NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

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Bananmos
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by Bananmos »

Doesn't Study Hall use the self-flashable configuration? Or do you specifically mean free-to-download NES software supporting self-flashable mapper 30?
Free-to-download would be better, but thanks for letting me know about study hall. I might order in place of the test ROM then, and see if Tapedump can substitute for a Kazzoo dumper. :)
The free test option is emulators. (Is relying on a PowerPak or Everdrive emulation of flash ROM behaviour really any better than an emulator?
In my opinion, yes. But it varies greatly depending on how much you are pushing the system. And arguably emulators are very advanced now and suffice for most uses. I mostly use them myself now, whereas ten years ago I would be primarily using the real system.

And yes, Powerpak/Everdrive have the main weakness of being an imperfect clone of the particular mapper you're using. But mapper behaviour is less likely to be a critical part of your game design than PPU/APU quirks.

But there is also something special about seeing your game actually run on the real system - even knowing it should match emulation, it's only when you see it running on the real thing that I truly get the "yeah, this really does run on my childhood fav console!"-feeling". It's a motivational boost that is more about emotion than logic. But your mileage may vary here, of course.
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MistSonata
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by MistSonata »

Bananmos wrote:MistSonata: Did you have success trying the newer firmware for the AVS? I don't have any direct plans to buy an AVS in the near future, so there's not much I can do to test it. But it would be nice if we could figure out what the problem is.
I tried running the rom before and after updating the AVS, and then before and after updating the Everdrive firmware (with a format and reinstall afterwards, just to be thorough). Nothing changed that I could see, best I could get was a black screen.
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rainwarrior
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by rainwarrior »

Bananmos wrote:And yes, Powerpak/Everdrive have the main weakness of being an imperfect clone of the particular mapper you're using. But mapper behaviour is less likely to be a critical part of your game design than PPU/APU quirks.
Oh, I meant for testing flash. You can still test all the PPU/APU stuff without flash saves. You can even test loading a save without flash emulation (just put the data in the ROM).

Of course it'd be nice to be able to test everything at once, but at least flash saving tends to be a pretty isolated task (like you probably don't want to be doing much else at the same time anyway).
robocop
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by robocop »

Sonny_Jim wrote:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13 ... -required/

This seems to be utter bullshit. Thoughts? Does Joe post on here at all?
NestorLab is Free man,and every body can download it,and with no coding,and for NES Homebrew.
but this is very expensive.
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dougeff
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by dougeff »

NestorLab...is in version 0.0.1. Looks like a text editor and a title editor. No examples. No documents. No comments from the author in over a year.

And the screenshot of the ASM code makes me very nervous "BPL -5". So...no labels then? Am I to calculate branches manually? No thanks.

http://nestorlab.free.fr/screenshot.php
nesdoug.com -- blog/tutorial on programming for the NES
robocop
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by robocop »

dougeff wrote:NestorLab...is in version 0.0.1. Looks like a text editor and a title editor. No examples. No documents. No comments from the author in over a year.

And the screenshot of the ASM code makes me very nervous "BPL -5". So...no labels then? Am I to calculate branches manually? No thanks.

http://nestorlab.free.fr/screenshot.php
Kickstarter NESMaker is to new and there is no tutorials.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Actually, Joe from the NESmaker team has already started doing video tutorials for absolute beginners. They will surely explain the user interface in proper time for the release. It's my personal projection but it wouldn't surprise me if it came with a decent reference + faq to ease the pressure of questions from users.

Given that NESmaker is not released just yet (there's a closed beta going on just now), that's pretty cool.

Consider this: NESmaker has an anticipated install base of 2,500 users (that's how many who backed the project, at least). It is as good a guarantee it will be maintained and have a community of users supporting each other. I'm under the impression there's a pretty lively discussion group on facebook, and someone has started an independent BBS for its users, all before its release.

+, it comes with a handful of engine modules to learn from, modify or simply use as-is (which it is being advertised for).

NestorLab seems to have a user base of... maybe the author, if not abandoned? Not being avaible in english is of course the authors rightful choice too, but to me it kind of comes off as a signal that the author isn't interested in having a userbase except for his/her own needs. In other words: don't expect support or development.

It doesn't seem to do anything NESICIDE already does, which has at least a few users, and a maintainer who's actively asked on the forums for suggestions for improvements. If you're looking for free alternatives providing a bit of an GUI helped environment, that might be worth checking out.

Most people here seem to stick with asm6 or ca65 / cc65 (which NESICIDE and apparently NestorLab is built on top of). Still others use NESASM. Honourable mention: Ophis, an assembler written in python. Few use it, but it works just fine.
robocop
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by robocop »

FrankenGraphics wrote:Actually, Joe from the NESmaker team has already started doing video tutorials for absolute beginners. They will surely explain the user interface in proper time for the release. It's my personal projection but it wouldn't surprise me if it came with a decent reference + faq to ease the pressure of questions from users.

Given that NESmaker is not released just yet (there's a closed beta going on just now), that's pretty cool.

Consider this: NESmaker has an anticipated install base of 2,500 users (that's how many who backed the project, at least). It is as good a guarantee it will be maintained and have a community of users supporting each other. I'm under the impression there's a pretty lively discussion group on facebook, and someone has started an independent BBS for its users, all before its release.

+, it comes with a handful of engine modules to learn from, modify or simply use as-is (which it is being advertised for).

NestorLab seems to have a user base of... maybe the author, if not abandoned? Not being avaible in english is of course the authors rightful choice too, but to me it kind of comes off as a signal that the author isn't interested in having a userbase except for his/her own needs. In other words: don't expect support or development.

It doesn't seem to do anything NESICIDE already does, which has at least a few users, and a maintainer who's actively asked on the forums for suggestions for improvements. If you're looking for free alternatives providing a bit of an GUI helped environment, that might be worth checking out.

Most people here seem to stick with asm6 or ca65 / cc65 (which NESICIDE and apparently NestorLab is built on top of). Still others use NESASM. Honourable mention: Ophis, an assembler written in python. Few use it, but it works just fine.
But The Money,The Software Is Very Expensive,When I Talk with NESTorLab project Maker He Taled me That The Software Will Have Tutorials In The Future.
8bitMicroGuy
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by 8bitMicroGuy »

I don't fully understand this. So will NESMaker be free or paid or both? Will making commercial games require paying for a license or royalties?
robocop
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by robocop »

8bitMicroGuy wrote:I don't fully understand this. So will NESMaker be free or paid or both? Will making commercial games require paying for a license or royalties?
Here Is The Image Of chating with The NesTorLab Programmer.
He telled Me With French That The Software is in development and it doesn't be completed yet because there is another important projects,and the project development is paused,the develompent will be in the next years.and there will be a tutorials in the next moments,he tell that the tutorials will be in an another doublage.
that's it.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by FrankenGraphics »

8bitMicroGuy wrote:I don't fully understand this. So will NESMaker be free or paid or both?
Paid, 36$ for the tool + example code modules.
Will making commercial games require paying for a license or royalties?
Nah, it's a one-time purchase for a license to the NESmaker software itself. Generous nes source modules included.
robocop
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by robocop »

FrankenGraphics wrote:
8bitMicroGuy wrote:I don't fully understand this. So will NESMaker be free or paid or both?
Paid, 36$ for the tool + example code modules.
Will making commercial games require paying for a license or royalties?
Nah, it's a one-time purchase for a license to the NESmaker software itself. Generous nes source modules included.
Ok Have No Fear there is The hackers!!!!!
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Punch
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by Punch »

robocop wrote:
FrankenGraphics wrote:
8bitMicroGuy wrote:I don't fully understand this. So will NESMaker be free or paid or both?
Paid, 36$ for the tool + example code modules.
Will making commercial games require paying for a license or royalties?
Nah, it's a one-time purchase for a license to the NESmaker software itself. Generous nes source modules included.
Ok Have No Fear there is The hackers!!!!!
Have fun hacking your way out of court.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by FrankenGraphics »

??? 36$ is a very reasonable price. It's basically 3-4 pies of pizza. More importantly, it's honest work made by homebrew community members. Please don't disrespect it by talking about pirating it...
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dougeff
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Re: NESMaker Kickstarter - Make NES games without coding

Post by dougeff »

I have also talked with the creator of nestorlab, user name schade at this forum. He seems very knowledgeable and I believe he will try to make his project work. One day.

And I have spoken to Joe, currently making NESmaker. He has more resources (the kickstarter $), and is using a well known assembler (asm6) and I have seen his beta version working (YouTube).

NESmaker has already made a game. That says a lot. Maybe there will be some bumps on the road, but it helps that hundreds of people will be using NESmaker and helping each other out.

I may purchase NESmaker in the future.
nesdoug.com -- blog/tutorial on programming for the NES
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