Genesis/MegaDrive programming links

[Kanon]

I haven't tried a lot, but I think a cool option for an editor is Visual Studio Code. It's free/open source, and highly customizable, lot of themes, and more importantly: there is a plug in that highlights Motorola 68k ASM syntax

Visual Studio Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/

Motorola 68K Assembly Language Support: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com...attersall.m68k

And I'm sure that it can be configured to build your project (I would worry about that, I'm ok with running a .bat file)

I have yet to make anything other than following tutorials (hopefully in the next months I will put some time to it)

[elefas]

Hello,

I have setup a small template for SGDK to work with Visual Studio Code editor.
It includes configuration to detect the include files of SGDK and two tasks for building and cleaning the project. The only prerequisite (apart SGDK and VSCode itself along with the c/cpp extension) is the user to have setup the GDK environment variable.

Anyone interested can check it out here.

cheers,
elefas

[Sik]

I guess I should add this here too
https://www.plutiedev.com/

:​P

[Spaced]

Can anyone help and point me in the direction of a programme or an easy way to generate simple Mega Drive ready sprites and tiles that can be used with SGDK.

I’ve imported a sprite that works in SGDK into GIMP and after changing things like scale of the image and simple changes to the sprite then exporting as .png it sometimes works but mostly SGDK says new export not compatible.

I’m just trying to generate a few basic sprites easily to see if I can get working in my game.

[Sik]

If it "sometimes works" then it means you're probably breaking some rule that occasionally happens to be correct by pure fluke (e.g. dimensions that aren't multiples of 8px).

Sounds like you may be better off asking in the SGDK part of the SpritesMind forum and show a sample of some image that doesn't work.

[Spaced]

Registered over at SpritesMind, waiting for email.

Couple of links to add to this thread to make it easier to find for anyone thinking of trying SGDK.

There is already a link for his YouTube videos by matteus including one on setting up SGDK to work on windows.
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...highlight=sgdk


Also, guy learning MD programming with SGDK and documenting what he has learned with useful notes. Also put up an example basic game with great notes. http://www.ohsat.com/

Above 2 actually got me to give SGDK a try.

[Mad Moham]

Registered over at SpritesMind, waiting for email.

Please post here if you actually get on Spritesmind. I've been trying to join there for a while, it never seems to happen.

Also, have you tried the MegaHappySprite software? I'm not sure if its exactly what you're looking for, but it might work: https://github.com/sigflup/Mega-Happy-Sprite

[Mad Moham]

I found this recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilSvChwlmtw




I know this one isn't a link, but I think its a useful resource anyway and I'm not sure where else to put it.

Not too long ago I bought a copy of 'Principles of Computer Hardware' (third edition) by Alan Clements. The book includes about 90 pages on 68K programming plus a further 30 pages listing the instructions and what they do. Since then I've worked through most of the relevant chapter and while it obviously isn't Sega specific, it does seem to be a good way to get started with learning the 68000 itself.



Possibly of interest is that according to the author's own website he actually worked as a consultant for Sega: http://alanclements.org/resume.html

Acted as an expert witness and consultant for Sega, the Japanese games machine manufacturer.

For anyone interested in finding a copy, the fourth edition of the book also contains a chapter on 68K programming, but I don't have that version of the book, so I don't know if its still relevant.

[StandardDeluxe]

MDStudio

https://github.com/gouky/MDStudio

[vexatious]

My thread links to the "Macintosh Programmer's Workshop" ftp backup (it's three gigabytes).

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...rom-about-1994

Please help me in that thread if possible. Thanks

Please let me know of any backup/mirror to Sega's developer ftp from about 1994. It's the oldest ftp with Mars developer software and other related tools and it was freely available by manual redirection. Think this had the older non-version 3deditor, mapeditor and sound tools programs for Macintosh, and gnu software (possibly the same gnu assembler to build the same Mars Doom catalogue with the shared Atari Jaguar code).

Apple appears to have a very strong coincidence with Sega during late 1990s with PowerPc. For example, this three gigabyte "Apple Macintosh Programmers Workshop" ftp is very similar to the old Sega ftp and has lots of useful tools for core 68000 and other supplements (for both 68000 & PowerPc) https://staticky.com/dl/ftp.apple.com/developer/. Possibly setup by the same team which did the Sega ftp with the developer network, as well as the NeXtstep O.S. and marketing campaign "Welcome to the NeXt Level". Supposedly NeXstep developer teams might've outsourced to Apple and or Microsoft during 1996; same time Mars dissipated from the market and MacOS for PowerPC being marketed. Unfortunately no Mars stuff here but might be placed elsewhere with pre-y2k Apple developer tools. Still very useful stuff here for Mars CD development.

Thanks for any help!

edit:
Previous link I posted to Apple's M.P.W. has the last updates from August 2001 for MacOS 9 users. I recommend for MacOS 9 users. Lots of examples for hardware extensions including firewire, usb and communicating with C.D. hardware.

edit:
@"Mad Moham"
That's probably a good useful link posted about 68000 assembly. I think books about programming for computer processors are probably going to be more simple and straightforward with better results for Mars CD developers, since they specifically target a particular processor. Thanks.

[BigEvilCorporation]

I've been writing some standalone, discreet, Hello World-style samples for basic Mega Drive concepts in 68K ASM: https://github.com/BigEvilCorporation/megadrive_samples

[vexatious]

Wiiu. Works with Linux, and Sheepshaver should be full speed without machine translation using MacOS 9 since it's PowerPC . Plenty of speed for other software too like dosbox, and it's electrically efficient.

Surface RT works good with paint.net, dosbox and notepad++. This is how I use DosBox.

Dosbox works great with Windows 3.1 and adobe Photoshop 4.0 in 24-bit color svga, using S3 software drivers. I actually installed Windows using Bochs since it's easier to change floppy disks this way.

Nintendo 3DS is another tool that should work.

Nintendo Switch too. Supposedly Linux has full GPU access with opengl.

Here's my last update before I was banned for posting about the Surface RT https://segaxtreme.net/threads/exten...ramming.24477/

edit


Sorry for misinformation. Adobe PhotoShop 4.0 doesn't work in dosbox. But "Paintshop Pro" does.

edit:
Here's a source with lots of books and pictures. Forgot size but it's over 80 gigabytes. I think you need JavaScript and no right-click. Remove the 0s and quotes

"00index-o00f.co.u00k00"

It's not Sega related but may help.

[vexatious]

Uploaded partial vbcc0_9g for Windows RT 8.1 on forums.sonicretro.org. Not fully tested and vasm, vlink and llvm-mingw are still available for RT 8.1 users. Might be compatible with ARM64 on Windows 10 (e.g. Surface Pro X). Another forum user supposedly built Atari Jaguar Doom code with minor edits with vbcc, vasm and vlink, and there's also jaglib which should build.

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index....-armv7a.39077/
https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showth...rface-2-armv7a

Might be able to build Wingrit and Grit for Windows RT 8.1 but not ATM.