These guides are your hands-on introduction to game development on the Tatung Einstein, a powerful Z80-based home computer from the 1980s. Whether you’re here for nostalgia, curiosity, or to build low level skills from scratch, these guides are designed for you.
No prior technical or programming background is required. Everything is broken down step by step in plain English. We’ll start with something simple, displaying a word on screen, and gradually build towards creating working programs and games.
Understanding Z80 assembly gives you direct control over a classic computer. It’s a chance to see how numbers become characters, how instructions drive hardware, and how real-time systems work. Along the way, you’ll learn the roots of many modern computing concepts.
By the end of these guides, you’ll be able to:
Every concept is taught through practical examples, not just theory.
You can absolutely follow these guides on the actual Tatung Einstein TC01 or 256 computers, though that would be slightly more time-consuming. If you’re looking for the true 1980s developer experience, then go for it. You will need to use an original assembler. However, for most learners, we recommend using the AsmToDsk tool, which can be found in the 'Dev Tools' section of this website. AsmToDsk runs on the latest Windows OS and will assemble your source code into a .com file, place that file on a .dsk image, and mount that image in Mame emulator so you can see your program running on the Einstein. You can of course assemble the code and create the image using any tools you choose.
This course is ideal for:
The are appendices. These are optional, designed for learners who want to go deeper into:
You can safely skip them if you just want to follow the main path of the course. But if you want a deeper understanding of Z80 assembly, these sections will enrich your learning.
