Build kit

Your Own CPU for a Pocket Game

Requires the "A Watch and a Game from Gates" kit: this kit is its sequel and does not work without it. We build a 4-bit processor — ALU, memory, jumps, subroutines, ports — and move the watch and the game "Star Harvest" onto it. At the end you write the game yourself in assembly.

The introduction and lessons 0–1 are free; the rest opens after purchase.

What is inside

  1. Before you start
  2. A little history: a processor in your pocket
  3. Lesson 1. The A register and the ALU: a calculator on toggles
  4. Lesson 2. The program counter and the ROM: running lights from a program
  5. Lesson 3. Memory, ST and screen memory: digits on the LCD from a program
  6. Lesson 4. Flags and jumps: a 0–9 counter in a program
  7. Lesson 5. Subroutines, ports and the "second" flag: a watch as a program
  8. Lesson 6. The game as a program: "Star Harvest" on the processor
  9. Lesson 7. First programs: learning to write in assembly
  10. Lesson 8. Write the game yourself
  11. Summary
  12. All the parts