10 replies to this topic

[Nati]

Are there any NES compilers/IDEs that let me program in basic?

[GroovyBee]

As far as I'm aware your only options are "C" using the CC65 compiler system or assembler. You could always post your question over at the NESdev forum which is pretty active.

[Jess Ragan]

There's a programming language online that's optimistically called NESBasic, but it's really just assembly language with a few commands that are vaguely BASIC-like.  Also, there was a version of BASIC released for the Family Computer in Japan, but it was only an interpreter (in other words, useless).  I agree with the Bee Man, C is probably your best bet for NES programming.

Frankly, I'm both shocked and upset at how completely barren the NES homebrew landscape has been.  It's one of the best and certainly one of the most popular game systems ever created... where the hell is the love?  The Atari 2600 and (vastly overrated) ColecoVision seem to get all the attention from underground programmers.  It's a damn shame.

[Bruce Tomlin]

I continue to point to the chaotic plethora of "mappers" as the main problem, the CIC (lockout) chip as another part of the problem, and even the metric connector of the circuit board is a speed bump. The lack of internal VRAM ended up making the NES more versatile, but that just adds to the mapper chaos.

Join the Mega side of the force... 4 megabytes of non-bankswitched ROM... 64K of RAM... feel the power of the 68000... you can even use GCC...

[Jess Ragan]

And there's a BASIC compiler for that system, definitely.  I don't know if it's any good, mind you, but it exists.

[Nati]

Jess Ragan, on Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:02 PM, said:

And there's a BASIC compiler for that system, definitely.  I don't know if it's any good, mind you, but it exists.

You mean NBASIC? Nope, that's more like assembler. I wanted something like bB

[Bruce Tomlin]

It's called EgaXorBasic or something like that. ("That System" referring to Mega Drive / Genesis)

Edited by Bruce Tomlin, Sun Aug 30, 2009 8:15 AM.

[udisi]

CC65 and asm6 both work well. I personally like NESASM3 too. NESASM gets a bad rap for some syntax, but I haven't had any problems with it yet. NBASIC either wasn't very good, or the people using it didn't program it correctly as the games made with it don't work well on real hardware. I still think it's probably be possible to write a basic language/compiler for nes, but I haven't seen it done well yet. As for mappers, for most simple games you're only gonna ever use 1 or 2 different mappers, and if you're gonna make something that needs a different mapper, you'll be good enough to figure out the one you need. There are resources out there that document the different mappers.

Also the nes homebrew scene has really started to pick up steam in the past year or 2. Google D Pad Hero. it's pretty damn good. Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is looking great too(seems like a hard megaman/metroidish type platformer)

[yuppicide]

Many, many years ago (90's?) when I talked about a basic like language for the 2600 people kind of laughed at me. It's been done now. I'm sure the same can be done for the NES in a similar fashion, where it allows you to make a variety of games, but DOES contain some limitations.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Well, since you've already necroed this thread, I might as well point out that the main problem is you need someone who is both 1) capable of doing it, and 2) interested in doing it.

Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's going to happen.

[bomberpunk]

i was going to start a new thread about how i programmed an atari 2600 game in qbasic, but this thread is close enough.
HotSpot - it's sort of a port of the homebrew Raster Fahndung. just finished it up yesterday.

here's a screenshot:


it's uncompiled (and won't compile in QB4.5). source code (BAS file) is attached to this post.

Attached Files

•  HOTSPOT.BAS   17.5K   110 downloads

Edited by bomberpunk, Fri May 20, 2011 7:43 AM.