Homebrew my homebrew dev journey

dub_the_old · Apr 13, 2021

Hi. I'm beginning dev on nintendo ds / gba because I like this little consoles so powerful and colorful.

I did some testing and make my own chip-8 emulator. Nothing extraordinary and certainly not optimized but works well and useful for understanding some parts of the library libnds.
I use some chip-8 roms directly inside the nds rom because I can't run libfat on my nds, nor on desmume.
I tried to dldi the roms whitout success. I have a R4isdhc 2014, certainly a clone i bought years years ago just a few $ and just begin to use it for development. So I need to find something working on my card and emulator for testing.

Well, I wish to make a game compatible nds and gba. I'll make 2 versions because it will be nice to see it on the two consoles.
The problem is finding a game to do, I'm pretty bad for choosing and level designing it. So maybe a demake, maybe a remake. There's so much type of game.

BoulderDash NDS rom.
https://mega.nz/file/dgVAzLbT#SSXWWwDXclomsDcqX99-vn00EE8HEZjP1MWbN0vPqaI

Nikokaro · Apr 13, 2021

dub_the_old said:
Hi. I'm beginning dev on nintendo ds / gba because I like this little consoles so powerful and colorful....
The problem is finding a game to do, I'm pretty bad for choosing and level designing it. So maybe a demake, maybe a remake. There's so much type of game.

Hello.

Welcome and good luck for your project.
I would like to suggest you a clone of Arkanoid/Breakout, which I think is not among the most difficult to do: it is always appreciated and fun, suitable for all seasons, one of the longest-running titles.
Perhaps taking the japanese Block Kuzushi series (snes/psx) as inspiration: anime-style, particularly colorful, funny, bizarre, crazy.

dub_the_old · Apr 14, 2021

Nikokaro said:
Hello.
Welcome and good luck for your project.
I would like to suggest you a clone of Arkanoid/Breakout, which I think is not among the most difficult to do: it is always appreciated and fun, suitable for all seasons, one of the longest-running titles.
Perhaps taking the japanese Block Kuzushi series (snes/psx) as inspiration: anime-style, particularly colorful, funny, bizarre, crazy.

Hi.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll test the game on snes. That can be a fun game to make with crazy boss.
And perfect for the format. :sp:

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

The test I've made with chip-8 emulator

catlover007 · Apr 14, 2021

melonDS can definitely emulate sd cards (I think it's possible with desmume as well though idk how). You only need to create an SD card image as a file (http://melonds.kuribo64.net/board/thread.php?id=536) and then configure it under Emu Settings -> DLDI

dub_the_old · Apr 14, 2021

catlover007 said:
melonDS can definitely emulate sd cards (I think it's possible with desmume as well though idk how). You only need to create an SD card image as a file (http://melonds.kuribo64.net/board/thread.php?id=536) and then configure it under Emu Settings -> DLDI

Thanks. With melonDS I have the libfat working on my emulator. It's great !!!

Before working on the arkanoid clone, I have begin to work yesterday evening, just a few hours, on a boulderdash game. I need to add test on falling rock and scroll. Except that the game works well.
But now I'm stuck with my R4 card so ... i'll come back later.

New test version : Boudler and Gems falling. You can push Boulder.

ToDo : bigger level, timer and life. Maybe change the gfx, I use the arcade version.

I have uploaded the link of the demo on the first post.
You can push "START" button to randomize / restart the level. This doesn't work on the emulator but certainly works on real DS. Or else you reload the rom and this does work too.

A test of breakout clone. 2 screens view and the ball move between the two screens.

Which size of objects do you prefer ? The right screen is the one i have but maybe objects are too small ?

Update of boulderdash game.
Scrolling map 512x512 pixels with mini map to show the full map.