SPO600 - Lab 03

Introduction

Hi guys, today I'd to talk about my experience working with assembly language. As the requirement of the lab, I had to build a small program using assembly language. There are a few options that our professor gave us: bouncing graphic, pong, numeric display, and kaleidoscope. I decided to go with kaleidoscope because I have known it for a while.

Process

I'm not used to assembly language and not even a fan of it but here I am. Coding this program took me a lot of time and effort as I need to look up for syntax while planning what to code next. This programming language is indeed the oldest and not user-friendly. However, after days of struggling, I got it up and running in the editor but it still has a few bugs going on here.

As this is quite new to me and not easy to understand at all so I need a lot of time getting used to it but I always try my best. After finishing up, I got a few more ideas of how assembly language code works and more understanding of the syntax as well

define POINTER     $10 ; ptr: start of row
 define POINTER_H   $11 
define ROW     $20 ; current row
 define COL     $21 ; current column
 define DOT     $01 ; dot colour location
 define CURSOR      $05 ; green colour

 setup: lda #$0f    ; initial ROW,COL
    sta ROW
    sta COL
    LDA #$01
    STA DOT
 draw:  jsr draw_cursor
 getkey:    lda $ff     ; get keystroke
    ldx #$00    ; clear the key buffer
    stx $ff
    cmp #$30
    bmi getkey
    cmp #$40
    bpl continue
    SEC
    sbc #$30
    tay
    lda color_pallete, y
    sta DOT
    jmp done

continue:   cmp #$43    
    beq clear
    cmp #$63
    beq clear
    cmp #$80    
    bmi getkey
    cmp #$84
    bpl getkey
    pha    
    lda DOT
    sta (POINTER),y
    jsr draw_on_quads
    pla
    cmp #$80
    bne check1
    dec ROW  
    jmp done

 check1:    cmp #$81    ; right key
    bne check2
    inc COL     ; increment COL
    jmp done

 check2:    cmp #$82    ; down key
    bne check3
    inc ROW     ; increment ROW
    jmp done

 check3:    cmp #$83    ; left key
    bne done
    dec COL     ; decrement COL
    clc
    bcc done

 clear: lda table_low   ; clear screen
    sta POINTER
    lda table_high
    sta POINTER_H
    ldy #$00
    tya

 c_loop:    sta (POINTER),y
    iny
    bne c_loop
    inc POINTER_H
    ldx POINTER_H
    cpx #$06
    bne c_loop

 done:  clc   
    bcc draw

 draw_cursor:
    lda ROW     
    and #$0f
    sta ROW
    lda COL     
    and #$0f
    sta COL
    ldy ROW     
    lda table_low,y
    sta POINTER
    lda table_high,y
    sta POINTER_H
    ldy COL     
    lda #CURSOR
    sta (POINTER),y
    rts

 draw_on_quads:     
    LDA POINTER 
    PHA         
    LDA POINTER_H
    PHA
    LDA #$10
    CLC
    SBC COL
    CLC
    ADC #$10
    TAY
    LDA DOT
    STA (POINTER),y
    TYA
    PHA 
    lda #$10    
    CLC
    SBC ROW
    CLC
    ADC #$10
    TAY
    lda table_low,y
    sta POINTER
    lda table_high,y
    sta POINTER_H
    ldy COL     
    lda DOT
    sta (POINTER),y
    PLA
    TAY
    lda DOT
    sta (POINTER),y
    PLA
    STA POINTER_H
    PLA
    STA POINTER
    RTS

 table_high:
 dcb $02,$02,$02,$02,$02,$02,$02,$02
 dcb $03,$03,$03,$03,$03,$03,$03,$03
 dcb $04,$04,$04,$04,$04,$04,$04,$04
 dcb $05,$05,$05,$05,$05,$05,$05,$05,

 table_low:
 dcb $00,$20,$40,$60,$80,$a0,$c0,$e0
 dcb $00,$20,$40,$60,$80,$a0,$c0,$e0
 dcb $00,$20,$40,$60,$80,$a0,$c0,$e0
 dcb $00,$20,$40,$60,$80,$a0,$c0,$e0

color_pallete:
dcb $01,$02,$03,$04,$05,$06,$07,$08,$09,$0a

Wrap up

Thank you for reading my blog. After finishing up I have a better understanding of Assembly language but am not very used to it yet. But I'll try my hardest to learn more about it.