Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Programming - going to try and start genesis programming in C
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Parasyte
Posts: 419/514 |
There are no similarities between the two. The process would be a pain-staking rewrite.
Not only does SNES have greater graphical capabilities, (hardware which does everythign for you) but also more RAM; 128KB on SNES, compared to Genesis' 64KB. For games that make use of more than 64KB of RAM, you'd have to either REALLY crunch everything together, or remove things. The controllers also come to mind... Standard Genesis pad is severely lacking. The six button controller helps even some things out, but the button layout is rather bad for SNES. As for audio, Genesis should be "OK" in this department; it has a z80 which can help with the audio grunt-work. The result won't sound quite as nice as SNES, but shouldn't be too bad. Video will be the biggest challenge (as far as getting the game to looks as well as on SNES) because the Genesis can't display many colors on screen at once, plus it only has two background layers.
If you REALLY wanted an SNES-quality "port" on Genesis, you'll need to use the 32x. It will increase the color depth and processing power, allowing for better video (Scaling! Rotation! Colors! Simulated BG layers! Yay!) and may even help the audio a bit. With 32x, you could possibly even "improve" over the SNES original. |
HyperLamer
Posts: 4048/8210 |
It'd be pretty difficult; I can't think of any similarities between the two, and AFAIK SNES is considerably more powerful in the graphics and sound department. (Not that I know a lot about Genesis though.  ) |
MathOnNapkins
Posts: 1691/2189 |
I guess he's just throwing it out there what he's doing :\
I was just thinking the other day how hard it might be to port snes games over to Genesis. (hard) Might be interesting to have something like LTTP or Supermetroid on Genesis  . Just a novelty though. |
Parasyte
Posts: 410/514 |
OK, now with this new information, I have no idea what this thread's purpose is.
It's always a bad idea to ask others if you are capable of doing something; either you are, or you are not. Just give it a try. Apparently, you have everything you need to get started. |
spiroth10
Posts: 13/21 |
I already got a whole devkit for PC... and surprisingly, it works nicely with the demo programs it came with...
it has all the libraries I need built in (controllers and graphics too), it seems to be simple to code, and the only minor defect is that you have to declare blank variables in each function
before you try to change their values...
All I need to do now is study the demos... I think it uses the sozokoban C compiler (hcc). Hopefully I can crank out some nice stuff with this! |
Parasyte
Posts: 407/514 |
First thing you need is a library for all of the low-level stuff, such as reading the controllers, and seting up/displaying video, and outputting audio. (Among a VERY LARGE list of other things the lib will need to handle.) I don't know if you have any experience with that sort of thing, but get it written, first (or find some sources that other people have written. Then your job will be learning how to use them).
After that's out of the way, then you can start working on the main game engine and whatnot. |
HyperLamer
Posts: 4008/8210 |
Genesis uses Z80, but I think it's as a secondary CPU. (Main stuff is M68000 IIRC.) Gameboy is practically Z80, just with some changes. |
spiroth10
Posts: 12/21 |
lol... I forgot to mention...
someone made a cross compiler for the genesis...
lol... I'd be psycho if I tried to write ASM... Im not nearly that good...
Im sure zophar.net has some info on it... that or just search google...
there's not much info for it, but I found one... as well as a TON of technical docs and other goodies...
Im going to reboot soon (Im using my linux paritition now, and the compiler is for windows, surprisingly enough...) to test it out... hopefully it works... otherwise I'll work on some other system... |
Euclid
Posts: 148/193 |
What you're saying doesn't make much sense...
you want to program in genesis yet you want to use C, i think genesis uses z80 (or is that the gameboy... errr) assembly, i have no idea what you're think about C because it's got nothing to do with programming in genesis assembly to do homebrews (PD roms).
Or maybe you're saying you want to write a compiler to compile C programs to genesis roms.... i doubt that'll work since not all intel x86 instructions work with genesis asm.... |
spiroth10
Posts: 10/21 |
Ive known C for awhile now, and I figured I could either learn some more on (boring) PC development, or go and try to make games for a console.
I chose genesis/mega drive as it's my favorite system, and I dont like 3D coding (heck, I havent even learned too much 2D coding yet)
I plan on attempting to make sequels to official gems that sega made, and releasing the roms as PD... though I doubt I will ever actually be able to act on this plan (I am not a great C programmer, but I enjoy doing it) Hopefully I'll learn enough as I go on...
anyway, what are your comments on this? Think I even have a chance at it? |
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