Learn Assembly Language By Making Games For The Atari 2600

Programming games for the Atari 2600 platform using 6502 Assembly Language

What you'll learn

Programming for the Atari 2600

Assembly 6502 Language

Manipulating Video, Audio, and Input data

Creating Game ROM Cartridges

Computer Architecture and Low-Level Programming

Requirements

No requirements

Description

Are you feeling a bit lost in this fast-paced jungle that is the world of software development today?Do you need some refreshing vacation where you learn something really small, nerdy, and fun?Well, book your tickets!This course will teach you the basics of programming games for the classic Atari 2600 console using 6502 Assembly Language. If you are a complete beginner or if you are a pro developer, chances are you will learn something new and enjoy poking the bytes of a simple and minimal hardware architecture that is the classic Atari 2600 VCS.Join me if you want to:Expand your knowledge of computer architecture and low-level programmingUnderstand what happens under the hood when you write something as simple as print("Hello World") in your favorite high-level languageLearn to code game elements for the Atari 2600 system using 6502 assembly language.Create your own Atari ROM cartridges and run them with an Atari emulatorThere are no real requirements to this course and beginners are welcomed. You only need to know how to work with computers, copy files around, and a code editor.Please be aware that I will use Linux in the videos… but both Atari emulator and Dasm assembler work under Linux, Windows, and macOS. So, you will be able to use any operating system you want to take this course.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Motivations and Learning Outcomes

Section 2: Hardware & Architecture

Lecture 2 Hardware and Specs

Lecture 3 The Popularization of Game Cartridges

Lecture 4 Your First Game Console

Lecture 5 Digital Binary System

Lecture 6 Counting in Base 10 & Base 2

Lecture 7 Hexadecimal Notation

Lecture 8 The 6502/6507 Processor

Lecture 9 Processor Status Flags

Section 3: 6502 Assembly Programming

Lecture 10 The Assembler Flow

Lecture 11 Assembly Language(s)?

Lecture 12 Popular 6502 Assembly Instructions

Lecture 13 Installation and Tools

Lecture 14 Picking a Code Editor

Lecture 15 Our First Assembly Code

Lecture 16 The DASM Assembler

Lecture 17 The Stella Emulator

Lecture 18 The Javatari Emulator

Lecture 19 Installing DASM on Windows

Lecture 20 Our First Assembly Bug

Lecture 21 Important Assembly Terminology

Section 4: 6502 Instruction Set

Lecture 22 Different Addressing Modes

Lecture 23 6502 Instruction Set

Lecture 24 6502 Instructions Warm-up Exercises

Lecture 25 6502 Exercises Walkthrough

Lecture 26 Is the Atari 2600 a Proper Computer?

Section 5: VCS Memory Map and the TIA

Lecture 27 VCS Memory Map

Lecture 28 Memory Map and Page Zero

Lecture 29 Sending Instructions to the Display

Lecture 30 Stella Debugger Warnings

Lecture 31 NTSC Video Synchronization

Lecture 32 Painting the CRT

Section 6: TIA Objects

Lecture 33 TIA Screen Objects

Lecture 34 Players, Missiles, and Balls

Lecture 35 Playfield

Lecture 36 Playfield (Exercise)

Lecture 37 NTSC vs. PAL

Lecture 38 Player Bitmap and Scoreboard

Lecture 39 Playfield Color

Lecture 40 Playfield Pixel Size

Lecture 41 Declaring Variable Names

Lecture 42 When to use .byte, .word, and ds?

Lecture 43 A Quick Discussion on Registers & Variables

Section 7: Horizontal and Vertical Positioning

Lecture 44 Vertical Positioning

Lecture 45 Implementing Vertical Position

Lecture 46 Representing Graphics Data in Games

Lecture 47 Horizontal Positioning

Lecture 48 "Fine" Horizontal Positioning

Lecture 49 Implementing Horizontal Positioning

Lecture 50 Horizontal Position (Exercise)

Lecture 51 Horizontal Position (Solution)

Lecture 52 Horizontal Position & Keeping Time

Lecture 53 A Deeper Look into Horizontal Positioning

Section 8: Clock Cycles

Lecture 54 Counting Clock Cycles

Lecture 55 Undocumented OpCodes

Section 9: Controller Input

Lecture 56 Joystick Input

Lecture 57 Joystick Player Movement

Lecture 58 Atari VCS Input Ports

Lecture 59 Bitwise Operations

Lecture 60 Bitwise Application Example

Section 10: Subroutines, Stack, and Pointers

Lecture 61 Subroutines

Lecture 62 Stack

Lecture 63 Pointers

Section 11: Starting our Final Project

Lecture 64 Starting our Final Project

Lecture 65 Defining the Project Playfield Graphics

Lecture 66 Creating Sprites in PlayerPal

Lecture 67 Defining the Project Player Graphics

Lecture 68 Drawing Player Sprites

Lecture 69 A Reflection on Counting Clock Cycles

Section 12: Project Movement and Positioning

Lecture 70 Player Horizontal Position Subroutine

Lecture 71 Handling Joystick Movement

Lecture 72 Changing Sprite Animation Frame

Lecture 73 Enemy Vertical Movement

Section 13: Random Numbers

Lecture 74 Generating Random Numbers

Lecture 75 Bitshift Operations

Lecture 76 Random Enemy Position

Section 14: Object Collision

Lecture 77 Collision Registers

Lecture 78 Object Collision

Section 15: Digits and Scoreboard

Lecture 79 Score Digits

Lecture 80 Scoreboard and Timer Graphics

Lecture 81 Tasks Performed Inside VBlank

Lecture 82 Implementing Asymmetric Playfield

Lecture 83 Extra Resources on Asymmetrical Playfield

Lecture 84 Scoreboard Background Color

Lecture 85 Game Over Color Effect

Lecture 86 Score Increment (Exercise)

Lecture 87 Score Increment (Solution)

Lecture 88 Limiting Movement (Exercise)

Lecture 89 Limiting Movement (Solution)

Section 16: BCD Decimal Mode

Lecture 90 Using Decimal Mode BCD

Lecture 91 What Is BCD, Really?

Section 17: Missiles and Macros

Lecture 92 Missiles

Lecture 93 Macros

Lecture 94 Missile Collision

Lecture 95 Addressing Mode Errors

Section 18: Audio

Lecture 96 Sound Registers

Lecture 97 Jet Engine Sound

Section 19: Scanline Analysis and Debugging Tools

Lecture 98 Scanline Analysis

Lecture 99 Gopher2600 Emulator and Debugger

Section 20: Conclusion and Next Steps

Lecture 100 Next Steps

Lecture 101 Examples of Disassembled Commented Code

Lecture 102 Copyright and Content Distribution

Section 21: Bonus Lecture

Lecture 103 Other Courses

Lecture 104 Courses

Beginner or intermediate developers interested learning about low-level programming,Developers interested in learning game programming using the Atari system,Professional developers interested in learning about programming using 6502 Assembly language