SNES development?
Have look around dsdev.org (which is basically gbadev.org) and especially the forums. Lots of good starter information there.
Quote:Original post by UltimateWarriorDashQuote:Failing that, the DS is also a possibility.
That is a splendid idea, an idea I neglected to mention because I do not want Nintendo suing me.
My friend started programming for the DS a while back, but gave up. I will definitely look into it.
I second the DS idea [smile]. The hardware (at least the 2D) is quite similar to the SNES anyway. Tiled backgrounds, the famous 'Mode 7', the sprite system are all there. You also get to use two processors, 3d, touch and two screens if you so desire. It's quite an interesting little machine to work on.
You also have the advantage of it being easy to take your work around with you :) If it's any help, heres some useful links:
Forum: gbadev.org
Homebrew 'devkit': DevkitPro
Emulator (for testing): no$gba
PS. Nintendo won't sue you :p
Quote:Original post by Driv3MeFar
You're not going to be able to produce SNES cartridges anyway. So if you develop for SNES you're already requiring your audience to get an emulator to play. So long as there are arbitrary requirements to play your games, you might as well tell people to get a controller.
It's never good to say 'never'. I was able to produce a simple game for the SNES and get it onto cartridges (luckily I had a friend who could solder and was up for the challenge) :
Frog Feast
I enjoyed the challenge, rather than the practicality.
I used a very primitive C compiler, with a *lot* of assembly language and optimized C routines to get it running decently. Western Design has since released a C compiler for the 65816. It is based on a compiler that was sold to a few SNES developers.
Writing a game for a embedded platform like this, even a relatively recent one like the DS which actually has decent C compilers, can be a very frustrating experience.
Just getting things up and running in a nice development environment can take ages. You have to put up with sub-standard tools like inaccurate emulators and some frustratingly bad debuggers, and you can just forget about things like profilers and bounds-checkers. Not to mention that there's no memory protection to save you from trashing your code, no swap space to save you if you run out of RAM, and if you dare overextend the graphics chip then things just start to disappear.
Is it really dealing with all this just to make the game 'authentic?'
Then again I spend a great deal of time tinkering with limited systems myself, and I'm far from the only one. But that's more out of a desire to take a system to its limits than anything else. To truly impress people and make a PS2 project look like a 'next-gen' game takes years of effort for dozens of people, while a few weeks of work and a timely post on Slashdot can have half the geeks of the world 'ooh-ing and ahh-ing' over a spinning cube on the NES.
Also porting classic games to a new platform is always satisfying for solo-programmers wanting to write a game ;)
Just getting things up and running in a nice development environment can take ages. You have to put up with sub-standard tools like inaccurate emulators and some frustratingly bad debuggers, and you can just forget about things like profilers and bounds-checkers. Not to mention that there's no memory protection to save you from trashing your code, no swap space to save you if you run out of RAM, and if you dare overextend the graphics chip then things just start to disappear.
Is it really dealing with all this just to make the game 'authentic?'
Then again I spend a great deal of time tinkering with limited systems myself, and I'm far from the only one. But that's more out of a desire to take a system to its limits than anything else. To truly impress people and make a PS2 project look like a 'next-gen' game takes years of effort for dozens of people, while a few weeks of work and a timely post on Slashdot can have half the geeks of the world 'ooh-ing and ahh-ing' over a spinning cube on the NES.
Also porting classic games to a new platform is always satisfying for solo-programmers wanting to write a game ;)
Only recent controllers have an advantage over the keyboard / mouse combo because of their analog buttons. SNES gamepads predate this, and only have digital buttons, so there isn't much difference between using your keyboard as input anyways.
Use the arrow keys and ASDZXC to mimicked the buttons as default, and let the user program in their gamepad support. I forget the name of it, but there is something called 'action mapping' or something similar that lets users bind whatever input from whatever device to any command they want. If someone was so inclined, they could control your game via unicycle.
Use the arrow keys and ASDZXC to mimicked the buttons as default, and let the user program in their gamepad support. I forget the name of it, but there is something called 'action mapping' or something similar that lets users bind whatever input from whatever device to any command they want. If someone was so inclined, they could control your game via unicycle.
Quote:Original post by UltimateWarriorDashQuote:Original post by Daaark
UWD, you are aware that you can just go down to the store and buy a controller for your PC and then program for it right?
But what of the audience? Not everyone is gonna want to buy a controller for my games.
Anyone vaguely interested in playing emulators or console-ish games on the PC has already invested the twenty bucks in a gamepad. I just don't see the issue here. Design for gamepad, allow keyboard control as a fallback. Just like emulators.
If you're interested, it's not too much trouble to hook up your original SNES pad to the PC via the parallel port. It just takes about 3 bucks in supplies and a few minutes with a soldering iron. You can find plans online. I did one and i love it.
Once you get that out of the way, what platform you make the game for is of no great concern. I'd say just make a PC game with sprites. It'll be much easier than trying to program for the actual SNES or GBA. The people who work on those are/were bit-flipping geniuses.
Once you get that out of the way, what platform you make the game for is of no great concern. I'd say just make a PC game with sprites. It'll be much easier than trying to program for the actual SNES or GBA. The people who work on those are/were bit-flipping geniuses.
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