Posted: 7/19/2005 7:14 PM
Post subject: Retro game making
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Highness
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
I was just thinking... How did they program genesis games back in the days? It would also be fun to program something for it now days. Anyone got info about it? Also I'm kinda curious about the rom dumpers out there. Could you guys name them perhaps, and maby mention places where to buy them? Would also be nice to lay hands on empty cartridges which you can burn games to. Anything related would be kewl to have here.
Posted: 7/19/2005 7:15 PM
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nesrocks
He/Him
Player (241)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
Nes games were programmed in NES assembly or something. Which is hard. You want to make a NES rom that works on a NES emulator? thats hard, its easier to make something that kind of follows the spirit of a NES game but is made in, let's say, macromedia flash. If anyone is up to it i'd like to help make the graphics.
aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios
Posted: 7/19/2005 9:01 PM
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SXL
Joined: 2/7/2005
Posts: 571
several years ago, a special version of the playstation was sold. (forgot its name, was black) it was fully programmable, and some demo/games made appearance on cds offered with magazines. basically, it was a modded, updgradable psx you could plug to your pc and program from there with a professional emulator/debugger. I heard that for the SNES, back in the days, Nintendo would provide the developers the same kind of hardware/software. those professional emulators were a kind of a dream for the early emulation scene back in the 90. nowadays, it's normal to find emulators for everything, but those who knew SNES96 and SNES97 (which would become Snes9x), were dreaming to play console games (for free, let's be realist) on their computers. my theory is, that there were and still are such special "developer" versions of each console. the first rom dumpers basically stole this kind of hardware/software, which were 'industrial secrets'. developers had a contract to not give/sell/speak of them (you could know everything you wanted), but some broke it and started to dump and sell copied games. some of you might have had in hand the famous SNES "diskette" pirate reader. it proved that every console was connectable to computer hardware. to sum up, piracy is the mother of emulation, so a discussion about the origins will undoubtly reach the prohibited subject...
I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death - NAS
Posted: 7/20/2005 1:49 AM
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LocalH
Joined: 10/3/2004
Posts: 138
OP said Genesis games guys =P Generally, Genesis games were programmed in 68000 assembly (although some games used a mix of assembly and C, like Ecco). In earlier Genesis games, the Z80 only handled sound samples through the DAC, while the 68k handled the FM synth. Later games used the Z80 for both FM and DAC. There are several dumpers floating around that can handle Genesis games, but many of the oldschool grey market copiers can be a bit hard to find (for example, I just bought a 16Mbit Super Magic Drive, and I'd been looking for one for about four years now). Examples of Genesis-capable dumpers include Super Magic Drive, Multi Game Hunter (which I hear is shit), Multi Game Doctor, Double Pro Fighter, and others. There is also a dumping method that connects a cable between the PC parallel port and controller port 2. It requires a Sega CD and custom software burned to CD. This method can dump all licensed carts, even Super Street Fighter II (which is 40Mbit, and uses bankswitching, due to the fact that the Genesis can only see 32Mbit of ROM without banking). It can also dump SMS carts as an aside, you must have an SMS adaptor with pin B30 taped over or disconnected. They're a bit expensive, but Tototek has 32Mbit and 64Mbit flash carts (the 64Mbit one can support SSF2, as well as 32X games if you have a 32X). They're a bit expensive to use as distribution carts, but they should be handy for running ROMs and testing your own homebrew code.
Sonic Retro
Posted: 7/20/2005 2:20 AM
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nesrocks
He/Him
Player (241)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
SXL wrote:
several years ago, a special version of the playstation was sold. (forgot its name, was black) it was fully programmable, and some demo/games made appearance on cds offered with magazines. basically, it was a modded, updgradable psx you could plug to your pc and program from there with a professional emulator/debugger. I heard that for the SNES, back in the days, Nintendo would provide the developers the same kind of hardware/software. those professional emulators were a kind of a dream for the early emulation scene back in the 90. nowadays, it's normal to find emulators for everything, but those who knew SNES96 and SNES97 (which would become Snes9x), were dreaming to play console games (for free, let's be realist) on their computers. my theory is, that there were and still are such special "developer" versions of each console. the first rom dumpers basically stole this kind of hardware/software, which were 'industrial secrets'. developers had a contract to not give/sell/speak of them (you could know everything you wanted), but some broke it and started to dump and sell copied games. some of you might have had in hand the famous SNES "diskette" pirate reader. it proved that every console was connectable to computer hardware. to sum up, piracy is the mother of emulation, so a discussion about the origins will undoubtly reach the prohibited subject...
Development kits are still distributed to companies that made contract with the manufacturer of the videogame in question, still today. If you want a development kit for the nintendo revolution, contact nintendo and get a contract. Make a proposition and show your know-how and that you have ways of doing it. And, of course, have money to buy it, i dont think its free. About Genesis games developing, you may even find something on e-bay. I saw some guy selling a NES dev kit on e-bay, it was a kit he made himself and it used one of the nes mappers. It wasnt too expensive (circa 200 dollars).
aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios
Posted: 8/17/2005 7:01 PM
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Highness
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
I found my magicom for SNES today while I was at my mother/fathers house. Though I'm missing a floppy drive for it. Is it possible to connect it with cables to the computer instead and load files directly from it? [edit] Found a site which sells these kinds of stuff: http://www.robwebb.clara.co.uk/shop/ Now I only need the right things, and software to transfer data. :D [edit 2] A search for genesis hardware brought up some interesting stuff at http://www.gamefaqs.com/
Posted: 6/2/2006 9:23 PM
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dtm
Joined: 3/11/2006
Posts: 43
I suggest the use of google! genesis technical documents genesis development kit genesis C compiler Those keywords are everything you need to start.