Wrapper for Rasm

In this page, I'll explain how to generate a binary for the player and music, in case you don't want to use Rasm in your production. A better alternative is to use Disark!

First of all, have a small Z80 code, called "wrapper.asm", which we will compile with Rasm. It will embed the player and music:

  org #1000     ;This is the fixed address of the player/music
PlayerAndMusicBinary_Start
  include "resources/mysong.bin"
  include "resources/mysong_playerconfig.asm"

  include "playerAkg.asm"  ;It works for any other player.
PlayerAndMusicBinary_End

Note: if you're wondering what is that "player config" file, please check this page. This is optional, but don't be afraid to use this great feature!

Now, when compiling this, we'll ask Rasm to export the symbols as Z80 code. This requires Rasm >=0.101, so check your version first:

rasm wrapper.asm -o wrapper -sc "%s equ %d"

This command will compile our "wrapper.asm", generating "wrapper.bin" (the binary), and a symbol file called "wrapper.sym". However, thanks to the magic "sc" command, the latter has been generated as a Z80 file. Indeed, the symbols have this structure:

PLAYERANDMUSICBINARY_START equ 4096
MYSONG_START equ 4096
...
PLY_AKG_INIT equ 5123
PLY_AKG_PLAY equ 5126 PLY_AKG_STOP equ 5129
...
PLAYERANDMUSICBINARY_END equ 6780

There are many labels present, but we don't care about them. Please note that Rasm generates upper-case labels.

So now, in your real code using your favorite assembler (Vasm, Winape, SJAsmPlus, etc.), simply do this:

  ;Loads the symbols for the music and player.
include "wrapper.sym"

;Includes the music and player binary.
org PLAYERANDMUSICBINARY_START
include "wrapper.bin"

org #4000
;This is my super game.
...
;Initializes the song.
ld hl,MYSONG_START
xor a ;Subsong 0.
call PLY_AKG_INIT
...
;This is the main loop.
call PLY_AKG_PLAY

That's it! The PLY_AKG_INIT/PLAY labels can be conveniently used because they are declared in "wrapper.sym". You don't have to compile "wrapper.asm" again, unless the music changed, or you want to change its compilation address (from #1000 to anything else).

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any trouble making this work.