Homebrew emulate

[matthewd997]

please don't take the p*ss outa me again just answer the question,

what do i need to know to start codin emulators for the NDS, i thought that if i make some of my own I'll learn more ND stop askin noobish questions,

so what do i need to know?

 

[Sinkhead]

You need to start small, make a version of Pong or something, don't be too ambitious.

 

[Grimalkin]

A programming language.

 

[FAST6191]

What sinkhead says is true: emulators are one of the hardest things to code, especially on a low power system.
To do it well you will need to know both systems very well or at worst the processors they use. I.E. for a megadrive/genesis emulator for the DS these two documents would have to make complete sense (more or less: you could probably ignore some of the more interesting card reading stuff):
http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm
http://www.romhacking.net/?category=&P...itle=&desc=

While it is possible to write in a high level language any that are are usually slow, incomplete or have sections rewritten to speed them up: you will likely have to learn ASM for both systems.

 

[matthewd997]

ok, but if i wanted to do a basic thing like what sinkhead said then what programming language would be best

 

[JPH]

ok, but if i wanted to do a basic thing like what sinkhead said then what programming language would be best

I guess try to learn C (That's a link to the Wiki page).

You should go to your local book store and pick up some programming books...

 

[Grimalkin]

ok, but if i wanted to do a basic thing like what sinkhead said then what programming language would be best

C/C++ and a little bit of ASM.

Here's a link to a lot of basic programming guides for the DS:

http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=8353

Credit to whoever posted those.

 

[pottageb]

Can you make games for DS in visual basic?

Ben

 

[hankchill]

Can you make games for DS in visual basic?

Ben

No.

And for the original poster; You talk like you've never coded a thing in your life, but you need to understand, you can't just walk in here saying 'I want to code a DS emulator! What do I do?'. To write an emulator is very difficult, as the job of an emulator is the "emulate" a specific piece of hardware, which means understand very thoroughly exactly how that hardware works at a very low level.

As Sinkhead said, start with a simple version of Pong. If you've never coded before, even that may be too ambitious. Make a very simple text editor, or a simple address book, or something. You can't just start with writing an emulator

 

[techforumz]

I've looked at all the possible specimens for my own (failed) project, and the NES was by far the easiest. But, it's best if you start with a hello world, then a sprite, then controls, then sound, then a game, then an NES emulator, then an [you console's name here] emulator. I've programmed *some*, but not enough to count for anything.

EDIT: Almost forgot. Skip the MMCs for now, you'll go insane, trust me.

Oh, and about the 'very simple text editor' I think I wrote the simplest one on the face of the planet, in assembly. It compiled in nasm to exactly 8 bytes, LOL. I didn't even know it was possible for a file to be less then 4KB! Not that it was my original idea or anything, I'm sure it's been done a million times, but I've never SEEN anything that runs, be so small.

 

[matthewd997]

ok, I'll start of by trying to make a simple game (havn't decided what yet)

 

[techforumz]

Try doing a simple game like Pong.

 

[hankchill]

Try doing a simple game like Pong.

And don't forget to do it 1 step at a time.

1) create the paddle
2) add movement left or right (or up or down), and be sure to set the boundaries on how far it can go
3) then create the ball. Don't bother adding any kind of physics to it, just have it bounce around (so when it hits a wall, instead of moving in that direction +1, it'll go -1)
4) When the ball hits your paddle, just make the acceleration value *-1

Voila. Very simple pong

Here, I did this for you:



be sure you click in the window above to be able to use the arrows. Note I also added in a basic acceleration function in there too.

 

[techforumz]

Ok, I'm familiar to programming and very literate in the area of computer design, but for the life of me I CANNOT program in C. Is there any very very simple guide that is written for noobz like myself? I am familiar with BASIC and bash, if it helps any.

Oh, and I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I'm sure that matthewd997 wouldn't mind a C lesson either.

 

[TrolleyDave]

Ok, I'm familiar to programming and very literate in the area of computer design, but for the life of me I CANNOT program in C. Is there any very very simple guide that is written for noobz like myself? I am familiar with BASIC and bash, if it helps any.

Oh, and I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I'm sure that matthewd997 wouldn't mind a C lesson either.

http://www.isotton.com/devel/docs/lcpp/

 

[techforumz]

Thanks Trolleydave. I will give this one a try.

 

[Regiiko]

Do we really have to feed this mentally challenged troll with information that will potentially lead to his eventual demise because he can't find the compiler or whatever?

 

[techforumz]

Success! I wrote my very first program in CPP. (No I didn't copy from the document.) Very simple command-line only, but it is does work:

// My first Program written in C++
// An age calculator and checker.

#include
#include
using namespace std;

int main() {
cout name;
// cout

 

[matthewd997]

ok, I just finished learning the programming language called BASIC - is this enough to make simple DS programs?

 

[raulpica]

ok, I just finished learning the programming language called BASIC - is this enough to make simple DS programs?

No, you at least need C and a little of ASM.