Getting Started

Welcome to Racing the Beam — a step-by-step masterclass in Atari 2600 assembly programming.

What You'll Need

1. ACME Cross-Assembler

ACME is the 6502 cross-assembler we use throughout this course. It's lightweight, well-documented, and produces clean binary output perfect for Atari 2600 ROMs.

Linux (apt):

sudo apt install acme

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install acme

From source:

# See https://sourceforge.net/projects/acme-crossass/
# or https://github.com/meonwax/acme

Note: This course was built and tested with ACME v0.97. Run acme --version to check yours.

2. Stella Emulator

Stella is the most accurate Atari 2600 emulator and includes a powerful debugger.

• Download: stella-emu.github.io
• Available for macOS, Linux, and Windows
• Version 6.x or later recommended

3. Text Editor

Any text editor works. We recommend one with 6502 assembly syntax highlighting:

• VS Code with the "6502 Assembly" extension
• Sublime Text with 6502 package
• vim/neovim with asm syntax

4. This Repository

git clone https://github.com/blendsdk/racing-the-beam.git
cd racing-the-beam

Your First Build

Once you have ACME and Stella installed, you can build and run the starter project:

make

This will assemble src/main.asm into build/game.bin. Open it in Stella:

stella build/game.bin

How This Course Works

1. Read the lesson on this site
2. Type the code — don't copy-paste! Muscle memory matters for assembly
3. Build and run in Stella
4. Experiment with the exercises at the end of each lesson
5. Move on when you're comfortable with the concepts

Each lesson builds on the previous one. Don't skip ahead — the 2600 is unforgiving, and every concept matters.

Ready?

Start with Lesson 01: Number Systems →