New to homebrew / development

I've had a lot of interest in developing games and getting familiar with the internal workings of the systems and such. As I new I was just wondering if anyone could provide some insight as to a good way to get started; that is what to start with, where to get the tools + information, what are good ways to start and learn the stuff, etc. So if you have any info, suggestions or wisdom any help would be appreciated.

 

Best place to get started is have an idea of what you set out to do. Is it 2D? Is it 3D?

From that, decide on what console you want to develop for. Newer consoles are both easier to code from a language point-of-view - to get the most out of older consoles knowledge of assembly language is key - but equally games of a high standard are easier to do on older consoles due to not having such a high bar to attain to.

Once you've done that, read http://gpwiki.org/ and get cracking!

 

Sweet! greatly apreciated

 

If you're interested in 3d dev for the Nintendo 64, I can help you get started, I can give you some of the programs I've written too. PM me

 

marshallh has some scary voodoo knowledge about electronics and most things console, trust him!

 

The PSP is a good place to start, theres plenty of documentation and help avaliable and can do 3d and 2d.

 

"I've had a lot of interest in developing games and getting familiar with the internal workings of the systems and such."
Megadrive dev is the way then Recent systems are probably just too complex to have fun at a very low level.

If you want to use libs and don't care of the system's guts, yeah, then psp/gba may be a better choice.

Good luck

Fonz

 

The first system that I worked on as a kid was the SNES.

Setting the awkward sound chip aside, the Pallette gave me nightmares. ><

MegaDrive might indeed be a better choice, considering the popularity of its processors (Z80 , Motorola 68K) that in turn can pave the way for you to get into embedded systems etc. Also, the speedy 68K is generally speaking more friendly than the SNES' CPU. Beware of limited memory though.

Before you move on to megadrive, try the GameBoy I'd say. (not GBA , GB). It contains a Z80 too.

 

If you're going to be coding in assembler then mega drive isn't a bad system to work on. However to run on real hardware you need a backup unit or something similar, you can test your code on an emulator but it's not the same. It's easy to write code that works on an emulator but not real hardware for instance ( and vice versa ).

The absolute cheapest console to code on is the PlayStation. Pick up an xplorer/xploder cartridge & a 25 pin to 25 pin extension cable, flash the cartridge with caetla and you can easily send programs to it. Pretty much everyone codes in C, although you can code in assembler too & there are free tools out there if you can't get hold of the official ones.

Graphics are as much of a pain on either system, requiring conversion into specific depths and usually raw format.

smf

 

"It's easy to write code that works on an emulator but not real hardware for instance ( and vice versa )."
I have a few precision about megadrive :
Since the system is quite simple and robust (there is almost no way to make the hardware hang), you can be sure that GensKmod emulator is enough accurate (because it tells you if you do something bad) to develop an entiere game without testing on the real machine... But yeah, at some point, before publishing, testing is required .
I never had myself any issue with megadrive... Megacd is another thing

You can code in C or Asm or both, as you want... You can code in 99.99% C language if you can't bear asm (like me) .

 

or you can code in C and start an 'asm' clause ;p

 

Now, that sounds like a challenge. As I don't have a genesis let alone a dev environment, unfortunately I can't take it up.

Is the source available for that? I'm intrigued as there are no real cycle accurate 68000 emulators. Now that the microcode has come out of copyright, there is a hope that some use can be made of it.

smf

 

I always recommend people learn to make games on a PC first. Learn x86 assembler. It's always easiest to learn the basics on a well documented system before going into lesser documented systems.

 

I'm learning to program myself (taking a HS course), but I'd reccomend learning BASIC or Visual Basic first, it lets you in easy, but teaches you a lot of the logic and syntaxs you'll need later. After you can think like a programmer, it's simply a case of translating that thinking from language to language. I'd start with x86 programming, as there's lots of infomation avalible and you've got everything you need right in front of ya, then move on to a console you've got modded, or a system that's 100% emulated. A DC with the coder's cable's always good, too, as there are plenty of resources, and a modded Xbox, as it uses x86 and the homebrew scene is huge.

 

If you're interested in 16 bit console/arcade systems, I have a game with source and tools for the Genesis, Neo Geo, Capcom, CPS-1 and, IGS PGM.

They can be downloaded from:
http://frogfeast.rastersoft.net/Source.html

 

I also started console development on the SNES. It seemed like a very difficult system back then. It didn't seem as bad last year.

The 68000 and Genesis are much easier to work with; but, that could be because 68000 asm is almost my native language. The Genesis is a bit more limited color wise.

Support for the C language is much better for the Genesis, and 'nearly' noexistant for the SNES. There are two options, SNESC, limited to two(?) banks, and a very rough mod to CC65. The CC65 mod would work for calling C functions from an assembly language based framework.

 

I am completely suprised no one has mentioned the Dreamcast... you have Windows CE target, oodles of full blown OS's (Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD), let alone KallistiOS. You can run from CD-rs, a debugging cable can be made with a pittance worth of money and time, and you can even use Visual Studio.

 

If you have no coding experience whatsoever (or only PHP/similar crud), for the love of God don't focus on console programming, at least not on something old. You'll thank yourself later.

 

AntiPasta i've heard many people saying that and yet the first thing i coded for was the PSP and ive not had any difficulties with anything else i've programmed on.

 

The BBA card is extremely expensive. Yes, the cable isn't hard to make if you have the soldering skills and can find the connector still. The Max232 part of the circuit can be bought prebuilt:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=449

I'm not sure how useful the Dreamcast emulators are for homebrew testing. Because, today 95% of the testing is done in emulators, except on systems such as the PSP.

Nothing from the official SDKs will run on a normal Dreamcast. You have to have an expensive developer's station.
KallistiOS isn't a bad option though.