ASM Help

Well I mostly learned by first coming to understand how the commands worked and how ram worked and then I would analyze objects and figure out how they used code in order to do the things they did. Perhaps this will help you out (although accordingly you've probably seen this) http://info.sonicretro.org/SCHG_How-to:Work_with_Objects

 

I'm pretty sure we all learned to ASM hack exactly the same way, and that's by experimentation. Don't start by thinking "how do I make a new object?" Pick an existing object and play around with it. Find the line that makes the Buzzbomber fire missiles, for example. What happens if you swap the missiles for lava balls? Or Motobugs? Try making it faster, or invincible, or drain rings whenever it's on screen, anything. The semicolon is your friend - put it in front of important-looking stuff and see what breaks. This is by far the best and, in my opinion, the only way to learn. It's also the most fun!

 

I can only agree with this, because it's basically what I've done with this.

But instead of just commenting things out, you could also switch things to look what happens, for example changing a beq to a bne. Really, experimenting is the ONLY way to learn ASM or any language. If you work on something every here and then, you might get pretty good skills even within a year (I know, this sounds like a long time, but for me it's like nothing).
The only thing you should keep in mind: Enjoy it. If you are like "Uh, making some ASM (Home-)work so I can finally start my awesome hack. >.>" you won't get anywhere.

So that's what I can add to this.

 

I learned the bit of ASM that I know by learning it with a friend. Also I've found that to learn and get the hand of it, you have to change the way your mind processes it. The way was able to understand the blasted stuff was by understanding that ASM (for me)is basically this

What do I have to do?

First
Second
Check something some where else
Third

Done

Of course ASM isn't really that, but its a very simple programing language, once you understand how it works. So my over all advice is to just take it slow and not dive in head first. Other wise you'll be rewarded with one baad headache.

 

When I started to learn ASM, I tried to apply my prior programming knowledge to it (which was mainly comprised of Visual Basic, javascript and C++). If you've programmed in C or C++ before, or just understand pointers in general, this will already a great start. However, the most useful tool for me in the learning process was the M68000 Family Programmer's Reference Manual. This manual describes every instruction and a lot of other details you need to know to efficiently program the 68000 (note: the Megadrive has a 68000 processor, so anything that applies to a later revision will not be usable). If you don't find an instruction in the manual, it's likely that it's one of the conditional instructions; in that case, search for Bcc, DBcc or Scc. There are also other directives, like dc, that are not processor instructions but do something else; for dc, this declares a constant in the code (I.e. it puts the bytes straight in the ROM). There are other instructions lists available, like 68k.hax.com and this list from the wiki.

 

This is the best Badnik ever.

 

I remember a very old post where someone posted a screenshot of Buzzbombers shooting other Buzzbombers, recursively. I don't remember who, nor where, and the search engine can't really help me this time, but I'm sure I saw it.

 

I was curious to see how this would look so I decided to have a look for myself, awesome stuff. Even moreso since I forgot that in the source I used I edited the buzzbomber sprite into 8bit Megaman...XD

 

I just tried this, and Buzzbombers shooting Motobugs is pretty cool! But that's the whole fun of "learning" ASM in this way. It was a tiny change that I just thought up randomly, but already we're discussing it and trying things out. It also opens up more questions and forces you to explore further. Why do the Motobugs teleport to the ground instead of firing out like the missile did? Why do they forever vanish once they go off the screen? (Rhetorical questions - I know the answers! ) Once you start getting sidetracked like this it isn't long before you start building up a decent amount of knowledge. Enough to blag a green Tech Member label, anyway!

 

Oh, btw, crabmeats shooting crabmeats is where the action's at.

 

This thread has got me interested. I am definitely going to take this approach when I have some free time.