Day 4

A Few Things About MOV and LDR Instructions

	This section is devoted to the people who still wonder about the difference between the
MOV and LDR Instructions. They both have the same purpose, to move data, ok? The difference is
that the MOV instruction is mainly used to copy the contents of one register to another like 
so:

mov r0,r1

		If r1 = 100 then now r0 = 100 also, got it?

	With MOV, you can MOVe numbers into registers, but the numbers must fit into 8 bits (1 
byte). just use MOV for copying registers around and LDR for LoaDing Registers which works like
so.

ldr r0,=0x06000000
	
		LDR loads a register with a number of 32bits (4 bytes) at most. 

	So to wrap up this small section, I'll say "LDR is used to load registers, MOV is used
to copy a register to a register.




About the GBA's Keypad
	
Ok, I admit it, the GBA has no actual Keypad!

	The GBA has 10 keys, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, A, B, START, SELECT, L, and R. When you
press a key, the corresponding bit (1 binary digit) goes clear (0 or off). The keypad register
is at 0x04000130. In Keypad.h which you can get here, (Keypad.h is the 
same as the one from ThePernProject converted to asm), there
are the following defines:

KEY_A 1
KEY_B 2
KEY_SELECT 4
KEY_START 8
KEY_RIGHT 16
KEY_LEFT 32
KEY_UP 64
KEY_DOWN 128
KEY_R 256
KEY_L 512
KEYS 0x04000130

	To check to see if a key is down you do the following:

ldr r3,=KEYS     ; These 2 lines LoaD Register r4 with
ldr r4,[r3]      ; the contents of the Keys memory.
ands r4,r4,#KEY_A  ; This line does an AND operation with the keys register and the A Key.
; note that the AND instruction has the 'S' suffix that will set the condition to the result
; of the operation.

	If the A key is down the condition will be EQual so any instruction after that with
the EQ (EQual) suffix will be executed ONLY is the A key is down. I think it's obvious on how
to test for the other keys, so I won't show you.

So now a small demo about keypressing (if you think about that, it sounds like perverted 
or something :)) Here goes:

;;--- CODE START ---;;
@include screen.h     ; include our screen defines
@include keypad.h     ; just make sure it's in Goldroad's folder, include our keypad defines.
@textarea

ldr r4,=REG_DISPCNT
ldr r5,=(MODE_3|BG2_ENABLE)
str r5,[r4]

; Our usual routine of setting up Screen Mode 3.

ldr r7,=VRAM+2410

; make r7 a pointer to screen memory at coordinates at 10,10.

start   ; a label called start, you should be able to tell what labels are now, so this is
; the last time I'm pointing it out.

ldr r8,=KEYS    ; load r8 with address of keys register
ldr r6,[r8]   ; get value of key register
ands r6,r6,#KEY_UP   ; bit and the key register value and the key value
; status now should be EQual if key is down. Not Equal if key not down.

ldr r6,=0x00FF00FF  ; loads two (2) red pixels into r6
ldrne r6,=0x00000000  ;if the condition wasn't actually EQual, put two(2) black pixels into r6.

str r6,[r7]      ; put the pixels that are in r6 into r7 (r7 has vram at 10,10)
b start     ; jump (branch) back up to start
;;---STOP COPYING ---;;

Assemble that file!

NOTE : Now, to actually get output from this thing, you have to hold the key down.


Even though that was sort, checking for keypresses is important and deserves it's day.
Get that?

Day 5 may be a little while in the making because it will be about sprites.



Intro - Day 5