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Hey there, I'm new to the GBA dev scene and I've got some questions. I was wondering what dev kit is most commonly used for non commercial games. My other question is what's the difference between one of the free dev kits and the one you buy from Nintendo? I heard the main difference is that when you buy the package licensed by Nintendo you get some hardware to test your stuff on. Is there any difference in code?

Thanks for the help.

-Kenn

Kenn wrote:

I was wondering what dev kit is most commonly used for non commercial games.

pc software: DevKit Advance by Jason Wilkins.
hardware: MBV2 cable and/or F2A cartridge with linker.

Quote:

My other question is what's the difference between one of the free dev kits and the one you buy from Nintendo?

They're both Windows-hosted GBA-targeted GCC distributions, but the free one has better C libraries. Nintendo's has full BIOS documentation and libraries for reading and writing cart save data. Nintendo's may also have better documentation of some of the GBA's more obscure quirks.

Quote:

when you buy the package licensed by Nintendo you get some hardware to test your stuff on.

You can get independently made hardware at lik-sang.com or success-hk.com.

Quote:

Is there any difference in code?

The free one has better C support and will correctly handle 'const' vs. non-'const' data.

But then, I haven't seen Nintendo's; I'm just relying on what I've read in this board and gbadev@yahoogroups.
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Last edited by tepples on Fri Jun 06, 2003 6:01 am; edited 1 time in total

They give you some librairies or other.

But DevKitAvance is pretty solid.

gbadev.org forum archive

Beginners > Dev Kit Question

#7010 - Kenn - Fri Jun 06, 2003 5:27 am

#7011 - tepples - Fri Jun 06, 2003 5:47 am

#7012 - niltsair - Fri Jun 06, 2003 5:47 am