welcome

Thank you for purchasing the MEAP for Classic Game Programming on the NES.

The book has been written to bring together the information and techniques needed to get started in programming games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Some basic programming knowledge is assumed, but you will be taken through the concepts and techniques one step at a time.

I have been developing games for various 8-bit consoles and computers since the 80’s, as well as developing tools to assist other developers with creating their own titles.

First, we will select and put together a set of tools, that will allow you to write code, create graphics, sound and music for use in your games. We then get started with learning 6502 Assembly language that the NES console uses, an online assembler is provided so you can complete exercises as you work your way through. Then we learn about the NES hardware, displaying both background and foreground objects and create our first program that will run on real hardware or an emulator.

Step by step we will create the elements of a simple shoot-em-up game and cover each part of the NES hardware in more detail as we go.

We welcome and feedback, questions or suggestions, which can be posted in the liveBook Discussion forum. We appreciate knowing where improvements can be made to increase your understanding of the material.

—Tony Cruise