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Sega Megadrive Assembly Programming Basics

Copyright, Lewis Bassett, December 2005


Chapter 1 - Introduction

Okay, so you wanna program games for the Sega Megadrive. Perhaps you don't know where to start, what you might need. Maybe all the mumbo-jumbo jargon you've found from a Google search just doesn't mean anything to you. Even if you're a complete idiot when it comes to technical things, don't worry because this document may be excactly what you're looking for.

Unfortunatly, not all of us have degrees in electronics or computing. The extensive collection of documents available on the web, whilst very usefull, don't teach you how to program. To the complete beginner or idiot, it just doesn't make any sense at all and is completly useless. But don't despair, this document is the answer.

These pages describe the most basic, but usefull areas of the Sega Megadrive's hardware and how to program them to do what you want. At the end, you'll even develop a small interactive demo, with moving backgrounds, collisions and more. The best part is, you need absolutely nothing. The only thing this document assumes is that you're working in the Windows environment.


Sega Megadrive

The Sega Megadrive is, in my opinion, the most exiting and coolest game's console ever made. If you don't have one (shame on you!), you can collect one for about £5 complete with a box of random games at just about any car-boot sale. If you feel like an idiot cause you don't have one, and you wanna get one straight away, you can even get them from Ebay for about £20. What a bargain!


The European Sega Megadrive I

The Sega Megadrive was first released in Japan in October 1988. It's a very outdated machine, and there's only a limited ammount of things a programmer can do on these machines. However, it is a fun platform to make demos on, and there's an ever growing online commmunity of home-brew coders, who are keeping this fun little machine alive even in the age of the XBox 360.


What this document covers

The 9 chapters presented will guide you through the most important and commonly used parts of the Sega Megadrive, and how to use them. Assembly language will be taught, along side basic computer architecture fundementals that are needed to develop code.

In conclusion, you will make a small demo/game that will consolidate the knowledge gained from this document.


What this document doesn't cover

Sound is not covered. Neither are the various add-ons such as the Mega-CD or 32x. Also, other programming languages such as C and BASIC will not be discussed, as this document is only intended as a primer for the aspiring programmer.



Contents Chapter 2


Designed & maintained by Lewis AS Bassett
SEGA, Megadrive, Genesis, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc are all owned by Sega Enterprises Ltd