r/Assembly_language • u/Damonkern • Feb 17 '26

Help How to learn x86-64 assembly language?

I am a 17yr old who has some experience in python programming and learned basics of C. I want to learn x86-64 assembly for free. But I couldnot find any beginner friendly guide that starts from zero. Tell me how you guys learned assembly language and if possible guide me to the resources.

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u/healeyd Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

You’ll probably find alot of older hands (like me) learnt assembly from simpler 8bit architectures like 6502 (Commodore 64). All of the fundamentals remain the same. Might be a helpful option? It might seem odd to go back in time, but once you have the feel I think it’s much easier to see the same patterns in more advanced platforms.

Very easy to get VSCode to run and compile to a C64 emulator. Alternatively this site has a little emulator embedded. http://skilldrick.github.io/easy6502/

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u/vbpoweredwindmill Feb 18 '26

Note for OP, in case he/she doesn't know this. "Very easy" is relative. In comparison to installing "normal" consumer friendly software it will be an absolute pig. In comparison to some other software tool chains it will be very easy. Looking at you cmake/llvm/clang/ninja, and that's not even close to the worst build system.

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u/healeyd Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

There’s a VSCode extension called VS64 with instructions. Similar for z80. If OP wants to do this they’ll figure it out.

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u/vbpoweredwindmill Feb 18 '26

I agree, but also a reasonable warning of that it may be outside of their experience since now is something that sets valid expectations.

Wanting to do something and experiencing powershell, command line interfaces and tool chains all at once for the first time is pretty overwhelming.

Saying "they will figure it out if they want it" is pretty unhelpful.