Gameboy Development Forum

Here is the english translation of his post, which I also proofread and corrected some grammatical errors.

Hello, my name is Dani. I am new to Gameboy programming (I know some of c and java but I am learning some asm as well)
I have read a lot info and watched several demos, and I am impressed by the power of Gameboy and GBC. I saw a lot of interesting ASM code that can do almost amything, from hicolor to big tiles...

I think it would incredible to use all available code and create a project, similar to a commercial game engine (or software like darkbasic) but using source code from freely available sources.

The user could create maps, tiles, animation (or using existing sprites of older games, to test thing out) and compose music easily focusing on design, rather than programming.

Design would be similar to video editing, as in Windows Movie Maker, only cut and paste, and export

It would be modular, first you can do a game for Gameboy Color. Then, adding a new plugin with more code, and maybe even be ported to other architectures. More code can be added easily.

For example:

ANIMATION PART:
It would use the code from Kirby XXL. (Wow, incredible!! And with Gameboy color's double speed mode, maybe more incredible!!)
I thope that we can do motion as Donkey Kong Land. I think it is the best 2d game for GB, it is fast, and good quality.
Another example: warwalk1


HICOLOR

Use the code of jeff and gleen cook.(Their demos have 6-8 fps with full images hicolor)

3D:
Stunt Race FX of Elmar Krieger, maybe 4 cars are possible on Gameboy?? And on GBC??

SPECIAL EFFECTS
The scroller of Demotronic for letters
highscore
zoomar



The idea is using the full potential of Gameboy Color and make it possible to create games easily. The user can select from some options and work. (There must be some "counter" of resourcers, so you won't exceed what the Gameboy can handle. For example,if the CPU is out of resources, the program won't allow you to add more things, or if effects exist, you can't add more efects...)

All demos/engines I've mentioned are Gameboy, (Except hicolor and demotronic) I think with the double speed of GBC, everything can be in hi-color??

For example:
Kirby XXL in hi-color.
Scroll engine as Donkey Kong with hi-color
3D textures with hi-color

And the ability to "transform" to asm code and see in realtime with a emulator.


It would be  increible to be able to use all power of the Gameboy Color and Gameboy without having to learn Z80 asm, but using already existing code.

You would using different tecnology used in demos in the same proyect.

I think it would be interesting because of the restrictions of Gameboy, and the accesibility on other systems through emulators from PC's, gaming consoles, handhelds... and the ability to play new homebrew games.

Im a little confused. Do you plan to make a engine for gameboy? with all the tools to make a game? Sorry for not understanding.

Ah, well, thoughs types of programs don't really have much choice to do stuff. I would suggest to build a all in one engine IDE. Where you can directly run code to a emulator once compiled. Then may be adding features to contain all the programs you would need for the graphical/sound you need.

an IDE like that already exists... i'll see if i can find the link. its a real old program, designed to run on windows 95, but allows you to input the paths to RGBASM and RGBFIX and your emulator. Allows you to have multiple open files, and multiple files to a project, so you can separate memory routines and stuff like that. And theres just a "play" button, when you press it your code gets compiled, copied to a test directory, and opened with your emulator. Only problem with that is debugging because the command window gets closed by the IDE and theres almost no time to check what lines your errors are on.

actually... i'm just going to post a ton of resources that i think you guys will appreciate

assembly language programming for gameboy class: http://cratel.wichita.edu/cratel/ECE238Spr08

big archive of other peoples demos / animations for GB : http://gameboy.modermodemet.se/en/demos

great archive of gameboy info, download everything : http://marc.rawer.de/Gameboy/docu_docs.htm

gameboy assembler studio: http://web.telia.com/~u31802901/nicbit/ … /gbasm.htm

READ THIS: its on the assembler studio site... his programs require some runtime-files to work, these should be located in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. If you don't have these files then you can download them here! (You don't have them if you get an error message and the program won't start.)

make sure you grab those extra files if you don't have them or the program wont run