Game Development for the 8-bit NES
Resources

Recent Additions:

• March 23, 2004: posted Tomley Kleene demo source
• March 20, 2004: updated nbasic nesmus handler and created full documentation
• March 18, 2004: updated nes sprite tools (link is now fixed)
• March 16, 2004: link to cygwin1.dll replacement
• March 15, 2004: nbasic reference manual updated
• March 15, 2004: Various nbasic code samples added/updated
• March 14, 2004: New version of nbasic

• The class mailing list and bboard have been set up for a while now. You are free to use this for general questions or specific questions that you think might interest a number of people in the class.
• The mailing list is opt-in, since many of you do not wish to be bombarded with emails from it. To subscribe, visit http://www.cmu.edu/lists. If you do not subscribe to the list, you can still read all of the messages on the bboard.
• To send a message to the mailing list and the bboard, email nintendo-class@lists.andrew.cmu.edu
• The bboard is named "graffiti.nintendo". You can subscribe to this easily with Mulberry, or with Pine. Other email programs may require you to add it as an IMAP mailbox. This page may be able to help you configure Outlook, and offer hints for other mail clients.

• RockNES v2.5.1 (Mac OSX)
• RockNES v2.4.0 (Mac OSX)
• Nestopia 1.09 (Mac OSX)
• imbNES (Sony Playstation)
• NesterDC (Sega Dreamcast)
• JNes (Windows)
• FCE Ultra (Windows, Linux)

• nesdev.parodius.com (NES Development Information and Resources)
• Deconstructulator (Java Sprite Demo, Super Mario Bros)
• Mario Soup (Pattern tables extracted from many games, as a poster)
• Assembly In One Step (6502 Assembly guide)

• "A" Sprite Demo (ROM only)
• "A" Sprite Demo (ROM and Source)


• Sprite Background Demo (ROM only)
• Sprite Background Demo (ROM and Source)


• Pong and Head Bounce (ROM only)
• Pong and Head Bounce (ROM and Source)


• Sack of Flour, Heart of Gold v1d (ROM only)


• Sack of Flour, Early Egypt Test (ROM and nbasic source)
  Source compatibility not guaranteed


• NES Sound Test, by "Snow Bro" (ROM, or source)


• Tomley Kleene demo (ROM and nbasic source). Demo partial game that shows off proper engineering of many important concepts of NES game development. Note that the source code is public domain, but the characters and graphics are copyright © 2004 by Bob Rost.

• nbasic Reference Manual by Bob Rost (HTML)
• MMC3 IRQ usage by Allan Blomquist (HTML)
  accompanying ROM works in many emulators, though not Nestopia
• NES global system palette (PNG image)
• 2A03 sound channel hardware documentation by Brad Taylor
• Power Glove original source code and tools by Paul White

• cygwin1.dll (v 1005.7.0.0) Windows users: If the development tools are crashing, try replacing your cygwin1.dll with this one. You may also need to download it for certain tools that do not include it.

Compiler and Assembler:

• nbasic and nesasm (feb 4, 2004) for OSX, Windows, and Linux x86 (Binary and Source)
• nbasic test version (feb 15, 2004) Added clear/set carry in some addition and subtraction expressions (OSX, Windows, Linux x86, Source)
• nbasic test version (march 2, 2004) Added bitwise OR operator (pipe), rewrote comparison expression code (OSX, Windows, Linux x86, Source)
• nbasic and nesasm (march 14, 2004) Fixed various bugs. Added commands push register, pop register, and asmline assembly statement. You should upgrade to this version.
• nbasic version 3 preview (march 2, 2004) We know it has bugs. Feel free to help test. Only report specific bugs and their incorrect assembly output. (OSX, Windows, Linux x86, Source) This version is likely to stay incomplete and broken forever. You're welcome to study it, but I won't guarantee it will actually compile anything.

Graphics:

• NES Sprite Tools (march 18, 2004) (OSX, Linux x86, Windows, and source). Various command line tools for manipulating BMP images and converting to NES compatible formats.
• NESPaint By Dennis Cosgrove and Steve Audia, for Java platforms (OSX, Windows, Linux). (Link to NESPaint site)
• screen2nes (March 16, 2004) (Linux x86 and source). Converts bitmap image into palette, name table, attribute table, and nbasic source.

Music:

• nesmus (feb 3, 2004) for OSX, Windows, Linux x86, and BeOS x86 (Binary and Source)
  In class, my slides mentioned you could write "l8 cd e2". I was mistaken, and confusing music languages with each other. Currently, you must write it "l8 cd l4 e". I will be adding support for the other syntax later.
• nesmus (march 20, 2004) for OSX, Windows, and Linux x86 (Binary and Source)
  This version has improved music handling in nbasic. You probably want to change the example build script to use main2.bas instead of main.bas

• Random Number Generator (nbasic source)
• MMC3 Memory Mapper Support (nbasic source)
• Sprite 0 Hit (nbasic source)
• Game Starter Code (nbasic source) updated March 15, 2004
• Sprite DMA Support (nbasic source)
• NMI (non maskable interrupt) Example (nbasic source)
• Palette Load Example (nbasic source)
• Vertical Blanking Interval Support (nbasic source)
• Joystick Interaction Support (nbasic source)

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