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Platforms

I've still got plans for this game, as slowly realized as they are. I've decided to write the game to be played on a nostalgic platform. I have the capability to develop either a NES or GBA game, and I can obtain the means to test against the real hardware (in the case of the GBA I've always been able to test on the real hardware). Graphics and sound don't make a game, but the GBA is an easier system to develop for.

NES ROMs themselves do not contain anything other than the game itself, but GBA ROMs must include a copy of the Nintendo logo for a real GBA to boot them. Most of you will probably play this in an emulator, so a Nintendo logo will be unnecessary (most emulator authors let their software boot any ROM). Hardware tests will still be necessary to prove the ROM works agnostic to any emulator. This is important because I'll be able to own the copyrights to the ROM I produce (and be able to legally distribute) if it lacks the logo header.

This was going to be more of a free community game anyways. I think a lot of the charm of the game came from the event I participated in where I used random graphics and sounds contributed by others. I might do that again, although it would lack artistic consistency. On the GBA, you have to programmatically make sound (its possible to play/mix raw WAV samples but you only get 16MB tops for the entire ROM and you'll waste tons of space) so I would have to create those anyways.

Posts

Pages: 1
orochii
6740
11/27/2016 04:09 PM
You're going to have so much fun! I've made little SNES and GB games (they were more like very unoptimized buggy tests but whatever!), and I'm interested on making a GBA game someday (I didn't knew there was that limitation). I guess you'll be using devkitpro or something for GBA? I've used it both for SNES and much smaller tests on my DS and 3DS (sadly the last 3DS update got rid of my homebrew access, and I wanted to play the Pokemon Sun I bought on release date "orz, curse you Nintendo!).

So, anyway, sorry for my long self-talk, I'll try it on an emulator at least or something. I'm always interested on console homebrews as someone that gets the charm of limited hardware :^3.
WolfCoder
3554
11/27/2016 04:21 PM
For the GBA it's C and ASM. Developing for the GBA was something I did back in 2005 and sporadically in between, but I've never actually made a game for the GBA. You don't really see homebrew devs making more than demos and curiosities.
WolfCoder
3554
12/02/2016 03:25 PM
Seems like much has actually changed since I last checked. devkitARM is still getting updates, there's a new GBA emulator that is actually both faster and more accurate than VisualBoyAdvance, and I found someone who refurbishes model 1 GBA systems back into a pristine condition.

I should use the blog section of the new game page I create to sort of act like a documentary and tutorial for making GBA games. This game page belongs to the My Own Game event so I'll leave it for archive purposes.
Pages: 1