Pong for NES

Today I will start developing my first NES game - Pong. The structure of the code for how to go about it was provided in the "Nerdy Nights" tutorials, so I intend to finish it to gain experience. After this I will begin my first original NES game.

glenn101 wrote:

Today I will start developing my first NES game - Pong. The structure of the code for how to go about it was provided in the "Nerdy Nights" tutorials, so I intend to finish it to gain experience. After this I will begin my first original NES game.

Man good luck. I did programming back in high school. I milked quick basic 4.5 for dos to do all the power it could handle without inline assembly (made full screen graphics and pc speaker sfx, only 1 layer of graphics though and no scrolling movement was on a per tile basis). Later I moved onto C for dos compiled using djgpp (used allegro libraries to make a game with a graphics engine that supported multiple layers with full screen scrolling as well as full animation, but abandoned programming after that point). But from what I've read nes coding is just....assembly? That's way too frustrating for me to be bothered with. I'd probably be stealing code from all over the place if I were to even consider making a homebrew haha. Also my burner reads (and I assume burns) nes eproms perfectly so I can help you produce carts. I also have a nes powerpak for testing purposes.

Thanks for the support man.

Yeah it's all in assembly, but I like working with low-level programming. I also know C++ and Java for high-level languages, but it's not as satisfying to me.

That would be great to help me produce carts, I haven't really looked into how to go about that as of yet. I'm planning on getting a nes powerpak for testing purposes also, but it might be a while. It would be awesome if you could test my game here and there along the way in the meantime though, so I know currently how it is functioning on hardware.

Think of me as your "go to hardware guy". I have a looooot of nintendo hardware that I can test your stuff on. I have a toaster, a nes 2, av famicoms, and a sharp twin famicom. All of my systems I have setup to support my rgb rig if I want to test something with the rgb chip.

Oh yeah...and did I mention I have a powerpak?

Programming I never enjoyed which is why I got out of it. But hardware was always a big hobby of mine especially when it comes to classic stuff like this. I can test your code running on any of my systems with either the original composite ppu chip or a rgb chip. My av famicom also includes a custom audio circuit which I can enable / disable with the flick of a switch.

I have pretty much every ntsc model of the nes setup for full development except for the original famicom my original famicom lost a connection with the ppu socket and I've been too busy to fix it.

Hehe awesome, I need a go to hardware guy because my NES hardware is limited. I may be sending a .nes file quicker than i thought. I've almost got the background working and a ball bouncing around the place.

glenn101 wrote:

Hehe awesome, I need a go to hardware guy because my NES hardware is limited. I may be sending a .nes file quicker than i thought. I've almost got the background working and a ball bouncing around the place.

Seriously man I've got all the gear to test your work. I'll probably use just an av famicom with a composite ppu for testing your stuff at first. If it works in that system then I'll throw the powerpak into the expensive setup(s)

Progress is good on Pong, I now have 1 controllable paddle working Now for the collisions with the ball/borders, then basically copy/paste code for 2nd paddle and I've got most of it going

glenn101 wrote:

Progress is good on Pong, I now have 1 controllable paddle working Now for the collisions with the ball/borders, then basically copy/paste code for 2nd paddle and I've got most of it going

Needs music and new stuff added that wasn't previously in pong!

Yes music too heh. I have a good idea to make it interesting don't worry

glenn101 wrote:

Yes music too heh. I have a good idea to make it interesting don't worry

I've made some 100% original nes nsf tunes if you need some music.

I think I might take you up on that, Darkland seems appropriate to the game, it has a megaman vibe to it which is great. I'm not exactly sure of the code to include it though, it's probably just a .incbin directive or something though.

glenn101 wrote:

I think I might take you up on that, Darkland seems appropriate to the game, it has a megaman vibe to it which is great. I'm not exactly sure of the code to include it though, it's probably just a .incbin directive or something though.

*shrug* I can always write other stuff and longer songs.

When I say "I think I might take you up on that" It is Australian slang (I guess) For, I think I might accept your offer, so in this context, I mean that I think I will use your song in my game.

Basic Pong working now. Now I'm starting more advanced collision detection so the ball moves in a certain direction depending on which particular section of the paddle it intersects.

I understand your slang my mom's british. I was simply saying I can ALSO write more songs and make my existing songs longer

Fair enough. I think a song for the title screen would be great.

glenn101 wrote:

Fair enough. I think a song for the title screen would be great.

Can do, but I'm going to be busy for a while with commissions + my own mods so you'll probably have to wait.

I can wait, that's fine.

It's still far from completion anyway, I've been busy doing adjustments for collision regions, I want them to be perfect.

*EDIT*

I think my collision code is perfect now, all my regions are functioning exactly as I wanted. Now onto some sub-pixel precision speed control work.

I tested the latest one you sent me on the powerpak it plays but....is the music supposed to start at zero volume and slowly get louder??

Thanks for testing it. I don't think it's supposed to, at the start there are less instruments playing, but I don't think the actual volume levels are touched throughout. I'll try using your song Darkland in it, I need the .nsf file, also could you set it to loop. It must be <=8KB to work in my game.

I just e-mailed you darkland but it's 33k. I wonder why the other song didn't play full volume at first.

Thanks for that, I might need to change to a different mapper for that to fit. I'm currently using NROM which has only 32KB of memory for program ROM. I'll have another look at it another day, not really in the mood today, I've had a terrible day.

glenn101 wrote:

Thanks for that, I might need to change to a different mapper for that to fit. I'm currently using NROM which has only 32KB of memory for program ROM. I'll have another look at it another day, not really in the mood today, I've had a terrible day.

Oh, sorry to hear that. Although I'm not entirely sure all of that 33k is my song I can't remember how I made the nsf file. I just checked the nsf songs I made they're all 33k meaning most of that information probably isn't my song. I have no clue how to extract it though. Might be easier switching to something that's larger than 32k haha

I think what I will do is compose some small song myself in code by accessing the APU and finish this game off using NROM. I'll switch to a more advanced mapper on my next game. This game has mainly just been about gaining experience, my next game will be an original game.

glenn101 wrote:

I think what I will do is compose some small song myself in code by accessing the APU and finish this game off using NROM. I'll switch to a more advanced mapper on my next game. This game has mainly just been about gaining experience, my next game will be an original game.

Cool. Another single screen style game?

It will be a vertical shooter type game. My concept for the game doesn't involve scrolling so yes, it will be a single screen, I'm thinking of having an option of 2 player simultaneous play also.