Assembly Game Programming Tutorial series

[Coppis]

Hello,
I'm writing an Amiga game in assembly for myself and I thought that would be interesting to share the knowledge with other people.
The tutorials will be addressed to beginners, the only pre-requisite is the knowledge of Motorola 68000 Assembly language programming.


The tutorial contents will be the following:

• Part 1 - Tools
• Part 2 - Reference documentation
• Part 3 - Amiga hardware overview
• Part 4 - Game Concept
• Part 5 - Take control of the Amiga hardware
• Part 6 - Debug techniques
• Part 7 - Scrolling Background
• Part 8 - Bobs
• Part 9 - Player Ship
• Part 10 - Enemies
• Part 11 - Information panel
• Part 12 - Powerups
• Part 13 - Bullets
• Part 14 - Satellite
• Part 15 - Game States
• Part 16 - Title screen
• Part 17 - Game over screen
• Part 18 - End level boss
• Part 19 - Sound

I just added Part 5 on my github repository!

[Coppis]

Before starting game development on Amiga, you will need some tools. I prefer free and open source tools.

Amiga Emulator
I suggest using WinUAE. I recommend to use Kickstart 3.1 Operating System and if you want an easy way to get a pre-configured Amiga environment, you can use ClassicWB.


Assembler
My favourite assembler for Amiga is AsmPro, because it has syntax highlighting and a good debugger.


Code Editor
I suggest to write code on Windows, using a modern editor, in this way you will be more productive. It is essential to have powerful search and code navigation functions.
My choice is Notepad++ with an extension for Motorola 68000 assembly.
But you can also use Visual Studio Code with Amiga Assembly Extension.


Souce code versioning
You will need a tool to manage the versioning of your source code. My choice is GIT. You can use a free GitHub account.
My favourite free GIT client for Windows is SourceTree.


Graphic Editor
To create or edit graphic assets in Amiga IFF format, I suggest to use Cloanto Personal Paint or Deluxe Paint IV on Amiga. A version of Deluxe Paint is bundled in ClassicWB.
On Windows you can use Pro Motion NG a good tool for creating and editing pixel art graphics.
Also on Windows you can use KingCon by Hannibal, which is part of his WinUAE demo toolchain.

RAW Graphic Converter
You will need a converter from IFF to RAW image format.
My favourite tool on Amiga is ArtPro 1.20.


Audio Editor
To edit audio files for sound effects, I suggest to use on Windows Audacity, which is free.


Audio Converter
You will need a converter from WAV format to RAW 8 Bit samples. My favourite tool is SoX for Windows.


File Manager for Amiga
My favourite file manager on Amiga is Dopus, included in ClassicWB.

[fxgogo]

This sounds exciting. Are you pitching it towards beginners?

[WayneK]

For gfx conversion I would also add KingCon by Hannibal, which is part of his WinUAE demo toolchain... for native Windows IFF conversion.

[Coppis]

Originally Posted by fxgogo

This sounds exciting. Are you pitching it towards beginners?

Yes, the only pre-requisite will be the knowledge of Motorola 68000 Assembly language.

[gimbal]

If you want to generate (retro-sounding) sound effects, SFXR is quite cool.

https://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html

Works well in conjunction with Audacity.

[Coppis]

Originally Posted by gimbal

If you want to generate (retro-sounding) sound effects, SFXR is quite cool.

https://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html

Works well in conjunction with Audacity.

Thanks!

[Coppis]

Originally Posted by WayneK

For gfx conversion I would also add KingCon by Hannibal, which is part of his WinUAE demo toolchain... for native Windows IFF conversion.

Can you post a download link?

[Coppis]

Motorola 68000 Assembly:
A good old book is "Mastering Amiga Assembler"
Another good book is "Amiga Machine Language"
For italian people there is a huge ebook by F.Ciucci of RamJam. Unfortunately it's only available in italian language.

A good video tutorial is provided by Phaze101:
[ Show youtube player ]

A good reference for instruction set is: Motorola 68000 Programmer's Reference Manual


Amiga Hardware:
The "Bible" is the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual. It's also available online in html format here.

If you prefer a printed book, my suggestion is "Bare-Metal Amiga Programming: For OCS, ECS and AGA".

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by Coppis

Can you post a download link?

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=65625

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by Coppis

Yes, the only pre-requisite will be the knowledge of Motorola 68000 Assembly language.

Then they are not THAT beginners

[mc6809e]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Then they are not THAT beginners

Lol!

The Amiga is special.

Yes. Even someone that knows 68k assembly is a beginner when it comes to writing code for the Amiga.

Now if we were talking about the Atari ST with its dumb frame buffer you'd be right to sneer.

[saimon69]

Well am below atari ST i just know barely how to read a mouse click and my assembly ends there, so am thinking one day someone will do a tutorial for potatoes like me hopefully

[redblade]

Cool, will you be using VBlank ($6c.w) for main routine? Looking forward to the scrolling background part

[malko]

Here are two books : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...57#post1344257

[Coppis]

I just added Part 5: Take control of the Amiga hardware
Please post your feedbacks, suggestions, questions here!

[kamelito]

Syntax Highlighting would be nice for readability

Part 1 & 2 are present here (EAB) but not on Github.

[Coppis]

Originally Posted by kamelito

Syntax Highlighting would be nice for readability

Part 1 & 2 are present here (EAB) but not on Github.

I just added syntax highlighting and reviewed the text to make it leaner and clearer.
I will convert Part 1&2 into markdown and put them on GitHub too.

[BippyM]

This looks great.

I have moved it out of the asm sub-forum into tutorials and closed the other thread in here. I think this is possibly the best place for it

[Coppis]

Originally Posted by BippyM

This looks great.

I have moved it out of the asm sub-forum into tutorials and closed the other thread in here. I think this is possibly the best place for it

ok