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Information on getting started with Genesis 68k programming appears to be scattered all about the web, together with what tools you would need for a Linux system. Many links I follow are also dead links, and I can't find a coherent set of documents that would enable me to get right into assembly programming for the Genesis.

So, being that I'd like to move onto assembly programming from C, what tools and documents would I need to get started? I have a 68k manual, that's about it. In particular, I'm mostly looking for a document that tells me everything that needs to be done for initialization (what sequence of routines to pass TMSS, initialize VDP, etc.), and also, the recommended assembler for someone using 64-bit Linux.

For those of you who develop directly using 68k ASM, what assembler do you use, and what documents tell you everything you need to initialize (and program) the Genesis?

Hi! I recently started learning too, and I've blogged the entire process here:

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... g-started/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... uage-then/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... the-beast/

It's by no means a tutorial, just a blog of my experiences learning how to program the Genesis, but it might help you get started!

BigEvilCorporation wrote:Hi! I recently started learning too, and I've blogged the entire process here:

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... g-started/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... uage-then/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... the-beast/

It's by no means a tutorial, just a blog of my experiences learning how to program the Genesis, but it might help you get started!

Wow, your website is a very complete and nice tutorial for Genesis (ASM only) development ! It should definitely be referenced

BigEvilCorporation wrote:Hi! I recently started learning too, and I've blogged the entire process here:

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... g-started/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... uage-then/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... the-beast/

It's by no means a tutorial, just a blog of my experiences learning how to program the Genesis, but it might help you get started!

Wow checked out your blog and I have to say that you have some very well written tutorials. I can tell that you have done your research before writing them too! Great job I hope it gets more people into genesis development.

sega16 wrote:

BigEvilCorporation wrote:Hi! I recently started learning too, and I've blogged the entire process here:

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... g-started/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... uage-then/

http://bigevilcorp.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... the-beast/

It's by no means a tutorial, just a blog of my experiences learning how to program the Genesis, but it might help you get started!

Wow checked out your blog and I have to say that you have some very well written tutorials. I can tell that you have done your research before writing them too! Great job I hope it gets more people into genesis development.

Thank you so much

I must stress that they're not tutorials per se (although I try to go into as much detail as possible in the hope that it helps other people get started), so expect mistakes and contradictions and incompleteness.

If anything, writing it all down helped everything sink in properly. Assembly has finally become second nature to me, which is what I wanted

Yes, nice + clearly written tutorials you've made there!

However I would recommend using something like VASM (http://sun.hasenbraten.de/vasm/) which is still maintained/bug-fixed, and has lots of nice features that the ancient & now obsolete SNASM assembler lacks (not to mention it's more compatible with modern OSes and a billion times faster).

WayneK wrote:Yes, nice + clearly written tutorials you've made there!

However I would recommend using something like VASM (http://sun.hasenbraten.de/vasm/) which is still maintained/bug-fixed, and has lots of nice features that the ancient & now obsolete SNASM assembler lacks (not to mention it's more compatible with modern OSes and a billion times faster).

I've found a few decent assemblers since starting my blog, but I've recently got hold of a Cross Products MegaCD kit with all the ISA cards, software and docs, so I'm sticking with SNASM since it's compatible with the debugger (in theory - I haven't yet got it fully running).

I haven't had any trouble running it on either Windows 7 or Windows 8, and I'm not sure why speed would ever be a concern on a processor built 20 years after the assembler was designed

Linux, huh? I would take a look at the GNU assembler: http://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/as/

This works with a *ton* of different systems, and you only need to know the idiosyncrasies of each instead of a whole new assembler platform.

Hi,

if you ever get into sound programming, I'd be interested in figuring out the learning curve for the Echo sound driver, so I can make it easier for future users by covering big problems when you first try to use it.

Let me know if you're interested.