How To Code V7 - Edited by Comrade J / SAE

Based on AmigaGuide Release 7/July/93 This HTML Release 18/Jan/03 by Jolyon Ralph.
Hosted by Mysterious Ways
Download the original AmigaGuide version here

  • Introduction
  • General Guidelines
  • Assembler
  • 680x0 issues
  • Action Replay
  • AGA Programming Information
  • Blitter
  • CDTV programming
  • Copper Programming
  • Vector Coding
  • Interrupts
  • Debugging
  • Input
  • Kickstart
  • Miscellaneous
  • Optimising
  • Reading C
  • Startup and Exit Problems
  • Tracker Problems
  • Video Standards
  • Books

  • startup.asm - Copper Startup code

    How to write demos that work (Version 7) - 7/Jul/93

    (or the Amiga Demo Coders Reference Manual)

    Edited by Comrade J/SAE

    Co-Editor Carl-Henrik Skårstedt (Asterix/Movement)

    Email: jolyon@mways.co.uk Please note this is a REPLACEMENT to text files howtocode1.txt through howtocode6.txt. Sysops, please remove these earlier files as they contain many mistakes. Thanks in advance...*

    Thanks to:

    Richard Aplin, Matthew Arnold, Dean Ashton, Andreas Axelsson Michael Bauer, Bilbo the First/Hypenosis, Eddy Carroll, Mark Cassidy, Nils Liaaen Corneliusen, Walter Dao, David Dustin, Chris Green, Joep Grooten, Grue, Jim Hawkins, Arno Hollosi, Lars Holmgren, Philip Jespersen, Irmen de Jong, Marius Kintel, Christopher Klaus, Mark G Knibbs, Jesper R Larsen, Jacco de Leeuw, Tero Lehtonen, Patrik Lundquist, Jonas Matton, Stanley Merkx, Jesse Michael, Jonas Minnbergh, Richard Moeskops, John Derek Muir, Marco Nelissen, Karsten Niemeier, Boerge Noest, David Nouls, Mats Olsson, Dave Parkinson, Andrew Patterson, Raymond Penners, Vidar Petursson, Michael Pollard, Jolyon Ralph, Bjorn Reese, Vic Ricker, Timo Rossi, Michael Ryffel, Conrade Sanderson, Doz/Shining, Toby Simpson, Darrell Tam, Lehtonen Tero, Magnus Timmerby, Yee Tom, and Michel Vissers.

    for their comments and contributions, both rude and polite!



    Jolyon's 2003 HTML version Introduction:
    HowToCode is now well over 11 years old, and has not been updated for nearly ten years. I thought it would be a good idea to make a version available on the web, so here it is. For those of you who never figured it out, Comrade J was my alias - I wrote demos under that name, while continuing with a 'respectable' career as an Amiga developer with my family company, Almathera Systems Ltd. When this file was written, many of the secrets of the then-jealously guarded AA chipset were revealed to demo programmers for the first time. I know (because they told me) that many of the major demo crews who produced such fantastic productions for the Amiga 1200 did so with the aid of these documents. Far from being upset with the release of AA information to developers, I think that many in Commodore were secretly relieved that this information was being more widely spread - indeed I had engineers from CBM in the US contributing by email to this archive (at least one of whom remains anonymous today, and don't ask me to tell because I've forgotten his name!)

    Please note that this file is the work of many authors, although the spelling mistakes are all my fault!

    I apologise in advance for mistakes in HowToCode, I am unable to check everything thoroughly and certainly not on all machines, and in particular with AGA information so much misleading and contradictory information is going around that it is inevitable that mistakes will happen. Please point these out to me, however trivial! I promise I won't be angry if 100 people point out the same mistake. If no one does and everyone tells me later that they knew - then I will!

    This text is Copyright © 1993 Share and Enjoy, but may be freely distributed in any electronic form. The copyright of contributions quoted from other authors remains with the original author. If you would like to contribute to this file, email me at the address below...

    If you intend to use part or all of HTC in a Public Domain disk magazine, website (or similar), please email me first. I *will* give permission freely, but I want to make sure that only the latest versions are published. Please also mention your request to Carl-Henrik, especially if it concerns Vectors.txt since it will be continually updated and debugged for some time from now.

    The startup code in this article is freeware and may be used by anyone for any purpose.

    All trademarks and registered names (Workbench, Kickstart, etc) acknowledged.

    All opinions expressed in this article are my own, and in no way reflect those of anyone else. Please note that many of the programming practices described in this text are ONLY applicable for demo coding, and should not be used for Games and other programming.

    I didn't write this for fun, I wrote it for you to use!