TASM 5 Intel 8086 Turbo Assembler Download

A current version of TASM (Turbo Assembler) is rather hard to come by on the Web. Below is a .zip file you can download that is ready-to-go with TASM 5. I promise it worked for me for a whole semester, and I never had complaints about it.

It is very simple to use:

1. Don’t be deterred by the number of files in the zip – you only need two (yes, 2!)
2. Give it your code: Look in the BIN directory, okay now put your .asm file in there
3. Compile your code: Run tasm /l /zi your_file.asm, but replace “your_file” with the name of your .asm file
4. Link your code: Run tlink /v your_file.obj io.obj, and replace “your_file” with the same name you used in step 3
5. Run your code: Run your_file.exe, and again replace “your_file” with the same name

So to summarize, here is a sample use of TASM:

It is best if you run TASM close to the root of your hard drive, so don’t put it in your “My Documents” folder, since it has spaces and is very long. In fact, after you download and unzip the file below, you can just drop the TASM folder straight into your C drive and it will work well. That’s in XP or earlier.

Okay, so how about running this in Vista or Windows 7? How about on a Mac? The key with Vista is that nobody, not even administrators, has direct access to the command line. The result is that no one I know has had success running TASM in Vista. You will need to install XP or earlier in a virtual machine and run it in there. Windows 7 may be simpler in that some variants contain a Windows XP VM already, so you might be able to run TASM in XP Mode.  I really can’t say since I haven’t tried.

As for a Mac, I can say there is a very nice solution that doesn’t require wasting tons of system resources on a virtual machine. A dab of Google solves everything In this case, there is a nice bit of freeware called Boxer, which is a simple DOS emulator that most people use to play their favourite old games. Read the documentation and you should be up and running in no time. Boxer runs well under Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6).

Good luck! Let me know how it worked for you in the comments.

Download TASM 5: tasm.zip (8.1 MB)