the only two i have left are

68000 assembly language programming second edition
isbn 0-07-881232-1

and

amiga machine language by abacus
isbn 1-55755-025-5
i think this was the better of the two ?

around 1kg

pm me with a location so i can look up the postage cost :)

Great stuff! I'm in London, UK. I'll send a private message to you with my address and contact email etc.

Thanks for your efforts, man! I do appreciate it.