98-026 Game Development for the 8-bit NES

[Dones]

Quoting this from slashdot.org:

"Students at Carnegie Mellon University who took the student-led course 98-026: Game Development for the 8-bit NES have finished up their ROMs and made them available for download. Most of these ROMs were developed using NBASIC, which was written by their instructor, Bob Rost. These are some of the first new NES games developed in years, and best of all, the ROMs are legal! You can get the games and learn about the NES (and the software tools developed for this class) at the course web page. You can even start developing your own games!"

 

Basically just go to the course's website and download the roms. If you are programming-inclined the devtools are there also.

 

Just been playing one of the roms, "Dikki Painguin", and it looks very good. It has a Ninja Gaiden feel to it and it even has multiple scrolling layers. Too bad I can't get past the first jumping obstable

[MegaManFan]

It's just a shame it isn't as easy to make homebrew NES games as it is homebrew Atari.

[Susuwatari]

Not as easy? I believe 2600 is still harder to code because there's no video RAM and the game can go bad if you don't correctly count every cycles. NES doesn't quite have that problem as it has its own video processor. The only challenge is making a decent game that is a lot more than 4K. (IIRC, NES can directly address 32K program ROM and 16K character ROM without bankswitching)

[Dones]

The games I have downloaded are between 25-200K approximately. The one I mentioned before, looks like a Ninja Gaiden clone. Another one plays likes Super Mario 2 with alternate worlds and all. Similar to atari programmers, some of them have done manuals for them. It's pretty neat.

[MegaManFan]

Not as easy?  I believe 2600 is still harder to code because there's no video RAM and the game can go bad if you don't correctly count every cycles.  NES doesn't quite have that problem as it has its own video processor.  The only challenge is making a decent game that is a lot more than 4K. (IIRC, NES can directly address 32K program ROM and 16K  character ROM without bankswitching)

 

I didn't mean make as in program, I meant make as in manufacture.

[Dones]

It's still possible though. I guess you could take an old duck hunt or SMB cart and replace the PRG chip with your own EEPROM. As long as your code doesn't go over 64K and uses the same mapper chip, it should work.

[Great Hierophant]

Some people think that its harder to program the NES for the following reasons.

1. Incomplete information about the hardware

The only area of hardware left to tackle is the advanced memory mappers.

2. Lack of development tools

There are plenty of tools that can assist in designing characters and wrking the sound channels.

3. Inaccurate Emulators

NESTOPIA is a cycle accurate emulator, and ones like FCE Ultra and VirtuaNES have excellent compatibility.

4. Enhanced Expectations

People do not expect the same from NES homebrews as they do from Atari homebrews. Atari games start out from 2-4KB, NES games from 24KB-40KB. That is the floor. To grab people's attention you need to make something worth their time. Crafting a 256KB game takes a lot of time and skill for oen programmer to do.

5. More expensive Devcarts

Bigger games require larger, more expensive EPROMs and it takes longer to program them.

[Cootster]

These games do not work w/ Win32 Nestopia . . . Just the Mac version.

 

FCEUltra is the only reliable choice for Win32, if you plan to try nesbasic . . .

[Dones]

I just tried the roms with the latest version of Nestopia for Windows and they worked fine. I also tested it with FCE Ultra, VirtuaNES and JNES and they all ran the games without problems.

[Great Hierophant]

As far as the games go, Sack of Flour, Heart of Gold has promise, good graphics and responsive play control but is too simplistic. Galaxxon: The Third War is a simple, uninspired shooter. Dikki Painguin in: TKO for the Third Reich has nice multiple scrollign backgrounds, but is derivative, has simplistic sprites and has terrible controls. Grave Digger had poor graphics and annoying ghosts to accompany its puzzle mechanic.

[snorlaxnut]

Just been playing one of the roms, "Dikki Painguin", and it looks very good. It has a Ninja Gaiden feel to it and it even has multiple scrolling layers. Too bad I can't get past the first jumping obstable

 

I just played the game and I got through that obstacle. What I did was hold down the B button (the one that makes the penguin attack with the sword), and move left so the penguin runs to the obstacle. When the penguin got to it, while keeping the B button down, I pressed the jump button and when the penguin got high enough, I pressed the button again to a double jump and quickly move to the right. Takes a while to get it right.

 

I played this on FCE Ultra and found out that if you press the button for the Turbo B button, a screen comes up saying "to be continued".

[Dones]

LOL I tried unsuccessfully (before giving up) for about 3 minutes to jump that first obstacle and never realized the pinguin had a turbo feature, mario-style. Thanks!

[Dones]

Man I sure miss being able to edit posts. Playing more of "Dikki Painguin" I can say this game is hard! Still on the 1st stage, this level was clearly inspired from the train level in Ninja Gaiden 2. The game requires obstacle memorization with precise jumps and slides. The fact that you are only given two hits per life makes it very unforgiving. If you die (which I did constantly) your progress is reset to the beginning to the stage! I think the designers knew this because they allowed for infinite lives (the only break you get from the game's overall difficulty). Very old school

[Great Hierophant]

I thought I post this already, but Dikki Painguin only has one stage. It is really a demo with some promise.

[DracIsBack]

People do not expect the same from NES homebrews as they do from Atari homebrews. Atari games start out from 2-4KB, NES games from 24KB-40KB. That is the floor. To grab people's attention you need to make something worth their time. Crafting a 256KB game takes a lot of time and skill for oen programmer to do.  

 

Excellent point. I've heard this fact also mentioned in discussions regarding homebrews for the Sega Master System and Atari 7800 as well. A lot more planning and effort it required to design the graphics, build the games etc. The 2600 has more technical hurtles (something that many developers consider a challenge) but generally less time spent on the game design itself.

 

I'd still love a good Atari 7800 RGB with a 256K cart and a POKEY chip. But someone would have to plan that out and it isn't in the immediate cards.