How to export an assembled file from VASM for disk use (Amiga)

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Kitsune Mifune
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How to export an assembled file from VASM for disk use (Amiga)

Post by Kitsune Mifune » Mon Jun 13, 2022 3:02 pm

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd pop back here as I've been giving some assembly projects a go again, but I've hit a bump in the road.

I've been using Notepad++ and VASM to do some Amiga stuff, but it dawned on me that I have no clue how to get a finished output file so I can put it on to an adf disk image. I used McGeezer's toolchain tutorial to set everything up, but it doesn't cover what to do when you want to assemble and export the code for use with disks. At the moment it just dumps the program into WinUAE's memory.

I tried pushing F6 to make some sort of export path to get a binary or something, but I just don't know what to type in. I'm not even sure if I should be using Notepad, or I need to do some command line stuff? The VASM manual seems very vague and doesn't actually show you step by step what to do, and I can't find any tutorials whatsoever on this topic, so I'm totally lost.

Thanks. Any info would be great!
Programming: 90% failures, 10% victories, and 100% hair loss!

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akuyou
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Re: How to export an assembled file from VASM for disk use (Amiga)

Post by akuyou » Mon Jun 13, 2022 9:53 pm

I'm afraid this isn't something I've done as my knowledge of the Amiga is fairly limited, as my preference is for the Genesis or X68 in the 68000 world.

VASM is just an assembler, so it will only get you to an binary file, you'll need to find something to allow you to 'inject' the final binary into a disk image.

You'll almost certainly want to do something from the command line or a batch script.

My devtools batch files put the final binary on a hard disk image, you will probably want to modify it, or write your own to do the assembly and disk image creation, for other systems I've generated a blank image, maybe with an 'autostart file' and used that that as a template, copying it to the destination file, before injecting the new files onto that copy, finally running that finished disk on the emulator for testing.

Maybe something on here will help:
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=95861
Chibi Akuma(s) Comedy-Horror 8-bit Bullet Hell shooter! // 「チビ悪魔」可笑しいゴシックSTG ! // Work in Progress: ChibiAliens

Interested in CPU's :Z80,6502,68000,6809,ARM,8086,RISC-V
Learning: 65816,ARM,8086,6809

Kitsune Mifune
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Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:46 am
Location: Glasgow
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Re: How to export an assembled file from VASM for disk use (Amiga)

Post by Kitsune Mifune » Tue Jun 14, 2022 4:31 pm

Thanks for the info.

I can create an adf disk image with a startup sequence no problem. It's just getting the finished game program file to put in it and point to, but as I say I've no idea how to do it from Notepad with VASM. Exporting a binary file would probably do the trick I think, but as I say there's next to no info on how to do this out there.

I'll have a look at your Devtools (I need to get them for a future project anyway) and see if I can spot something that I've missed.

Thanks! :)
Programming: 90% failures, 10% victories, and 100% hair loss!

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akuyou
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Re: How to export an assembled file from VASM for disk use (Amiga)

Post by akuyou » Wed Jun 15, 2022 1:00 am

If it's literally just the vasm command line your stuck with, maybe this will help?

https://www.chibiakumas.com/68000/hello ... p#LessonH6
Chibi Akuma(s) Comedy-Horror 8-bit Bullet Hell shooter! // 「チビ悪魔」可笑しいゴシックSTG ! // Work in Progress: ChibiAliens

Interested in CPU's :Z80,6502,68000,6809,ARM,8086,RISC-V
Learning: 65816,ARM,8086,6809

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