What’s the Best Way to Start Learning x86-64 Assembly Language?

Learning x86-64 assembly can be quite tricky due to its complexity with legacy memory addressing and various instruction set extensions like SSE and AVX. I suggest starting with something simpler, like the NES 8-bit assembly. There are solid guides at NESDev that can help you get a grip on the basics. Once you understand the fundamentals of assembly, look at the differences in x86. Wikibooks has extensive material on x86 assembly too, especially if you start with the older 386 instructions before moving to x86-64. Also, check out Godbolt.org for experimenting with your C code and seeing the generated assembly instructions.

A great approach is to play around with C first! Try writing small programs in C, then look at the raw assembly instructions it generates. It helps bridge the gap between high-level and low-level languages for sure.

What’s your end goal with learning assembly? For fun or to gain deeper knowledge about computer architecture? That motivation can help steer your learning path!

You might find lots of resources on MIPS assembly as well, which can be a good stepping stone for understanding assembly language. Might be worth checking out!

Do you want to focus specifically on x86 assembly or just assembly in general? If you're open to other options, starting with a simpler system like an 8-bit CPU (like Z-80 or 6502) can be beneficial. AVR is another accessible option since you can get Arduino boards for hands-on experience. I learned through some ancient books on the 8088/86 instruction set and assembly programming with DOS.