6502 Assembly Language for the Atari 2600

I've been going through this course and the material is very well presented and delivered in a sensible and logical order. There are times when I have struggled and this is down to the devil being in the detail. Assembly language and assemblers appear to be very picky, so sometimes things like spaces matter and make the difference between disaster and success. However, when I've scrutinised the problem it's been remedied by carefully analysing everything and being very exact. This shouldn't put you off, I've been meaning to learn some form of assembly language programming and the Atari and the 6502/6507 is the perfect platform, you don't even need a console.

I think that Gustavo does a very good job of explaining the concepts, opcodes, syntax, etc. The video graphics are a superb addition. My only concern is this: I have a good bit of experience with Assembly language programming, so I am comfortable with the lessons and material; however, I wonder how someone with zero Assembly language programming experience will handle such a quick crash course. I am also a little skeptical that with the remaining 7 or 8 hours of instruction videos, Gustavo will cover enough material to give a new 6502/6507 programmer (like me) enough instruction to make that person comfortable / competent enough to actually write code for an Atari video game. I'm skeptical yet hopeful! So far I am pleased with the course.

As a long-time programmer, this course felt like a going on a great short vacation with an excellent guide. GP informs everything with a delight in what can be achieved by clever hacking with limited means, and can be very subtle with depth (for example, I first thought the scoreboard was an odd choice for a long video, but it turns out that it involves some sweet bit-masking and opens the door to asymmetric playfield rendering). In this era when assembly programming on current platforms (x86 etc) has fewer applications (I think), I wonder if this is the right way to teach it: through constrained systems and games.

I've just about come to the end of the course and I have to say it's been a deeply enjoyable experience from beginning to end. The course covers most key points necessary to program games on the Atari 2600, even closing with creating an entire game on the system. If you are interested in learning about the Atari 2600 this is easily the most accessible and beginner friendly way to go about it. I would also recommend trying this course if you are simply interested in Assembly programming or learning about the fundamentals of computing.

I really gotta thank Gustavo for making this course, definitely allows people to get their feet into assembly and shake their fears, hopefully I plan to get involved more into 2600 homebrew development and maybe C64 or NES as well. Great to have someone making retro development more accessible by making comprehensive courses, would love to see more platforms as well (Teach MIPS ASM via N64/PSX development? :) ) Again, very accessible and fairly comprehensive, highly recommended

I has all the basic ingredients to start practicing and playing with the development of games for the Atari 2600, but it also can help to gain an insight in other similar consoles which possess similar characteristics.