Keep time and wait for input

[chocoglass]

Hello :) I am working on an assembly game (big task for an assembly newbie like me), and I'm wondering if it's possible to both keep time and wait for user input at the same time.

This is how I keep time: get system time, save the unit for second. Then keep getting system time until the second you get is different from the second you saved. Then you'll know one second has passed. It counts down from WAITINGTIME to 0, then does something.

@TIMELOOP:
    MOV AH, 2Ch
    INT 21h
    MOV SECOND, DH
    @WAIT1SEC:
        MOV AH, 2Ch
        INT 21h
        CMP SECOND, DH
        JE @WAIT1SEC
    DEC WAITINGTIME
    CMP WAITINGTIME, 0
    JNE @TIMELOOP
; WAITINGTIME seconds have passed, do something

And this is how I wait for user input: keep reading keyboard input until a key is pressed. The game needs a moving cursor, so basically it responds to the WASD keys. Once a key is pressed, I move the cursor accordingly.

@READKEY:
    MOV AH, 06h
    MOV DL, 0FFh
    INT 21h
    JZ @READKEY
; work with the pressed key

I wonder, is it possible to merge these two codes together? I need the player to be able to keep moving the cursor, but I also need to keep track of the time. It doesn't seem like I can put both in one loop :/ Keeping both in one loop will stop the timekeeping when the pressed key is processed.

Oh yeah, I'm working in Windows using MASM.

Any ideas? It would be great if there was a really simple way to do this...as I don't have much assembly knowledge :( Thanks in advance for any help!