first of all, they do not let indie developers program or make games on their systems. you'll have to be a full-fledged company and most likely have the backing of a reputable publisher that has a license from Nintendo or Sony.

also, they don't sell dev kits to individual, especially not Nintendo.

plus a dev kit is usually $10,000 USD and higher (most of the time higher).

you'll have to wait until someone reverse hacks it or they give some sort of Linux package like the PS2 did.

why don't you just develop for the Dreamcast or PS2?

Dreamcast: http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB
PS2: http://ps2dev.org/kb.x?T=691

enjoy.

Quote:Original post by WISMAK
I see.

So how could someone learn and gain experience in console programming?

By getting good on the PC, by getting a PS2 Linux kit, by then getting a job at an established games company who are a licensed developer. Most of games programming is "technique" rather than anything specific to any platform - learn the relevant mathematics, algorithms and general development practices and you'll be able to develop for any platform.

Quote:What if I use a hacked dev kits and release a game?

During making the game, nothing. But as soon as you released it or started publicising it, firstly no retailers would touch it; secondly you should [at very least] expect to recieve a "cease and desist" letter from their lawyers pretty soon afterwards.

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft sell console hardware at a loss. Their profit comes from a royalty from sales of games by licensed publishers & developers. They wouldn't be getting this royalty if you were to bypass them using hacked hardware and homebrew kits.


In addition they have extremely strict quality control procedures (game design, no bugs, usability, consistency etc); and often even excercise controls over which genres of product can be released within a particular time frame.

This is to ensure a fair range of products and consistency for their customers (for example the X button always does the same thing in a PS2 game from the same territory; the length of time the manufacturers logo stays on is always consistent etc)

Quote:And what if I cry in the middle of Sony begging them to sell me a dev kit?

[smile] They'd tell you to go to university, then get a job at an established game development/publishing company and come back once you had some commercial experience. BTW, many publishers, console manufacturers and some developers do have internships.

Just a reminder: you are very much not allowed to distribute things like the TRC. Doing so is against the NDA that you (or someone on your behalf) signed when you got access to it.

Moreover, GDNet won't allow such things to happen on these boards - it'll be treated the same as warez, which is an instant ban for those involved. We could also report you to the relevant console company.

Quote:Original post by superpig
Just a reminder: you are very much not allowed to distribute things like the TRC. Doing so is against the NDA that you (or someone on your behalf) signed when you got access to it.

Moreover, GDNet won't allow such things to happen on these boards - it'll be treated the same as warez, which is an instant ban for those involved. We could also report you to the relevant console company.

what's the TRC?