Important Beginner Resources

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As a novice developer, sometimes it can be difficult to find a good place to start, so here are a few hand-picked resources to help you begin your learning!

Motorola 68000 Resources​

• MOTOROLA M68000 FAMILY Programmer’s Reference Manual - This behemoth of a PDF is the manufacturer's programming reference manual for the Motorola 68000 family of microprocessors. It covers a broad range of topics and is definitely a must-have for beginners and seasoned 68k devs alike.
• MarkeyJester's Motorola 68000 Beginner's Tutorial - An easy-to-follow beginner's guide to Motorola 68000 programming written by MarkeyJester.
• Learn Multi-platform 68000 Assembly Programming With ChibiAkumas - Another Motorola 68000 tutorial created by ChibiAkumas. The author also has accompanying videos for every lesson on their YouTube Channel.
• 68K Instruction Timings - A NeoGeo Wiki page that contains information about how long each Motorola 68000 instruction takes to execute.
• MarkeyJester's 68k Cycle Times - Another instruction timing reference page by MarkeyJester.
• EASy68K (Editor/Assembler/Simulator for the 68000) - A robust Motorola 68000 editor, assembler, and simulator environment ideal for applying knowledge and prototyping code.
• M68000 Peephole Optimizations - A list of small-scale instruction optimizations by flamewing.

General Mega Drive Resources​

• Mega Drive Wiki - A wiki that covers a wide variety of topics related to the Mega Drive, Mega CD, and 32X. (Note: some of the information on this wiki is a little out-of-date, but overall, it is still a very solid source of information.)
• Exodus SEGA Tech Docs - An archive of various official SEGA Technical documents related to various SEGA Hardware platforms, including the Mega Drive, Mega CD, and 32X.
• Maxim's YM2612 Documentation - A good reference page containing general information about the YM2612, one of two sound chips in the Mega Drive.
• SMS Power SN76489 Documentation - Another reference page containing some general information about the SN76489 PSG, that other Mega Drive sound chip.
• Z80 Heaven - A robust wiki for all things Z80, featuring tutorials and useful information about the instruction set. (Note: some articles target the Texas Instruments Family of programmable calculators, which is not applicable to the Mega Drive.)
• ClrHome Z80 Instruction Set - A visual and interactive table of all Z80 instructions, including invalid ones!

Other Resources​

• Psy-Q PC Development System for the Sega Saturn Manual - This SEGA Saturn devkit manual contains a lot of documentation on Psy-Q's ASM68k and ASMSH assemblers. A very useful resource for Mega Drive, Mega CD, 32X, and Sega Saturn development if you use one or both of these assemblers.
• SEGA Saturn Psy-Q development tools - Contains assemblers for the 68000 (ASM68K) and SH-2 (ASMSH), alongside a C compiler, linker, and library manager.
• AS Macro Assembler User's Manual - The reference manual for the AS Macro Assembler and a must-have resource for those who use AS as their assembler of choice.
• GitHub Quickstart Guide - Title says it all. A basic guide to using GitHub to manage Git repositories.
• Binary to Decimal to Hexadecimal Converter - A small web app for converting numbers between different base systems.
• The MDDC Questions & Answers Category - If you're confused about a topic, need some help, or otherwise would like some guidance, there's no shame in using our Q&A section.