New on the blog: after about three tries I've finally managed to get my head around the SNES memory map. At this point I'll be able to produce linking scripts to order, though for now I'm mostly making the same decisions as a particular tutorial does.

Soon I'll get to write some actual code, and maybe after that I can write some code that will actually _run on the console._

#retrocomputing #retrodev #snesdev

https://bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com/2023/09/09/memory-layouts-and-linking-scripts-on-the-snes/

And since this week's post is more talking about stuff than doing stuff, it is #screenshotsaturday again, with a nice VRAM debugging view from Mesen 2 as I get smooth full-screen updates working in my #snesdev project.

New on the blog; it's time for me to take on my last system of the year: the SNES. I didn't really deal with the SNES much as a kid, but it's the one that won the culture war in the US and it's time I got a handle on what its deal is.

As usual, my opening post is just a rundown of its capabilities and my plans for them. The SNES is interesting because it's a very *different* vision for what a 16-bit machine should look like.

https://bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com/2023/09/02/the-super-nintendo-entertainment-system/

#retrocomputing #snesdev

And speaking of #snesdev, the break has done me good; I've gone from basically zero to having two very solid demo programs that let me explore a lot of the system. Both work great as prototypes for various techniques before I actually try to use them on a project that's functionally impossible to unit test.

#retrocomputing

New blog post: Unnamed Tech Demo Postmortem
https://undisbeliever.net/blog/20230809-unnamed-tech-demo-postmortem.html
#snesdev

I thought that some blue might make the forest-y areas feel less overly focused on just green and brown, and an easy way to get some blue in there is to have a gradient in the background. I think this looks really nice!

I think it could also be good to put some water at the bottom with some kind of parallax, maybe?
#snesdev #gamedev

I played with making some decorations I can put on top of the dirt in my game because in levels like this one, a lot of the screen can end up being dirt and that was really visually boring.

I tried a few things but having it seemed like having it be the same kind of color as the dirt helps the best for not making it too eye-catching, which you don't really want from the ground. Stars look cute and fit the overall theming I'm using.

I'll have to figure out what an appropriate amount of decorations is though.

#gamedev #snesdev

#snesdev daily log 17:
Disable vibrato in call_subroutine and return_from_subroutine audio bytecode instructions
Started cleaning up the MML compiler code.

#snesdev daily log 16:
Added the MP vibrato MML command.
Tested MP vibrato by recording my console's audio in audacity and manually measuring wavelengths.
Added a set_vibrato_depth_and_play_note audio bytecode instruction.

SNESdev daily log 13:
Added the set tempo MML command (t, T)
Added the set loop point MML command (L)
Added echo to the audio engine.
#snesdev

I want to invest a lot of time to create #nes / #snes games. But it uses up a lot of time and I would like to make a profession out of it.

Should one learn #assembly #asm for it or are chances higher to get a job if you use C or even C++ (is itpossible with #cplusplus ?) to invest another 8 hours a day for a language you could use for #nesdev / #snesdev ?

- What jobs are there if you are good in assembly?
- Does it make sense to use asm if you already know c++?

#indienes #gamedev #famicom

I want to invest a lot of time to create #nes / #snes games. But it uses up a lot of time and I would like to make a profession out of it.

Should one learn #assembly #asm for it or are chances higher to get a job if you use C or even C++ (is itpossible with #cplusplus ?) to invest another 8 hours a day for a language you could use for #nesdev / #snesdev ?

- What jobs are there if you are good in assembly?
- Does it make sense to use asm if you already know c++?

#indienes #gamedev #famicom

@dhalucario It's for SNES 😎
That's why I tag it with #snesdev

I noticed that in designing levels for my game I kept using a structure to substitute for a level element that didn't exist, and that didn't look as good as I'd like so I wanted to actually make it.

That required trying a whole bunch of different ideas to finally settle on this wood platform and this canopy looking platform.

#pixelart #gamedev #snesdev

@MrL314 Ok, I figured out it is another version of assembler (please correct me if I am wrong?).

I still don't know what the differences are compared to assembler I've learnt as a student, but I found an interesting site for #snesdev https://ersanio.gitbook.io/assembly-for-the-snes/

@NovaSquirrel I just found the hashtag #snesdev and was curious, because development on a 30 year old console sounds ridiculous, even if the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is my favorite video game console.

Is this real #sens development? Does this game work on a real snes console?

If yes, I would be glad if you could share on how to develop games on the snes.

I thought it would be cool to share just how spoiled we are today when it comes to development for old hardware compared to back in the day. Here you see Lua debug scripts running in the emulator Mesen overlaying debug info for collisions.

It makes everything so much easier and faster. Thanks to it I could quickly fix an "off by one" bug this morning. In this particular case the y-coordinate, as SNES treats y bit strange, not rendering anything that is on zero.

#snes #snesdev #gamedev

I've added support for subpixel movement. In the example below the player moves a bit slower when moving diagonally.

It makes the scrolling not as smooth, but I think it will be alright. I'll have to test it on real hardware to get a proper feel, as emulators tend to have very unstable framerate.

#snes #snesdev #gamedev #screenshotsaturday

I've added support for shadows, a feature I've planned for a long time. It draws a sprite below entities in a post pass so shadows are never drawn on top of other entities.

The reason I added it is to make it easier to tweak animations, as entities look so much more grounded with a shadow.

#snes #snesdev #gamedev

I added a little minimal HUD that shows how many items you need to collect, as well as your health. And the fans are now actually animated so it's a lot clearer that they're fans.
Might be nice to add some decoration to the HUD but a minimal look seems nice too. I'll want to show items and such too, like keys, and with the minimal look, the HUD can take up a small amount of space when you don't have anything, which is nice.
#snesdev