Learning Assembly

Setup the DASM Assembler

STEP 1

Download the DASM Assembler from https://dasm-assembler.github.io/.

STEP 2

Open your terminal and cd to the directory where the DASM Assembler has been downloaded.

STEP 3

Run the following command to unzip the assembler.

tar -xzf dasm-2.20.14.1-osx-x64.tar.gz

Notes:

• This example is uncompressing the DASM Assembler for the mac operating system.
• The command might vary for the operating system you are installing the DASM Assembler on.
• Do an internet search to look for alternative uncompress options if this step does not work.

STEP 4 (optional)

Copy the uncompressed dasm folder to the user local bin folder. This will allow the dasm command to be run from any directory on a mac or linux machine.

cp dasm /usr/local/bin

Notes:

• If you don't do this step, you can run the dasm command from the directory where you have saved it.
• This might be different in windows.
• I think for windows, you can:
  • Move the dasm folder to your preferred location
  • Make an environment variable point to the preferred location

STEP 5

Compile an assembly file by going to a directory with a file that has the extension .asm by writing the following command in the terminal.

dasm <filename>.asm -f3 -v0 -o<filename>.bin

Notes:

• -f3 is a requirement for the 6502 processor
• -v0 is setting error messages to zero
• -o is what we want the file name of the output to be for the binary

Setup the Stella Emulator

STEP 1

After completing your setup of the DASM Assembler and compiling your code, download the Stella emulator from https://stella-emu.github.io/downloads.html.

STEP 2

Install the emulator.

STEP 3

Run the emulator and then go to the bin file that you created using the DASM Assembler.

STEP 4

Double click on the bin file.

STEP 5

Click on ` on the keyboard to open the debugger.