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Beginners > where to start?!

#174673 - ericd3742 - Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:07 am

I have been doing some looking around with the help of Google, and I have found barely anything that could help me. I am wanting to make a game for a GBA (or at least a game that works in the emulator), and i have found nowhere to start. Ive found plenty of instructions that require me to know things that i don't know, and they don't explain how to figure them out. So, i am now looking here for anyone who can help me start, or at least point me in the right direction. A step-by-step tutorial would be great, or even a program thats already made for me to create games. (by the way, i have already read the tutorial at "http://www.loirak.com/gameboy/gbatutor.php", and i started getting very confused around where is says "Explanation. Well it is easiest to start at the top. First we define some simple types that are common when programming with the GBA. u32 means unsigned (only can store positive numbers) 32 bit variable, and u16 would be a unsigned 16bit variable. These are used by the header file which is generated by pcx2gba. To insert a different picture (like one you made). All you need to do is make a picture in your favorite graphics program and then overwrite ppic.pcx (from the display.zip file) Then run from dos in the same directory as all the code, and graphics".)

#174675 - elwing - Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:27 am

hum, do you already know how to code?
if yes you would then find tonc as one of the best documentation for the GBA...
if you don't know how to code you'dd better learn C/C++ on your comupter and only after that try do do something with a GBA...

#174721 - KayH - Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:53 am

Quote:

make a game for a GBA

This is a very big goal ...

This split up to:
1. to be able to code in c or c++ (preferably) (you have already read our FAQ?)
2. make a simple game for the PC (e.g. http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article892.asp)
3. make a program for the GBA ("tonc" already mentioned)
4. make a simple game for the GBA (look around this forum)

Here you are right when you look for mainly point 3. You will also get some help for the other points, but it will be mostly a link to another good resource.
In any case you need a lot of time, let's say about one year. It depends on several preconditions.

Please look through the sticky posts and the beginner forum. You will surely get a lot of information about this kind of questions.

hth
Kay