nesdev.org

Yeah, the simplicity is great. I'm probably either lazy or dumb for not being able to handle the configuration needed by the "professional" assemblers, so I really like the fact that I can just start typing any program from scratch using ASM6 without having to worry about mappers, segments and whatever before writing a single line of code.

I don't think it because you're dumb or something, ca65 as a steep learning curve from the get go. It was hell at the beginning but now I'm happy that I made the choice. There is a lot of interesting features that I cannot get from other assembler (I think) and I like them (scope for variable, struct for defining memory location, enums, define scope a and assign existing memory location to it to make it more like myManager::myFunction etc.).

But like I mentioned before, there is no better assembler as long as the one you're using does the job. The hardest part is to get used to your new tool. I'm sure after using it a little bit I would be fine with asm6 too. Maybe this could be useful for quick test without the need to configure the memory map for ca65 (but you can always make a template for your test code and just copy it to a new folder when you need it).

And sometime there is a workaround if you really like the tool that much by avoiding the bug or something. Battle kid, Splash! were made with nesasm so it's possible to use it to make a complete game if you really want to. It's all depends how you like the tool.

CA65 isn't that bad. As I see it, it abstracts the process of "where your code goes" into a nice neat config file. With most assemblers, you must set the program counter or pad in numerous places. In CA65, your config file specifies memory areas and segments, with starting addresses (the program counter) and whether to fill to the specified size. It's really the same thing, only now your source code just fills segments specified by your config file. So, if you understand a normal assembler, there's really nothing stopping you from using CA65. It took me maybe an afternoon of hair pulling, now it is my favorite assembler.

the only feature i would add to asm6 is a chr and prg label with a command line argument that makes it output the chr and prg files without changing anything

;header stuff

.prg
;prg stuff here

.chr
;chr stuff here

so for a .nes file you would assemble it with "asm6 main.asm rom.nes"
and if you want it in two files something like "asm6 split main.asm rom.nes"
output would be "rom.nes.prg" "rom.nes.chr"

even thats pointless tho.. you could have main.asm then prg.asm and chr.asm