PyNES: Write NES Games in Python • Hacker News Board

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#11

Post by monitron » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 1:04 PM UTC

ionforce wrote: post #7

m_eiman wrote: post #2

I think is an amazingly absurd project, in a good way :)

What is absurd about it?

Well, to start with, it targets a long-dead platform. It also skips multiple steps, allowing a system that was always programmed in an extremely low level language (assembler) to be programmed in one of the highest-level languages in common use (Python).

For the record I love the idea.

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#12

Post by aninteger » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 1:05 PM UTC

There's also javagrinder https://www.mikekohn.net/micro/java_grinder.php which can run some java code on the TI-99/4a, C64, and Sega Genesis by translation of java class files to equivalent platform machine code.

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#13

Post by Keyframe » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 1:21 PM UTC

I forgot what is the name of using one language like that to emit other (DSL like). For example writing Lisp (or Python) to actually write C programs or asm. I think GOAL was used like that? Any resources (existing projects) about that? I'm not talking about 'compiling' from one language to another where you get to handle the baggage of the originating language as well through extra code, but more like fancy macro text processing.

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#14

Post by emodendroket » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 1:30 PM UTC

Isn't the fun of writing NES software basically doing it like guys would have done in the 80s? If you want to do something modern why even target a platform that hasn't been manufactured for decades?

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#15

Post by bhz » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 1:49 PM UTC

I was hoping this was an update to this project; bugfixes, or more examples, or docs. Very cool that this exists though.

@emodendroket "Isn't the fun of writing NES software basically doing it like guys would have done in the 80s?" - I did stuff in the 80s, there was nothing fun about having to leave comments out of your code for the lack of memory, or using a clumsy compiler and/or editor. Cross-compiling is the way to go! Just making these old systems do things is the point, and keeping them alive.

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#16

Post by dethstar » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 1:51 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #14

Isn't the fun of writing NES software basically doing it like guys would have done in the 80s? If you want to do something modern why even target a platform that hasn't been manufactured for decades?

You could argue that you want to play your games on this

http://www.analogueinteractive.com/products/analogue-nt-info...

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#17

Post by chongli » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 1:57 PM UTC

monitron wrote: post #11

ionforce wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is absurd about it?

Well, to start with, it targets a long-dead platform. It also skips multiple steps, allowing a system that was always programmed in an extremely low level language (assembler) to be programmed in one of the highest-level languages in common use (Python). For the record I love the idea.

Python may be high level in terms of relative distance to the hardware but it's not particularly high level in terms of the abstractions available. If you watch the video on the site linked you'll see that the programming style is not all that different from what you'd see if you were programming the NES in C.

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#18

Post by stuaxo » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 2:05 PM UTC

Awesome, does it work in shedskin ?

I remember them using a C64 emulator as one of the examples.

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#19

Post by gluelogic » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 2:11 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #17

monitron wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to start with, it targets a long-dead platform. It also skips multiple steps, allowing a system that was always programmed in an extremely low level language (assembler) to be programmed in one of the highest-level languages in common use (Python). For the record I love the idea.

Python may be high level in terms of relative distance to the hardware but it's not particularly high level in terms of the abstractions available. If you watch the video on the site linked you'll see that the programming style is not all that different from what you'd see if you were programming the NES in C.

The idea of programming the NES in C is still a little out there. People have made plenty of efforts in that area but it never seems to "stick."

Seems to me like it makes the most sense to just go with 6502 if one is serious about fooling around with the NES.

Re: PyNES: Write NES Games in Python

#20

Post by gluelogic » Fri, Sep 18, 2015, 2:17 PM UTC

DarkTree wrote: post #8

I would love this so much if I could figure it out. I'm a javascript programmer, but haven't done much with Python. I'd like to write a small, arcade-style game with python though. Does anyone know anything else like this? Is PyGame fun to work with?

Pygame is very fun to work with and it's so easy. I stopped using it for game development (switched to web-based HTML5 stuff) but it is still an amazing wrapper over SDL. I recently used it to write a quick version of an image evolver. (an example of what I'm talking about: http://alteredqualia.com/visualization/evolve/)

If I ever want to bust out a quick graphical/audio application I use Pygame.