Choosing tools for Game Boy development
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#2This is a great overview! I would personally love to see a feature-length documentary on the rise of the modern-day Game Boy development scene.
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#3Recently got an EZ Flash Jr to get into playing homebrew gameboy games on my (unmodded) GB pocket from middleschool. Itch.io has more fun GB games than i'll ever have time to play and its felt like a really positive community.
https://itch.io/search?q=gameboy
Then while bored in a meeting at work I started looking into coding a hello world for it and quickly found my way to some Assembly tutorials which Ive never had an excuse to touch.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUDEaLa5Nw
It seems like a really awesome entry point for C or Assembly. Wondering if anyone has any GB development beginners advice in addition to this post?
Also is there a GameBoy dev zeitgeist or is it just coincidence that I feel like Im seeing a lot of developer stuff pop up for it lately?
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#4For the Go folks, https://dev.to/aurelievache/learning-go-by-examples-part-5-c...
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#5Recently got an EZ Flash Jr to get into playing homebrew gameboy games on my (unmodded) GB pocket from middleschool. Itch.io has more fun GB games than i'll ever have time to play and its felt like a really positive community. https://itch.io/search?q=gameboy Then while bored in a meeting at work I started looking into coding a hello world for it and quickly found my way to some Assembly tutorials which Ive never had…
There's a lot of retro dev happening now across the board. SGDK has led to a big interest in making Genesis/Megadrive games. Jo Engine is increasing interest in the Saturn, etc. I'm also attempting to help contribute by writing a book on Neo Geo development (it has a long ways to go)
https://github.com/Stephane-D/SGDK
a Saturn homebrew showcase - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqKKExcTaKo
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#6If you are interested in retro game development, I highly recommend the Nintendo Game Boy or Game Boy Color as a development target. You can develop games with either Z80-ish (Sharp SM83) assembly or C. The system has most of the features of the NES, but has a ton of kinks worked… I like to think of it as a dream version of the NES.
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#7If you are interested in retro game development, I highly recommend the Nintendo Game Boy or Game Boy Color as a development target. You can develop games with either Z80-ish (Sharp SM83) assembly or C. The system has most of the features of the NES, but has a ton of kinks worked… I like to think of it as a dream version of the NES.
It's really limited, though. Sometimes that is nice, but if you want a bit more of a comfortable environment, the GBA is wonderful. It's got a decently fast processor and enough RAM to not have to worry too much about it, and it's got some really interesting hardware that is easy to use but also allows lots of interesting trickery.
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#8Recently got an EZ Flash Jr to get into playing homebrew gameboy games on my (unmodded) GB pocket from middleschool. Itch.io has more fun GB games than i'll ever have time to play and its felt like a really positive community. https://itch.io/search?q=gameboy Then while bored in a meeting at work I started looking into coding a hello world for it and quickly found my way to some Assembly tutorials which Ive never had…
> … is there a GameBoy dev zeitgeist …
It’s not just you.
- Retro development is “in”, a ton of the kids from the 1990s and 2000s are seasoned programmers with some free time now, or enthusiastic hobbyists.
- The tools have gotten a lot better. RGBDS, GB Studio, emulators with debugging capabilities, etc.
- Game Boy development in particular is an excellent entry point. The system design is simply excellent, and it feels like you’re working with a highly polished “2.0” of something. C works well enough on Game Boy, and assembly is approachable. You’re not writing code for multiple different architectures at the same time.
- Game Boy hardware is still reasonably priced.
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#9If you are interested in retro game development, I highly recommend the Nintendo Game Boy or Game Boy Color as a development target. You can develop games with either Z80-ish (Sharp SM83) assembly or C. The system has most of the features of the NES, but has a ton of kinks worked… I like to think of it as a dream version of the NES.
It's really limited, though. Sometimes that is nice, but if you want a bit more of a comfortable environment, the GBA is wonderful . It's got a decently fast processor and enough RAM to not have to worry too much about it, and it's got some really interesting hardware that is easy to use but also allows lots of interesting trickery.
Game Boy and Game Boy Advance are definitely both at the top of my list.
Re: Choosing tools for Game Boy development
#10Recently got an EZ Flash Jr to get into playing homebrew gameboy games on my (unmodded) GB pocket from middleschool. Itch.io has more fun GB games than i'll ever have time to play and its felt like a really positive community. https://itch.io/search?q=gameboy Then while bored in a meeting at work I started looking into coding a hello world for it and quickly found my way to some Assembly tutorials which Ive never had…
> … is there a GameBoy dev zeitgeist … It’s not just you. - Retro development is “in”, a ton of the kids from the 1990s and 2000s are seasoned programmers with some free time now, or enthusiastic hobbyists. - The tools have gotten a lot better. RGBDS, GB Studio, emulators with debugging capabilities, etc. - Game Boy development in particular is an excellent entry point. The system design is simply excellent, and it f…
I'm wondering if there is anything that can be converted into a commercial adventure. I see a few retro options here:
- develop games for popular retro platforms. So far Nox Archaist for Apple ][ is the most successful example.
- develop a new hardware as platform. So far I have seen a lot of projects such as Arduboy but none of them is successful enough AFAIK.