[HN Gopher] Choosing tools for Game Boy development
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Choosing tools for Game Boy development
        
       Author : detaro
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2022-01-29 18:40 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gbdev.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gbdev.io)
        
       | pjmlp wrote:
       | For the Go folks, https://dev.to/aurelievache/learning-go-by-
       | examples-part-5-c...
        
       | klodolph wrote:
       | If 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.
        
         | user-the-name wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | klodolph wrote:
           | Game Boy and Game Boy Advance are definitely both at the top
           | of my list.
        
       | hugo82 wrote:
        
       | jckahn wrote:
       | This 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.
        
       | ArtWomb wrote:
       | >>> if you are using VBA or VBA-rr, stop using them right now.
       | These emulators are extremely inaccurate, and also contain severe
       | security flaws
       | 
       | thnx for the alert! does this include mgba?
        
       | pkdpic wrote:
       | Recently 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?
        
         | klodolph wrote:
         | > ... 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.
        
           | markus_zhang wrote:
           | 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.
        
         | city41 wrote:
         | 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
         | 
         | https://www.jo-engine.org/
         | 
         | a Saturn homebrew showcase -
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqKKExcTaKo
         | 
         | https://neogeobook.mattgreer.dev
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-01-29 23:00 UTC)