nesdev.com

I saw this thread in the graphics board, how about a thread for non graphics?

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twitter: http://twitter.com/hawkun
Pirate Pop Plus - gameboy styled game for 3DS, WiiU & Steam

WinMerge, Notepad++, TextPad 6.5.0, Textpad 8.1.2, Ulead Photoimpact 6, Google Chrome...

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Here come the fortune cookies! Here come the fortune cookies! They're wearing paper hats!

Here's what I've been using:

Notepad++: I love it. I feel weird using any other editor.

ca65: My current assembler of choice. It takes a while to setup and figure out, but once you do, there are tons of cool features you can exploit. Its versatility is unmatched by any other assembler I'm aware of. It has tons of weirdnesses too, mostly side effects of it being a single-pass assembler, but you get used to them.

JavaScript (Chrome): Prototyping and generation of look-up tables. I develop on many different computers, some of which belong to other people, meaning I can't always setup complex development environments or install hundreds of megabytes worth of tools, so using a language any computer can run out of the box (everyone has a browser installed!) is really handy. The main drawback of using a browser IMO is the lack of direct access to the file system, so reading and writing files can be a little awkward.

PHP: Data conversion, image processing, and anything else that JavaScript doesn't do well. I know Python is a more popular choice for this, but I already had years of PHP experience from working on web applications, and I found it easier to setup a portable PHP installation than a Python one.

GIMP: I use GIMP mostly as a level editor. The features I need the most are grids and layers. Grids are useful for copying and pasting metatiles of varying sizes, while layers are useful for defining other properties of the map and placing objects. I then run the images through a PHP script to generate the binary data that goes into the ROM. The reason I prefer GIMP over Photoshop for this (besides it being free, smaller and working as a portable application) is that it supports larger images than Photoshop does (IIRC, Photoshop couldn't make a 32768-pixel wide image, GIMP did it).

FamiTracker: Music is not really my thing, but for the little bit of it I do, I use FamiTracker. I think it's hard to think of someone these days that doesn't.

EDIT:

FCEUX, Mesen, Nestopia, Nintendulator: Whichever I find more appropriate for the task at hand.

PowerPak, Everdrive N8: For precise timing tests and occasional verification.

EPROM programmer + socketed cartridge: Final verification.

PAL-M front loader, NTSC top loader, AV Famicom, miscellaneous Famiclones: occasional testing.

I use vim for text editing (I disabled syntax highlighting, though) and Unofficial-MagicKit (a variant of NESASM with more versatility) as a 6502 assembler. For image processing I mainly just use command-line programs I wrote myself (I used to use ImageMagick, until I wrote my own; ImageMagick doesn't handle XPM version 1 and 2, and it doesn't handle NES/Famicom format, and it can't write Dr.Halo format, etc). I use xterm as a terminal emulator. For music I use MML programs.

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I've been using ASM6 with my current project, and plan on finally trying out CA65 once I finish it. Notepad++ is nice, especially now since I recently discovered that you can organize files in a "project", and have the tree-like file explorer (idk what it's actually called) on the left side like your typical IDE. The only downside is that when I upen up a .asm file it defaults to the x86 syntax and I have to manually switch to my user-defined 6502 syntax every time. Does anyone know if there's a way to remedy this? I know some people use the .s extention for assembly files, but Notepad++ already uses this for soemthing else; Scheme files, I believe.

C/C++ I use for prototyping different sub-systems that the game'll use, and writing the occasional tool to take care of some minor trivial task. I really should start learning Python, I don't know why I haven't yet. I guess all the different libraries it has scares me, but that's a stupid excuse. A lot of the raw data I just type in by hand tbh, as I feel like 9/10 writing a tool takes more time and brain power than just typing in numbers/labels and not really having to think about it.

vim, tmux, ca65, make

For me, simply defining "asm" as the extension for my custom language definition worked fine. I just assumed custom languages would have priority over the built-in ones in case of extension collisions.

Tass64, Relaunch64, VS Code, Jet Brains PyCharm, Context, Visual Studio, Regenerator, Regenerator Booster, transhexlation, VICE, ICU=64, CartConv, C1541, BDD6502, SourceLevelDebugger, XtraDebugger128, powershell, CharPad, SpritePad, Paint Shop Pro 7, Deluxe Paint 5 AGA, Pixcen, github desktop, build configurator, exomiser.

I don't ^ Actually I tired it but didn't like it very much, the only advantage is that making "instruments" is simple and great, but making music is awful.


Same.


DIdn't know it could do that. I'll definitely have to check that tutorial that rainwarrior posted several weeks ago.


Can't believe TextPad is still around !! I used to use it a lot, looooong ago, when I started NESdev.

As for what software I'm using, NESdev related. Well I'm not doing any NESdev right now but when I am I use :

• Text editor : Notepad++
• Assembler : WLA-DX
• Level Editor : Shit, it was something released here in those forums, I searched for 10 minutes but couldn't find it, so...
• Emulator : VirtuaNES, Nestopia, FCEUX and Nintendulator, dependning on what has to be debugged.
• FlashCart : None currently, as my PowerPak stopped to function and I sent it for repair but never heard from them ever again. Probably I'll have to get a new one eventually.
• Other : I make my own software whenever I have a need for a tool that doesn't exist (or when those that does are not satisfying)

It can't, really... it just has tools that help with copying/pasting square areas around. I still have to parse the images using my own scripts. First I recognize all the blocks in the image, generating a raw array for the map, then I encode that array to whatever format the game uses.


I personally wouldn't buy again from a company that never got back to me about a product I sent for repairs (not even to say they never got it). In this case, I'd get an Everdrive instead, it's cheaper and (as far as I can tell) just as good.

The answer is similar to the other thread, something something released game credits.txt has most of it.

Except custom stuff, so:

This editor: https://imgur.com/QCsImfw

Graphics by Phoenix849 and Prism. Collision info looks wrong because I was putting together something quick and none of the slope data was actually used in that project. It does a lot more than map editing, but I'd have to make a video. In the bottom middle is actually a Pyxel Edit tilemap that you can pull metatiles from.

This level import thing: https://i.imgur.com/gnQ1uhe.png

Because the above editor is actually overkill for most projects. It can take in a png with collision info along with an animated set of images and spit out a whole level. It will put the animated tiles in the last bank and you can set the size of the bank swapping. In Indivisible I used it lazily for destructible walls, but it could also create tiles for things like Kirby's animated water. You have to use Tiled to add objects to a level, though.

It also doubles as a "generic" restrictions checker and a few other things.

Command line tool to split up CHR for extreme bank switching: https://i.imgur.com/D1HkJPz.gif

You can set whatever bank size. It makes sure all tiles needed for a frame are in the same bank, while also trying to minimize duplicate tiles in different banks. It could do a bit more with merging things not from the same character, though. (Maybe that's graphical)

Currently planning a hitbox creation tool: https://i.imgur.com/U5KBfB9.gif

And a sprite import thing that deals with sprite overlays in a sane-ish way.

And the rest:

Digital Mars C++ Compiler (Compiler used for a program I wrote that used a tiny C++ component from another program I wrote) - http://www.digitalmars.com/

FamiTone2 (Music engine) - https://shiru.untergrund.net/code.shtml

FamiTracker (Music creation) - http://www.famitracker.com/

FCEUX (Primary emulator used during development) - http://www.fceux.com/web/home.html

LICEcap (GIF creation for development thread.) - http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ (Maybe that's graphical?)

Mesen (Of particular use for the axe text scanline effect) - https://www.mesen.ca/

Microsoft Visual Studio (Compiler used for my non-commandline programs) - https://www.visualstudio.com/

NES Screen Tool (Metasprite layouts) - https://shiru.untergrund.net/software.shtml (Maybe that's graphical?)

NES Space Checker (Project management) - https://shiru.untergrund.net/software.shtml

NESASM (Assembler) - http://www.nespowerpak.com/nesasm/

Notepad++ (Text editor used to write the code and documentation) - https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download

NSF Importer (Analyzing NES music in general) - http://rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/nsfimport.html

Tiled (Map creation) - http://www.mapeditor.org/

Tiny C Compiler (Compiler used to build various small tools to arrange assets) - http://bellard.org/tcc/

VirtuaNES Custom (Quick benchmarking emulator) - http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?p=47911#p47911 ( Original VirtuaNES project: http://virtuanes.s1.xrea.com/ )

XVI32 (Hex editor, various bits of verification) - http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/f ... /xvi32.htm (There are certainly better hex editors)

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https://kasumi.itch.io/indivisible

What do you use then? I don't know of any chiptune-oriented programs that aren't tracker-based

You can manually type music data directly in the source, or use assembler macros to help you out with this.

I mean yeah, but I feel like any sane person would use a tool of some kind to actually create the music before they add it to the source, right?

Notepad ++ - not just for programming. postits, clipboard buffer, text editing in general that doesn't require formatting or layout.

HxD - hex editing. Useful in combination with NESST. For example as a middleman for anything NESST can't copy to clipboard but can export as a binary. Separate attribute tables, for example. Also useful for hand editing data in general, to be .incbin:ed in the source instead of writing .db statements. More neatly organized this way; readable code with clear filename labling.

win 10 calc.exe - finally made into a convenient and fluent experience. Hex, bin, dec are all shown simultaneously and live. Besides full numeric keyboard, you can use a bit toggling keyboard and set word size and the memory store / recall memory buttons are useful. Full screen mode is surprisingly useful, especially with a touch screen.

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog