assembly

Starting MSX Assembly part 3

Published at June 1, 2019 ·  8 min read

So we’ve seen how we can call the BIOS and how to use an assembler to create a file which can be BLOAD’ed and run on an (emulated) MSX. So now that is out of the way, lets do the mother of all tutorials: Hello world! This can be pretty hard to start with if you want to do this in screen 2 of the MSX. But let’s do this in screen 0 because then we can get some help from the BIOS....

» Read more

Starting MSX assembly part 2

Published at May 11, 2019 ·  2 min read

So, in the previous post we started with a small assembly program to produce a beep: db $FE ; magic number dw Begin ; begin address of the program dw End - 1 ; end address of the program dw Execute ; program execution address (for ,R option) org $C000 ; The program start at C000h in the MSX's RAM Begin: Execute: CALL $C0 ; Call the BEEP bios routine ret End: What I did not talk about was how to actually use an assembler to create an actual file which the MSX can execute....

» Read more

Starting MSX assembly part 1

Published at May 5, 2019 ·  4 min read

I somehow get the feeling every now and then that more people want to know how to program things for old computers. Since I still have a working MSX and still sometimes program for it, let’s see if I can create some tutorials. Assembler The MSX has a Z80 processor on board. So you need a Z80 assembler if you want to program in assembly. You can use an assembler on the MSX like Wbass-2 or Compass, or you can use a PC or Mac for cross-development and use something like Sjasm or Glass....

» Read more