January 27, 2026
Floppy-fueled flame war
Ask HN: Books to learn 6502 ASM and the Apple II
Retro coders feud: “Start with BASIC” vs “Zaks or bust” — and the archives explode
TLDR: An HN thread on learning 6502 for Apple II becomes a retro reading list, led by 6502.org and classic Zaks/Leventhal books. The crowd argues BASIC-first versus straight-to-assembly, while nostalgia and laughs about Apple II’s quirky graphics make this a must-read for curious newcomers.
An innocent “how do I learn 6502 on the Apple II?” turned into a retro throwdown. The original advice was classic old-school: start with BASIC (a simple beginner language) to build a small project, then turbocharge the slow parts with assembly (super low-level code). Cue the split: one camp cheered the gentle BASIC-first path, while speed purists practically yelled “metal or nothing.” Resource-drops piled up fast, with aa-jv pointing straight to the motherlode at 6502.org and its book list, plus the treasure caves of archive.org.
Nostalgia went full throttle. Fans crowned Rodnay Zaks’ out-of-print “Programming the 6502” a cult classic, while OhMeadhbh flexed real credentials: they used Lance Leventhal’s book to write Apple II ProDOS serial drivers — yes, actual hardware wizardry — linking the exact Leventhal book. Another commenter hyped “Advanced 6502 Programming,” a hands-on tutorial that even includes building your own machine — schematics included. Then came the memes: christkv’s “Apple II graphics are pretty crazy lol” got everyone laughing about the machine’s quirky memory layout. The vibe? A delightful mix of helpful librarians, battle-scarred engineers, and collectors hunting second-hand paperbacks like rare vinyl. Whether you start with BASIC or dive straight into assembly, the community agrees on one thing: the retro internet has receipts — and they’re archived forever.
Key Points
- •Start with a small, complete project in BASIC to learn programming fundamentals on 6502-era systems.
- •BASIC was built into many 1980s 6502 home computers and suits business applications and core game logic.
- •BASIC’s interpreted nature slows tasks like video and I/O compared to assembly.
- •Optimize performance by identifying bottlenecks in BASIC and rewriting those parts in assembly.
- •Use earlier-era books to build foundational knowledge before advancing to more complex assembly techniques.