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About

Attempts to translate x86 assembly into mos6502 assembly.

Why?

Why not? I figured I just barely knew some x86 and some 6502, so why not learn some more about both. Besides, this project can actually have some interesting applications.

Example

After compilation (requires a full C++14 compiler), you can run something like this:

// test.asm
main:
	movb	$1, 53280
	xorl	%eax, %eax
	ret

cat test.asm | x86-to-6502

And get this output:

main:
	ldy #$1
	sty 53280
	lda $00
	rts

Caveats

  • Nothing is guaranteed. This could break your computer. Who knows?
  • All values are truncated to 8 bit. We have no support for 16bit math or pointers yet
  • Only as many instructions are supported as I have needed to support to get my test cases working

To Do

Everything

Well, lots of things.

Better code organization

I really had no idea what I was doing when I started this. So, like all code, it's going to need some improvements along the way to make it more organized and more maintainable.

Improvements

  • Keep track of input source lines and add comments in output to show where lines came from, for learning / debugging purposes
  • Better / more efficient translation
  • Support for 16bit math? Maybe? We need to at least be able to do 16bit pointer math
  • Consider supporting the "Sweet 16" virtual 16bit CPU that Woz designed?
  • Maybe for 16bit operation we try to detect if the input code is working on 8bit registers or 16+bit registers and do the right thing?
  • Support for more CPU instructions
  • A test suite