Get_Started

Getting Started with 6502

Overview

I've decided to learn about the historically famous MOS 6502 chip to build my own computer. I'll be using the newer products from Western Design Center that include the W65c02 CPU.

These are notes made during my learning, designing and testing phases; I'm hoping they'll help you, too.

A Path to Learning 6502
- Get a reliable flash drive and install EVERYTHING on it; mine is labeled drive "J:"
- Download "VASM assembler" for the 6502 for Windows 10 from http://www.ibaug.de/vasm/vasm6502.zip and install it on "J:" in a folder/directory named "Vasm". You'll need to copy the files from "J:\VASM\vasm6502_oldstyle\win\win10"
- Search for the file location of "Command Prompt" on your Windows PC and copy its link to your J: drive
- Startup your Command Prompt link which should take you to your home directory - "C:\Users\prefo" for me
- Create a text file named "J.bat" and drop it in your home directory. The contents of the file are:
J:
cd \Vasm

- Confirm its contents by typing:

type J.bat

- Now you can type "J.bat" or "J" to change to your J drive and the Vasm folder (J:\VASM).
- Within J:\Vasm, create a text file named "Vasm.bat". (Here is a copy saved as "Vasm.txt" because Windows won't permit ".bat" files to be downloaded. It must renamed to "Vasm.bat" in order to run.) The contents of the file are:
cls
vasm6502_oldstyle.exe -Fbin -dotdir -c02 %1.asm
pause
dir
HxD a.out

- Copy my "VIA.asm" file to your "J:\Vasm" folder
- Execute "Vasm.bat" by typing:
Vasm VIA

- This will cause "Vasm6502_oldstyle.exe" to run and assemble "VIA.asm" into "a.out" which you can then examine with a hex editor like HxD. Actually, the batch file starts up HxD automatically
- Install a hex editor (HxD20) into J:\HxD from site https://mh-nexus.de/downloads/HxDSetup.zip