ASM VG Hacking

SysTEm[id]
Table of Contents 

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1.0 Introduction 
2.0 About the 65c816 
3.0 Language Structure 
4.0 Expanding a ROM 
4.1 Chart of ROM sizes in Mbits 
5.0 Pointer Structure 
5.1 LoRom Address Equation 
5.2 Pointer Equations 
6.0 Title Screen Replacement 
6.1 Programs to Use 
7.0 A Simple Fadeout Routine 
8.0 Where to Get Needed Tools 
9.0 Credits 
9.1 Document Information 
Appendix A - 65c816 Instruction Set & Syntax
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1.0 Introduction 

This document was written for the aspiring ROM hacker with little to no experience in 65c816 programming. The basics have been thouroughly covered and I believe this should prove a significant aid to anyone interested in 65c816 ROM hacking. Hopefully this proves true. If you benefit from this document or have suggestions for changes to make to it, please eMail me at [email protected] with your comments. In the end, you the user determines the future of this document. For updates to this document check http://id.dragonfire.net/ ... Unless of course it is now the year 2001 and this has become another document floating around on an FTP with some author nobody knows what happened to. Then yer up shit creek :-)
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2.0 About the 65c816 

This processor was Nintendo's pride and joy for quite a few years. Basically, it is an upgrade to the good ole 6502 processor used in such popular systems as the NES and the Commodore Amiga. The main feature added was 24 bit addressing but the processor also supported a whole slew of new instructions and lots of other fetures you don't need to know about. Basically, this little guy chugged along at a whopping 2.68Mhz, not even as fast as the Sega Genesis though a couple years later. But the main power was it's ability to display 256 colors in four different layers on screen at a time. That and a lot of other super-neat things helped it in competeing on the 16-bit market and earn a place in all our hearts.
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3.0 Language Structure 

Well, time to make things get very very ugly. I'm sure you all are used to things like QBasic or C where you get to type in commands like; 

10 Print "Hello World!" 

or 

cout<<"Hello World!"<0 wait 
CPY #$0000 ; x=0 
BNE loop ; if y<>1 loop 
LDX #$00cf 

dark 
LDA $4210 ; vertical blank active? 
AND #$80 
BEQ dark ; if no, do dark 
DEX 
CPX #$0000 
BNE dark ; if x<>0 then dark 

This is closely based off of one of BeXXX's examples for a fadeout. But instead of drunked german notation, it has fairly understandable english notation so hopefully youc an now see the logic of this. Basically it's a looping routine that keeps decreasing the lightness to dark untill the screen is blanked.
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8.0 Where to Get Needed Tools

I have a wide selection of tools at my webpage in the 65c816 section. http://id.dragonfire.net/ 

You can also get many things in terri public ftp. ftp://teeri.oulu.fi/pub/console/nintendo/
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9.0 Credits 

The following people have contributed to this text (whether they know it or not). Many many thanks go out to them.

Neill Corlett - reminded me of the lorom equation one time when I forgot it
Frank Hughes - tons of help and elpaling back when I was working on Ranma
Jeremy Chadwick - putting up with my stupid questions back when I was first learning 
Carnivore - made a super-keen instruction -> output table I use
Amalgam - making sure this was semi-comprehensible.
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9.1 Document Information 

Questions, comments or complaints can be sent to me via eMail at [email protected]. Copyright c 1999 SysTEm[id]. All rights reserved. Last updated Sunday, April 25, 1999
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Appendix A - 65c816 Instruction Set & Syntax 

OpCode
Description
Syntax 


SEP 
Set Bits in P 
sep #$30 

ADC 
Add With Carry 
adc #$12 

AND 
Logical AND 
and #$12 

BIT 
Bit Test 
bit #$12 

CMP 
Compare Accumulator 
cmp #$12 

CPX 
Compare X Register 
cpx #$12 

CPY 
Compare Y Register 
cpy #$12 

DEC 
Decrement Accumulator or Memory 
dec $12 

EOR 
Exclusive OR Accumulator 
eor #$12 

INC 
Increment Accumulator or Memory 
inc $12 

LDA 
Load Accumulator 
lda $12 

LDX 
Load X Register 
ldx #$12 

LDY 
Load Y Register 
ldy #$12 

ORA 
Logical OR Accumulator 
ora #$12 

ROL 
Rotate Left Acc or Mem 
rol $12 

ROR 
Rotate Right Acc or Mem 
ror $12

SBC 
Subtract With Carry 
sbc #$12 

STA 
Store Accumulator 
sta $12 

STZ 
Store X Register 
stx $12 

STY 
Store Y Register 
sty $12 

CLR 
Store a 0 into Memory 
clr $12 

BCC 
Branch if Carry Clear 
bcc $601e5 

BCS 
Branch if Carry Set 
bcs $601e5 

BEQ 
Branch if Equal 
beq $601e5 

BMI 
Branch if Minus 
bmi $601e5 

BNE 
Branch if Not Equal 
bne $601e5 

BPL 
Branch if Plus 
bpl $601e5 

BRA 
Branch Always 
bra $601e5 

BVC 
Branch if Overflow Clear 
bvc $601e5 

BVS 
Branch if Overflow Set 
bvs $601e5 

CLC 
Clear the Carry Flag 
clc 

CLD 
Clear the Decimal Flag 
cld 

CLI 
Clear the Interrupt Flag 
cli 

DEX 
Decrement X Register 
dex 

DEY 
Decrement Y Register 
dey 

INX 
Increment X Register 
inx 

INY 
Increment Y Register 
iny 

NOP 
No Operation 
nop 

PLA 
Pop Accumulator 
pla 

PLP 
Pop P 
plp 

PLX 
Pop X Register 
plx 

PLY 
Pop Y Register 
ply 

SED 
Set Decimal Flag 
sed 

SEI 
Set Interrupt Flag 
sri 

TAX 
Transfer Accumulator to X 
tax 

TAY 
Transfer Accumulator to Y 
tay 

TSX 
Transfer S to X 
tsx 

TXA 
Transfer X to Accumulator 
txa 

TXS 
Transfer X to S 
txs 

TXY 
Transfer X to Y 
txy 

TYA 
Transfer Y to Accumulator 
tya 

XCE 
Exchange Carry w/ Emulation Bit 
xce 

BRK 
Break Point Instruction 
brk #$12 

CSP 
Call System Procedure 
csp #$12 

JMP 
Jump to New Location 
jmp $1234 

JSR 
Jump to Subroutine 
jsr $1234 

MVN 
Block Move (decrement) 
mvn $1234 

MVP 
Block Move (increment) 
mvp $1234 

RTI 
Return From Interrupt 
rti 

RTL 
Return From Long Subroutine 
rtl 

RTS 
Return From Short Subroutine 
rts 

HLT 
Halt the Clock 
hlt 

WAI 
Wait for Interrupt 
wai 

SWA 
Swap Accumulator 
swa 

I know this list is missing a lot of instructions, this is just the list of instructions I know for certain is supported by all the assemblers out there. Sorry to tell you but there is even more to learn. Hope this helps you to make sense out of some of assembler mess early on in the document.