#143013 - Mel - Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:51 am
Brand new to Gameboy and have a possible software development project for it... Gameboy Advance SP unit.
Hopefully someone will answer a few quick questions to get me pointed int he right direction.
1 - Sony discourages 3rd party development with out going through licencing process with Sony... Is it the same with Nintendo Gameboy development... or do they have an open SDK and encourage anyone to be a 3rd party developer?
2 - Is the Gameboy Advance SP being phased out replaced by the Gameboy DS ? Or will Nintendo continue the Gameboy Advance SP ?
3 - What do we need to get going?
.. SDK
.. Interface board or unit
.. Emulator
.. What else?
4 - What are the favorites sources and model numbers of the above list among developers?
5 - Can you write code for the Gameboy Advance SP with...
C
C++
Visual Basic
Assembly Language
what else?
6 - Please point me toward the best quick start tutorials for Gameboy development.
Thanks again evryone. I know I can Google and read for a few days an dig out some or all of this but it would really be helpful if someone would be kind enough to help me save some time.
thanks,
Mel
#143016 - gauauu - Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:03 am
| Mel wrote: |
1 - Sony discourages 3rd party development with out going through licencing process with Sony... Is it the same with Nintendo Gameboy development... or do they have an open SDK and encourage anyone to be a 3rd party developer? |
They discourage it. But as long as you stay away from copyright violations, they don't do much about it.
| Quote: |
2 - Is the Gameboy Advance SP being phased out replaced by the Gameboy DS ? Or will Nintendo continue the Gameboy Advance SP ?
|
You never know. When the DS first came out, Nintendo said it and GBA would be two separate product lines. But the success of the DS will most likely mean a focus on it, as the successor to the GBA. But your GBA games will still work on DS for now, and it's a good place to start.
| Quote: |
3 - What do we need to get going?
.. SDK
.. Interface board or unit
.. Emulator
.. What else?
4 - What are the favorites sources and model numbers of the above list among developers?
|
devkitpro (toolchain, compiler, etc)
Visual Boy Advance (emulator)
GBA flash cart & linker...see the retailers feedback section of this forum....various ones have advantages and disadvantages. You can get amazingly far on just the emulator, though, so you can get started before getting your flash card in the mail.
| Quote: |
5 - Can you write code for the Gameboy Advance SP with...
C
C++
Visual Basic
Assembly Language
what else?
|
C, C++, Assembly.
There's a few projects out there trying to enable developing in other languages, but few/none will be worth your while.
| Quote: |
| 6 - Please point me toward the best quick start tutorials for Gameboy development. |
TONC
Read the beginners faq also.
#143018 - tepples - Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:11 am
A lot of the answers to your questions depend on whether your work is hobby or business. I'll answer both ways to the best of my ability:
| Mel wrote: |
| 1 - Sony discourages 3rd party development with out going through licencing process with Sony... Is it the same with Nintendo Gameboy development... or do they have an open SDK and encourage anyone to be a 3rd party developer? |
Assuming you're trying to sell something: Nintendo is like Sony in this respect. As far as I can tell, the primary handheld gaming platforms that do not require a negotiated agreement between the developer and the platform vendor are Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Sun's Java Micro Edition.
Assuming you're not trying to sell something: There's an open SDK, but it's not from Nintendo. Unlike the PSP, the GBA doesn't get firmware upgrades that disable homebrew tools.
| Quote: |
| Is the Gameboy Advance SP being phased out replaced by the Gameboy DS ? |
There is no such thing as "Game Boy DS", but yes, the Game Boy Advance platform is being phased out. The DS does run all GBA games in single-player mode.
| Quote: |
| Or will Nintendo continue the Gameboy Advance SP ? |
As long as it makes money, Nintendo will make the hardware.
| Quote: |
3 - What do we need to get going?
.. SDK
.. Interface board or unit
.. Emulator
.. What else? |
Assuming you're trying to sell something: 4. A completed or nearly completed title for Windows to show to Nintendo so that you can get a license.
Assuming you're not trying to sell something: 4. A lot of free time.
SDK == devkitARM
Interface board or unit == SLOT-2 flash card such as the SuperCard, M3, or G6
Emulator == VisualBoyAdvance and/or NO$GBA
| Quote: |
5 - Can you write code for the Gameboy Advance SP with...
C
C++
Visual Basic
Assembly Language
what else? |
Not Visual Basic. Visual Basic compiles to .NET bytecode, and there currently exists no .NET bytecode interpreter for Game Boy Advance. And the assembly language of the GBA's ARM7 CPU isn't the same as on the Intel i686 CPUs that PC developers are used to. C and C++ should work, though some implementations of parts of the C++ standard library, especially <iostream>, are too big to fit comfortably in the GBA's limited memory.
| Quote: |
| 6 - Please point me toward the best quick start tutorials for Gameboy development. |
Google tonc gba
_________________
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-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#143088 - Mel - Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:24 pm
Thank you guys very much. Very helpful.
For additional clarity... are you telling me that you can create 3rd party apps for the GBA sp with out having to modify the unit and with out becoming a licensed Nintendo developer...
And then sell them... and they will work on standard out of the box GBA sp's ?
Or will the homebrew apps only work on modified GBA sp's?
thanks again for the help.
#143091 - gauauu - Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:50 pm
| Quote: |
| For additional clarity... are you telling me that you can create 3rd party apps for the GBA sp with out having to modify the unit and with out becoming a licensed Nintendo developer... |
Again, as Tepples said, it really depends on what you're trying to do. You won't be able to sell your games in stores like a normal commercial game if you don't become a licensed Nintendo developer.
But you can write your own games, and sell them to anyone that would buy them, without modifying your gba or becoming licensed.
| Quote: |
| And then sell them... and they will work on standard out of the box GBA sp's ? Or will the homebrew apps only work on modified GBA sp's? |
The flash carts that you can buy and homebrew that you write for them will work on out of the box GBA's.
For example, I am writing a game. I have put it on 5 different flash carts to let my friends play/borrow/test. They don't have to do anything special to their GBA to play it. I could sell the game online via my web page, or my own little store. But Best Buy will not carry my game without me being Nintendo licensed.
Also, flash carts are generally expensive and/or hard to get, so that it will be harder to make a profit selling your own games on flash.
#143092 - Mel - Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:57 pm
gauauu, Great additional information !
- Where do you buy 'Flash Carts' ?
- About how much do they cost if you buy them 100 or 1000 at a time?
- Can you just burn them into a conventional ROM... or have them burned into a conventioal ROM and get it done for less money?
- So you buy the 'Flash Carts' as a unit... ready to be flashed and then used... so you are not burning a ROM, putting it on a printed circuit board... and then putting that board inside a cart... right?
thanks again... you are really helping me get a handle on this.
Mel
#143097 - gauauu - Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:25 pm
You can buy flash carts from most of the retailers listed in the retailer feedback section of this forum.
We bought a bulk order recently of a couple hundred, I believe, and paid somewhere around $10 each. With flash carts, you buy them ready to be flashed, and flash them yourself. End users could re-flash them if they want.
Theoretically, it's probably possible to buy preburned conventional ROMS, but it's not done as often around here. Probably the minimum quantities and setup price are prohibitively expensive for most of us hobbyists. You'd have to do some independent research to find that out.
Nintendo might also try to put some sort of pressure on you if you got big enough to be noticeable, also. (I wouldn't want to go up against Nintendo's legal team even if I knew what I was doing was legit)
#143160 - Mel - Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:25 pm
Gauauu,
Great info. Thanks again!
I wonder why Nintendo would care if someone is developing and selling products to compliment their existing product(s) ?
But, if we determine that the GBA sp and/or Nintendo DS are suitable platforms for our applications we would probably have no problem working with them... depending on terms... of course.
I really appriceate your help. I may have some additional questions as we are trying to quickly ramped up to the eval stage... so far Nintendo's more open policy seems to put them in front of the Sony PSP...
How do the Gameboy's and DS's sell relative to the PSP... any idea?
Mel
#143164 - gauauu - Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:51 pm
| Mel wrote: |
I wonder why Nintendo would care if someone is developing and selling products to compliment their existing product(s) ?
|
Because they want to control the market of GBA games, to ensure quality, and to take a cut of all GBA game sales.
The "more open policy" is really only a matter of the fact that they don't have the ability to update the firmware of the GBA to keep us homebrewers out. They'd love to shut us out if possible (as evidenced by the fact that each system has more and more roadblocks to running homebrew code)
As far as real commercial development, you'll still need to work with them to get licensed, like Tepples said.
#143171 - Mel - Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:37 pm
gauauu,
Any idea of the 'cut' Nintendo gets... ball park ??
#143180 - gauauu - Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:40 pm
No clue. I've stayed in the land of homebrew....I don't really know anything about being a licensed developer works.