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Beginners > SNES Porting

#8834 - beerthebear - Mon Jul 21, 2003 9:32 am

Well I was wondering what can a beginner do to learn how to port a SNES game. Just wondering what the process is, or if it is even possible.....

#8842 - tepples - Mon Jul 21, 2003 3:32 pm

beerthebear wrote:
Well I was wondering what can a beginner do to learn how to port a SNES game. Just wondering what the process is, or if it is even possible.....

Step 1: Get a lawyer and license the original graphics, sound, level design, etc. This will usually include a deal to publish the end result on the GBA. Not possible unless you're experienced on other platforms and only a "beginner" on the GBA.

Step 2: Get the source code. It'll probably be in 65c816 assembly language. The sound engine will be in SPC700 assembly language; instead of porting it, you'll want to rewrite it for the GBA's completely different architecture.

Step 3: Understand the Super NES and GBA deeply.

Step 4: Because the graphics of the Super NES and GBA are so similar, you can usually translate the graphics engine of one system line-by-line into that of the other, but you are going to have to remap status bars and other things that end up in the top and bottom 32 scanlines because the GBA's screen isn't very tall.
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