Customer Reviews

Compute's Beginners Guide to Assembly Language on the Ti-99/4A

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Twenty two years ago (1984) this is the very book that taught me to program in assembly language and liberated me from BASIC. I was about 14 at the time and the TI-99/4A was my first computer. The Beginners Basic book that came with the computer was an excellent resource for learning to program using BASIC, and this book does the same for assembly. Although the programs in the book are specific to the TI-99/4A computer, I was able to apply the principles learned to other assembly languages I used in the future. I must say that because of this book, I totally enjoy programming in assembly language on any computer and assembly is my language of choice.

The book starts out with a good introduction of machine and assembly language, and why you would want to use assembly. Then it covers the tools you will need to get started with TI assembly. After that you are introduced to basic data storage, registers, branching and comparison, and simple arithmetic operators. Continuing on you will cover all the parts of the TI-99/4A including sound, character graphics, keyboard and joystick input, mixing BASIC and assembly, sprites, and bitmap graphics. The book is full of excellent examples and rounds out at the end with programming techniques.

I can't say enough good things about the book and it should be on the bookshelf of any TI-99/4A enthusiast.

Table of Contents:

Forward
Introduction - Starting Off
Chapter1 - The First Step
Chapter 2 - Directives and Your First Programs
Chapter 3 - More Programming Power
Chapter 4 - The Next Few Steps
Chapter 5 - Keyboard and Joysticks
Chapter 6 - Utilities, Mathematics, and Scrolling
Chapter 7 - BASIC and Assembly Language: A Powerful Team
Chapter 8 - Character Definitions and Color Changes
Chapter 9 - Creating Sprites
Chapter 10 - Generating Sounds
Chapter 11 - Graphics Modes on the TI
Chapter 12 - Assembly Language Programming Techniques
Appendix A - Decimal and Hexadecimal ASCII Codes
Appendix B - Assembly Language Instructions
Appendix C - Distinguishing Operands
Appendix D - Color Codes
Index