SpritesMind.Net

Hello,

I have programming skills, a laptop, a PAL 32x and MD.

what do I need to write "Hello World" on my TV with the 32X?

what are the steps?

Well, if you like GCC, I made a thread on setting up gcc toolchain that comes with C and C++ versions of Tic-Tac-Toe for both the MD and the 32X. I suggest you look at the example code at least. Then look over other demos and examples for the 32X. I did a port of xrick and yeti3d for the 32X that show how 32X games might be done.

If you aren't very familiar with programming in general, I suggest starting on the PC. It's easier. Consoles require "regular" programming skills combined with the ability to deal with limited resources like memory and cpu power.

Chilly Willy wrote:Well, if you like GCC, I made a thread on setting up gcc toolchain that comes with C and C++ versions of Tic-Tac-Toe for both the MD and the 32X. I suggest you look at the example code at least. Then look over other demos and examples for the 32X. I did a port of xrick and yeti3d for the 32X that show how 32X games might be done.

If you aren't very familiar with programming in general, I suggest starting on the PC. It's easier. Consoles require "regular" programming skills combined with the ability to deal with limited resources like memory and cpu power.

I do programming on phones where I work at the bit and byte level.

How do you put your program in a 32X cartridge? I guess you need a special one. Good place to buy?

I will check out your stuff.
thx

If you work on phones, you should probably do well on consoles.

Most people do initial testing on emulators, like KEGA Fusion, Gens-kmod, or (my favorite) Gens/GS. Once you have it working on emulators, trying it on real hardware is essential since no emulator is perfect. Running on real hardware will show the actual speed, if there are places you forgot to align the data, and if you are correctly handling the hardware. Speed in particular varies quite a bit from emulator to reality.

For testing on real hardware, you want to use a flash cart. There are two main flash carts people use right now: the Everdrive-MD, and the NeoFlash Myth MD 3-in-1.

Everdrive: Cheapest cart, good for the money. Will run nearly MD or 32X game (and SMS games on a plain MD). Has the most common kind of save ram built in. Comes with an SD card interface. This is what most users get as it's the best buy for the price.

Myth: Most expensive by a long shot, but has the most features. This is actually an adapter to use GBA flash carts on the MD; the menu only supports NeoFlash GBA carts for obvious reasons. It comes with a 32MByte flash cart, but it's recommended to also pick up the Neo2-SD or Neo2-Pro cart to go with it as those two carts also have an SD card interface. That's part of the reason the Myth is most expensive. The Myth also has the SMS FM chip on it so that you can play SMS games with FM if they support the FM chip (a bunch of Jap games mainly). It also supports every form of save ram, from eeprom to sram/fram. The Myth can also act as a replacement CD BIOS or as a CD BackupRAM cart. It has a USB port for programming via USB, or it can load from SD/SDHC cards if you have the Neo2-SD or Neo2-Pro.

Either cart works fine for testing software. If you want an Everdrive, StoneAgeGamer is a good place to get it with a case, instructions, and box. The bare board can be purchased directly for the cheapest price possible. If you want a Myth, you'll have to buy one from ic2005.com, the only place (just about) that carries NeoFlash stuff. If you just want to run 32X stuff off SD, get the Everdrive. If you have the money and like the extras (especially the SMS FM!), you might consider "investing" in the Myth. NeoFlash just dropped their prices this week, so it's a good time if you are.

When I first started with the 32X I wrote a very small example program in C that I posted here.
You'll need an SH version of GCC as well as an M68k version of the GNU binutils, both of which should be included in the toolchain ChillyWilly mentioned.

I don't know if you've ever done any programming for DOS and VGA mode 19, but if you have you'll probably feel right at home on the 32X. The graphics chip gives you a 320x224 pixel screen with 256 colors and two linear framebuffers (some other configurations are possible as well). The challenge is to make the relatively slow CPUs fill the screen with something interesting at a decent pace

mic_ wrote:When I first started with the 32X I wrote a very small example program in C that I posted here.

It was your demos that really showed me that 32X programming was worth pursuing. That's why I advocate posting anything and everything - you never know what will inspire the next guy to come along.

I don't know if you've ever done any programming for DOS and VGA mode 19, but if you have you'll probably feel right at home on the 32X. The graphics chip gives you a 320x224 pixel screen with 256 colors and two linear framebuffers (some other configurations are possible as well). The challenge is to make the relatively slow CPUs fill the screen with something interesting at a decent pace

The 32X is really flexible, but you do have to watch the speed and the memory usage... especially the memory usage.