Systems & Games

BrickBreaker — Retro Arcade in x86 Assembly

A full game engine hand-coded in x86 Assembly with direct VGA rendering.

2024

OVERVIEW

The Project

A classic brick-breaking arcade game, reinvented and built from scratch in x86 Assembly with a modern, minimalist approach. It demonstrates system-level mastery through direct VGA mode access, custom keyboard interrupt handling, and low-level memory optimization.

Objectives

Demonstrate system-level mastery by hand-coding a full game engine in Assembly.

Match the frame-rate and precision of commercial retro games.

Tools & Technologies

MASM assemblerDOSBoxCustom SVG assets

METHODOLOGY

The Approach

Direct VGA mode access for rendering; keyboard ISR for input.

Stepwise build: bootstrapping, draw loop, input handling, rendering.

Bitwise collision detection and frame-perfect movement.

OUTCOME

Results & Learnings

A smooth-playing, nostalgic arcade experience in pure Assembly.

Hyper-responsive input via custom keyboard interrupt handling.

Key Learnings

Insight into how graphics, input, and physics interact at the machine level.
Validated incremental, low-level programming methodologies.

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