Author Topic: ASM Tutorials (Read 7216 times)

Jon · « **on:** January 17, 2007, 05:39:00 pm »

I'm in the midst of writing z80 assembly tutorials, and I just wanted any input you can think of to help me make these user-friendly, and not complicated as hell

. For example, please tell me any of the main things that made you go o.o

when trying to read other assembly tutorials.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #1 on:** January 18, 2007, 02:03:00 am »

the fact that it's not software programming oriented enough, that it helps understanding ASM but it doesn't help making programs or small games. Something like ASM guru for regular 83 would be cool, but for 83+

Liazon · « **Reply #2 on:** January 18, 2007, 06:22:00 am »

In other words, teach people how to do simple things like matrix-based tilemapping and hit detection, which is something that I think a lot of basic guides teach. It kind eases the transition between basic and ASM.

However, warn that people should not use the same method OVER and OVER because sometimes things need to be modified for different situations.

bfr · « **Reply #3 on:** January 18, 2007, 11:15:00 am »

Teach people how to do common things done in games, which programmers will most likely be making (highscores, grayscale, tile-mapping). Also, try to explain how to use the VAT well, because even TI-83+ Assembly in 28 Days didn't really do a good job of explaining it well and giving methods how to access and get the values of things such as strings and other variables. Try to focus on the things that aren't in other tutorials.

Delnar_Ersike · « **Reply #4 on:** January 18, 2007, 01:38:00 pm »

Expand the harder parts into lots of tutorials *looks at Learning Assembly in 28 Days Day 2*. Cover the sections which explain the ASM equivalents of BASIC commands first, and make the guide understandable so even people who don't know a thing about coding on the computer (like me :oops:

)can dive in.

trevmeister66 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 18, 2007, 03:43:00 pm »

yeah i tried to start ASM, and i'm a pretty good programmer (not to be modest :king:

), but with the "ASM in 28 days", i couldn't understand much of anything. I just wanted to find out how to do sprites and hit detection. (and a menu).

Jon · « **Reply #6 on:** January 18, 2007, 04:38:00 pm »

I can teach you all about sprites

. Menus make my head hurt in ASM, even my 4-entry menu in my pong game is a nightmare of poorly-coded asm.

PS: I love plotting graphics in b/w, but not grayscale, cuz it makes my head hurt.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #7 on:** January 19, 2007, 02:03:00 am »

is it me or does handling text/strings seems so hard in asm compared to doing other complex stuff such as displaying maps/sprites?

Liazon · « **Reply #8 on:** January 19, 2007, 09:40:00 am »

QuoteBegin-Delnar_Ersike+18 Jan, 2007, 19:38-->

QUOTE (Delnar_Ersike @ 18 Jan, 2007, 19:38)

Expand the harder parts into lots of tutorials *looks at Learning Assembly in 28 Days Day 2*. Cover the sections which explain the ASM equivalents of BASIC commands first, and make the guide understandable so even people who don't know a thing about coding on the computer (like me :oops:

)can dive in.

that's the wrong way to learn ASM. Most of the basic commands are a combination of ASM routines made up of many many lines. It'd be kinda complicated to teach those things from the get go. For the most part, ASM is all about data manipulation. what appears on the screen depends on where you store it. patience, young padawan is the advice i'd give. but most people pick it up real quick if they just let it wash over them; they just learn about code as opposed to making games.

edit:

@xlibman: that's because most people will use ti-os ROM calls to display text since they dont' take up space in the program and they're already pretty good. It's just that you have to make sure you give the routine the right info. in terms of combining strings and all that, it's more of a matter of having space to do so and actually doing it. that's probably why a whole day is used in ASM in 28 to talk about strings.

Jon · « **Reply #9 on:** January 19, 2007, 05:18:00 pm »

Yeah that's an excellent point. You can't expect to be able to create brilliant game right out of the gate after reading some tutorials. ASM takes time. The way I would suggest is making a game while you learn ASM. That way, you can slowly learn new concepts, and then apply them to your game. My original Pong game was all ascii chars. It took me months of revision to get it to where it is now. So take some sort of game idea, program whatever you can with what you know, then learn what you need to know to finish the game.

Spellshaper · « **Reply #10 on:** January 19, 2007, 06:56:00 pm »

QuoteBegin-Jon+19 Jan, 2007, 23:18-->

QUOTE (Jon @ 19 Jan, 2007, 23:18)

Yeah that's an excellent point. You can't expect to be able to create brilliant game right out of the gate after reading some tutorials. ASM takes time. The way I would suggest is making a game while you learn ASM. That way, you can slowly learn new concepts, and then apply them to your game. My original Pong game was all ascii chars. It took me months of revision to get it to where it is now. So take some sort of game idea, program whatever you can with what you know, then learn what you need to know to finish the game.

*Delnar_Ersike

Author Topic: ASM Tutorials (Read 7216 times)

Liazon

Delnar_Ersike

Liazon

Delnar_Ersike

Delnar_Ersike