OK.  I'm not going to make anything super complex, but I want to at least get something displayed on-screen and recognize some controller input to make changes.  I have read a few tutorials, although they have syntax for nesasm, which I understand is horrendously out of date and very inaccurate.  Some folks recommended asm6, which seems to just be a simple "you put your code through me and I'll compile it".  The only problem is some of the syntax is different and obviously things won't compile.  I can't really find documentation on this.

Al or bunnyboy, got any tips?

I think he's just going to tell you to "stay tuned" as his Nerdy Nights unfold. This sounds like exactly what he has in store for us by the end of week 8.

First ignore the reports of NESASM being so bad The people that say it is mostly have never used it or couldn't think of good reasons. The one and only thing inaccurate about NESASM is one bad opcode is allowed (inc a). ASM6 sounds good, and should be almost the same syntax. Its mostly personal preference, nothing out of date or very inaccurate about any of the assemblers I know of. The () vs [] and banking should be the only differences in NESASM vs ASM6. If you post the error messages or some sample code then it should be pretty easy to figure out.

If you have already done some form of programming, my unfinished tutorial may be the best. I think the version up there will get you through sprites and controller input, possibly backgrounds.

If you are starting from absolutely nothing and have more time (many weeks) you can follow along with the Nerdy Nights weekly series. It will be a couple more weeks before any useful NES code is presented.

Hey again.  I actually have gotten something to compile.  A simple 8x8 sprite moving around.

It's a start.  Soon I'll need to check into background use as many sprites on one line cause problems.

Great work Sivak. I can also recommend bunnyboy's tutorial it got me started into NES programming. I'm currently using nesasm, and haven't had many problems - biggest one was I put too many data items (db declarations) on the one line which it couldn't cope with.

Progress seems to be good.  I've now got a title screen of sorts, moving sprites, and the ability to change colors on the fly.  All that in a mere 392 lines of code!  The fact that I can do all this is kinda cool though.

Screenshot thus far:  http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6549/33wa0.png

The two objects in the middle are the movable sprites.  Don't ask about the title.

Uh, wow. I'm impressed that you were able to do that. That title screen looks pretty good (clean and simple, but effective).