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0 pointseej716y ago0 comments

I'm not the OP, but I always liked its simplicity. There's just enough space to do something interesting without getting bogged down in too much complexity.

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fortran776y ago

I think it's because it was my first. And it is simple. Yes there are many addressing modes (like zero-page, and "absolute indirect", and "indexed indirect") but there's only 56 instructions and you can learn it in one afternoon.

And doing something useful with 56 instructions, 8-bits at a time, is like solving a puzzle.

pvg6y ago

8-bits at a time

It's a detail that doesn't always come up in these threads but it's worth remembering how belligerently 8-bit a 6502 is. Not only are there next to no general-purpose registers but they're 8 bit and there are no pretend-two-registers-are-one-16-bit-register instructions at all. You can't put an address in a register. Compared to even other popular 8 bit CPUs of the time, that's a bit metal.

ddingus6y ago

It is. There is always 6809 for a bit more civilized fun, IMHO.

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xxs6y ago

Simplicity? - it has some many addressing modes. Pretty much forced into zero page+Y, but zero page is so limited. Direct code modification, i.e. counters within the code was the next most common.

Of course division was an art. That being said I enjoyed it alot and still know quite of the opcodes (hex) by heart + the clock count of many instructions.

kgwxd6y ago

I only know 6502 in the Atari 2600 programming context. It's such a great pair because the 2600 hardware is very unique, so it gives you fun problems in that domain as well.

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