SpritesMind.Net

Greetings to all, I just created an account on this forum...with a goal in mind.

I have heard great things about this forum and how it has helped people in their quest to turn their ideas into games. now I embark upon the same quest...

I should start off by saying I know next to nothing about programming and I know very little about how the 32x actually works. The only thing I have going for me is imagination and creativity.

I have many great ideas for the mushroom...ideas that will push the console to its limits. to be a little more exact, I would like to develop a fully 3d first person shooter on it...something similar to quake or turok. I have many other ideas but that one is my ultimate goal, though all of my ideas would push the console to its limits in various ways. For example...I also want to create a racing game for the 32x...it will play similar to mari kart on the snes but id like to make the graphics better and cel shaded.

So...I guess my first question is where do I start?
sure...I know almost nothing but I have the passion and desire needed to develop great games for the 32x.

You need to be familiar with either C or ASM programming languages to start with. Don't bother trying to learn 32X unless you have some background in those languages first. Learning ASM, might introduce you to some of the low level hardware concepts you'll need to be aware of to program for 32X. I am a software engineer, but not as familiar with C and it's taking me months to get a basic side-scroller demo working reasonably.

This thread has the basic tools you'll need to compile a program or game.
viewtopic.php?t=889

There are some example programs posted that use that toolchain.

It helps to have an overview of the hardware and reference material handy, there isn't much documentation or specific resources on the web for 32X development, so what is out there is gold.

http://www.romhacking.net/documents/279/
Collection of Sega 32X Manuals including the most important "32X Hardware Manual".

http://devster.monkeeh.com/sega/32xguide1.txt
Reverse engineered introduction to 32X capabilities and hardware.

Devster's site also has a few other documents, example homebrew ROMs and utilities.


http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/ ... %2032X.htm
"Project Mars: Anatomy of a Failure" – a good overview of the development, marketing and failure of the 32X and the impact it had on Sega.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datashe ... Xwuttu.pdf
"Hitachi SH7604 Hardware Manual" – The manufacturers manual for the main RISC CPUs used in the 32X aka SH2, Super-H. Has the details for all of the assembly language instructions for the processors.

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-list_f ... lleryId=10
Gallery: 32X Development – includes some utilities, assemblers and 32X BIOS files as well as more Hitachi SH2 documentation.

You have to learn to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run.
I would recommend that you at least learn c first before attempting to write a game and pointers are a huge thing especially when it comes to accessing hardware you MUST learn pointers. Also asm is good especially for older systems that may lack of a good compiler.

ammianus wrote:This thread has the basic tools you'll need to compile a program or game.
viewtopic.php?t=889

There are some example programs posted that use that toolchain.

I posted an update with the latest stuff here:
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?20159

That updates the compiler to 4.6.2 and has changes in the makefiles for the examples to make things easier. But I still recommend going through the thread you link to... lots of good info, and a Windows version of my toolchain.

It helps to have an overview of the hardware and reference material handy, there isn't much documentation or specific resources on the web for 32X development, so what is out there is gold.

http://www.romhacking.net/documents/279/
Collection of Sega 32X Manuals including the most important "32X Hardware Manual".

http://devster.monkeeh.com/sega/32xguide1.txt
Reverse engineered introduction to 32X capabilities and hardware.

Devster's site also has a few other documents, example homebrew ROMs and utilities.

http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/ ... %2032X.htm
"Project Mars: Anatomy of a Failure" – a good overview of the development, marketing and failure of the 32X and the impact it had on Sega.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datashe ... Xwuttu.pdf
"Hitachi SH7604 Hardware Manual" – The manufacturers manual for the main RISC CPUs used in the 32X aka SH2, Super-H. Has the details for all of the assembly language instructions for the processors.

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-list_f ... lleryId=10
Gallery: 32X Development – includes some utilities, assemblers and 32X BIOS files as well as more Hitachi SH2 documentation.

Definitely, get the manual and any and all examples!

Since you (the OP, not who is quoted in the top) stated you wish to make a 3rd person shooter, pay particular attention to my Yeti3D example. The next step on that is to make the polygon renderer into assembly for better speed.

Don't forget ob1's rewritten pdf version of Sega 32X manual:
viewtopic.php?t=98