Classroom Glossary Public page

Lab Pack 2: 6502 Assembly on the NES Core (Week 2)

Hand-write a tiny screen-fill 6502 program in cc65, assemble it, load it into the NES core, and watch the screen fill. This is the first time you write a program that runs on synthesised silicon.


What you ship

  • A .s source file with your hand-written 6502.
  • The cc65 + ld65 + ca65 commands that produced the .nes ROM. Capture them in a small Makefile.
  • A clip of the resulting screen-fill running on your DE10-Nano (or jsnes browser path).
  • A Toolchain Diary entry for cc65, for ld65, and for ca65.

Tools you use

  • cc65 toolchain installed locally.
  • Workbench: 6502 REPL Workbench for in-browser iteration.
  • Mesen for pre-flash verification.

Success criteria

  • The screen fills with the color or pattern you chose.
  • Your Makefile reproduces the ROM from source in one command.
  • You can name each addressing mode you used.

Time budget

Plan for two ninety-minute lab sessions plus two hours of independent build-out. Slower students should plan for one extra session.

Submission

Push to your student repo under con-101/labs/lab-2/. Include source, a one-paragraph README, and a screenshot or short clip of the artefact running.