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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu May 11, 2017 9:07 am

Sometime in about 2015 Tuomas Järvensivu of reaktor.comtor.com, with help from Harri Salokorpi, published a great article, which is sure to eat up some of your time this weekend: Crash course to Amiga assembly programming.

For some of us, the information feels 25 years too late. So why bother?

Järvensivu explained:
[L]earning how to write programs for [Amiga computers] can be very educational. Amiga as an environment is much simpler than (for instance) modern PCs. This makes learning low-level programming on it faster than on more complex environments. Although the hardware architecture is quite simple, it has some computer system design features that are still in use in modern environments as well such as DMA and interrupts. On top of being plain fun, writing assembly on Amiga teaches programming concepts that are usually hidden by higher-level languages and modern operating systems.
The tutorial is demonstrated by using FS-UAE Amiga Emulator to allow for the widest possible market - not everyone interested in the topic will have functional classic hardware. And they set the emulator to it's widest possible market: Amiga 500 with kickstart 1.3 ROM image and Workbench 1.3.

They walk through an example of putting graphics on-screen, explain how and why to talk to the various chips and debugging the code. Pretty cool stuff.

If you decide to take the plunge, and get stuck, it's worth noting that there is a StackOverflow for retrocomputing.
reaktor.png

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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu May 11, 2017 11:29 am

Is FS-UAE really the most used Amiga emulator these days? I mean I'd have no idea considering I have not cared about emulation in at least 10 years. But I haven't come across any written material that would suggest to me the hands have switched from WinUAE to this one. Technically speaking, they're both the same emulator... lol... FS-UAE is just a front end for WinUAE... It's in the name; the Unix Amiga Emulator.

I have noticed let's players gravitating toward FS-UAE in the last couple of years. But we're still talking a very small market for anybody that gives a crap about the Amiga compared to those that will just settle for DOSBox and whatever configurations that thing throws at you for a game. Since it's still a very passionate group of people that care about the Amiga, I'd still imagine WinUAE is the most used in that market. Since it is the emulator that is about the machine itself; I'd figure any crash course on assembly language would focus there, rather than the emulator that cares only about the games.

Make no mistake I'm all for people learning how to program in the most common used languages that people programed on the Amiga with back in the day. It has become far too common of a thing in regards to new games, to have them not even be as advanced as a typical C64 game, yet require an accelerator card in order to run. VVVVVVV has been written for the C64, someone is now doing Limbo for the C64.... Both of these games NEED to be on the Amiga!!!! If they ever came out for the Amiga (doubt it even though they're pretty simple) then I guarantee they will require an accelerator card even though they run on the C64 just fine! It breaks my heart! And this is all about whatever methods these people are using to program, that's why these games can't compete with the C64 without an accelerator. So I support people learning assembly full heartily; Bring us some awesome new games!

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu May 11, 2017 12:04 pm

Yeah, good point about the emulator options - there are a few.
Is FS-UAE really the most used Amiga emulator these days?
I have no idea.

I mentioned FS-UAE since that's what the authors used in their tutorial. WinUAE is probably (?) the more widely used one, although I use Amiga Forever, which is part UAE and part Fellow. That's all I've ever used.

I had to get an old PC just to run it (and transfer files, 2 birds with one stone). Speaking of which, this is the crazy machine I use for that. :)
cf-29mk5.jpg
Panasonic Toughbook - WinXP era.


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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu May 11, 2017 12:28 pm

Ohmyyy.... Is that a computer or a small suitcase with a bomb? I think you could whack someone on the head with that and the computer would come out fine!

I only ever bought the transfer part of the package, I had been emulating the Amiga since the late 90's, no need for me to fork over anything for their emulation package. Although I will admit it is set up rather nicely in terms of the menus and getting to the games you want.

I had no idea it was a combination of Fellow and WinUAE though... Figured it was another front-end for WinUAE. Fellow, really? Fellow was the first Amiga emulator I used! I had to back out of Windows and run it from DOS! WinUAE (and DOSUAE back then) were really considered subpar to Fellow at that time. WinUAE was just a slow and agonizing mess. That's why I had to drop out of Windows and run the stuff from DOS, the Pentium 2's and 3's just couldn't handle the old MOS chips! :D - I will say that WinUAE is remarkibly similar today with how it started out. It all looks the same in terms of the menus. They kind of got most everything right by 2005, which is why I never care enough to update the thing. In fact, older might be better when it comes to WinUAE, because it just gets more and more bloated.

Nesticle, ZSNES... All emulators were run from DOS in the late 90's! I believe Fellow should still be on my DOS computer, I should do a spotlight on it someday. All the menus were very much blue, so it gave the Workbench feel even before you started it up! I mean it had compatibility problems back then but at the time it was the best.

Very fascinated with how it was combined for your package though. I thought Fellow was abandoned before the turn of the century...

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu May 11, 2017 3:21 pm

Off Topic: but I'd like to point out that my Panasonic CF-29 is a highly coveted item by Panasonic fanboys. :) I don't consider myself to be one, but the (heavy assed) machine is something to behold. It even has a touchscreen, which I suppose was sometimes useful by scientists, architects, etc. out in the field.

I nearly fell out of my chair last year while watching the 2015 Matt Damon movie The Martian. There, in his lab and in his buggy, you see one main computer at his disposal - the Panasonic Toughbook. This was hard for me to reconcile in my brain at the time because the computer is borderline retro, depending on how old you think "retro" is, and I felt like the movie was supposed to represent a fictional "today".

Anyway, I think it was chosen as a prop purely for its looks, but the actual internals are pretty dated. I actually decided to buy it because it had support for a floppy drive. But it also had a serial port and USB port. Really, it had all of the things I needed to use as a transfer station for my Amiga obsession.

In terms of The Martian, someone even posted a video on YouTube titled, How to spot the Panasonic Toughbook in The Martian.





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