bytes bits nibbles yes I do know, I also know about bit operations.

The largest semantic obstacle when learning axe is Pointers.  If you've never programed in a language that uses pointers before, you might have a hard time getting used to it.  The Wikipedia article about them is good, but its pretty technical and most of the examples are with C syntax.  The second important thing to be aware of is the difference between signed and unsigned numbers,  operations, and what you can actually store in the built in variables which are 16-bit integers instead of floats.  Once you get past those 2 things, you'll start having a lot of fun because you get a lot of power, some times too much when it causes ram clears or freezes, so be sure to use it responsibly and archive/backup anything important.

You can start on a big project if you want, but you'll want to have every important function as a subroutine so that you can work on the project step by step.  For instance, first write a routine "Draw Tile" that draws a tile and run the program to test it out.  Then, try to make a new routine "Draw Map" which calls the tile drawing routine to draw your tiles according to an array.  Then "Scroll Map" which scrolls the tile map, etc.  So as long as you keep working on smaller sections of code at a time, you might be able to manage a somewhat large project at the same time as you learn the language.  Good luck on your project!

Yeah I remember I had serious trouble with them at first (as well as storing to/reading from application variables). Thankfully I finally got used to them but you might want to check through some topics posted a while ago in the Axe sub-forums for them too.

To add to Quigibo comment on making your project in parts, if possible, I recommend still splitting your games in multiple files (and backing up regularly even on a computer or flash drive) even once you are very used to Axe. This makes it easier to scroll through code and data.

A large project by a beginner is possible, though. Maybe not by everyone but it can be possible by some people. tr1p1ea is one example (Desolate starting a few months after he starts learning ASM)

here are some basic ideas about axe:

data is generally defined as hex in [] brackets. [112233010203] defines 6 bytes of data in hexadecimal with the decimal equivalents 17,34,51,1,2,3. data can be defined with the command Data(). Data(17,34,51,1,2,3) is equivalent to [112233010203]. note that you cannot define a number greater than 255 with this method. though, Data(256r) would work, but it would also take up 2 bytes in memory.

pointers are central to axe. for example, [112233010203]->GDB1. GDB1 is a pointer to the start of the 6 bytes of data. you can access a certain byte of data at a pointer by using {} braces. so {GDB1} = 17. {GDB1+1} = 34, and so on. variables A-Z + theta are pointers. they are 2 bytes, therefore hold values 0-65535. if you subtract 1 from 0, you get 65535. if you add 3 to 65534, you get 1. rarely if ever do you use curly braces {} with just A-Z or theta inside.

Thank you for the example. It helped.

The largest semantic obstacle when learning axe is Pointers.  If you've never programed in a language that uses pointers before, you might have a hard time getting used to it.  The Wikipedia article about them is good, but its pretty technical and most of the examples are with C syntax.  The second important thing to be aware of is the difference between signed and unsigned numbers,  operations, and what you can actually store in the built in variables which are 16-bit integers instead of floats.  Once you get past those 2 things, you'll start having a lot of fun because you get a lot of power, some times too much when it causes ram clears or freezes, so be sure to use it responsibly and archive/backup anything important.

Thanks for the link. So pointers are something that start at the beginning of data in memory.I know about signed/unsigned and operations.

To add to Quigibo comment on making your project in parts, if possible, I recommend still splitting your games in multiple files (and backing up regularly even on a computer or flash drive) even once you are very used to Axe. This makes it easier to scroll through code and data.

I did that with a text based RPG I was making a while ago. Had one for the story, battles, store/inventory, and beastary.

This sounds interesting!  What are you planning in terms of enemies and items and weapons and features?  And as the others have said, Axe has similar syntax but some of the concepts are definetaly new.  If you have never coded a platformer before i definetaly recommend playing around in whatever language you plan to use and figure out how you are going to get your physics to work.

I don't lnow yet for enemy types. I guess Ill make that up as I go along. I definately wamt some kind of uber weapon as an easter egg. And I plan on having other easter eggs/unlockables.

This sounds like a cool project.  Good luck on it, as well as learning Axe.  If you want, feel free to look through the source to Axe Snake and Spider (click the ticalc banner in my sig to find them).  I hope you learn Axe and make this game, and many more. Smiley

Thank you Ill definitely look into them.

True. I had all game events for Metroid written on paper somewhere, like boss orders, items, where energy tanks may be, an idea of where each map sectors are located. It's also a good idea to get some tiles/sprites before starting but not too many eithers, since you may not use them all.

Thanks for the idea. I will try to do that.