#30532 - pxlwhr - Wed Dec 01, 2004 9:30 pm
hi all I just found this place thought I would say hi and post a quick question.
I'm obviously a mac user I dont own a PC and really dont intend on grabbing one to hack about on for GBA purposes, however with OSX being UNIX under all that shinyness I was wondering if anybody is developing on OSX for GBA or trying to dev for the DS in MAC land.
any tips would be great.
cheers
drew
#30538 - pxlwhr - Wed Dec 01, 2004 10:46 pm
thanks for that I'll start reading up.
#30591 - oblivi0n - Thu Dec 02, 2004 3:33 pm
I have an iBook running OS X 10.3 that I just started using to develop a new GBA game and like the other thread mentions, I installed GBASDK. Just note that if you have Xcode installed, the project files won't work with that (at least not automatically or after the short period of tinkering that I tried). What you might want to take note of is that gcc that comes w/ Mac OS X can't compile ARM/THUMB code, but the one in the GBASDK can. I believe the files get put in /usr/local/gbasdk with the version of gcc that you will need in bin of that directory (you will be able to get to that directory using the Terminal...it doesn't show up in the Finder). To compile my games, I just use a make file that points to gcc that came with gbasdk.
Now, the coding part works great on my Mac, but what I've recently run into trouble with is creating resources (maps and sprites) for my game. There are many tools to do this, but most are for Windows. I have found one Java map editor (TileMax) that I got to run, but I'm having problems getting it to export data correctly. Also, the only tool (pcx2sprite) that I have found that exports sprites in a format that I like runs under windows. Luckily for me tho, I have a windows box too. I think what I will end up doing is using windows for content creation, yet keep an SSH link to my iBook to compile the game. Also, from what I've read, the emulators for Windows are much better and allow for better debugging, I have yet to try one but I probably will soon.
My suggestion, if you are dead set on making a GBA game and don't mine the extra work...write your own tools. That or you might need to get a Windows box or at least VirtualPC and a copy of Windows for you Mac.
Of course, I could always be greatly mistaken about this and there really are great tools for the Mac, I just haven't found them yet. If anyone knows of any, please let me know :)
Also, if anyone has the source to pcx2sprite (or a tool that works just like this), I'd be willing to port it to OS X :)
#30592 - pxlwhr - Thu Dec 02, 2004 3:43 pm
thanks for your post oblivion, there is obviously alot to read about and learn, I dont even know what gcc is and that is throwing me for a loop that and any of the other apps you mentioned are all but new to me.
it looks like it can be done on a mac if I really wanted to go about it but the windows options seem much more reliable and more flushed out as virtual boy advance is apparently really good for debugging.
its a toss up anyway. its something I was thinking about tinkering with especially now that the DS is out its just so much more of a machine, I'm not sure if I could make anything at all.. its worth a shot just to mess around tho.
thanks for the tips and stuff I'll defenitly benefit from your post.
#30593 - oblivi0n - Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:19 pm
Yea don't worry about being swamped at first, I catch on to things pretty quickly, yet I am still stuck on some things. The only reason I know about some of the tools is because for the past few days I have been downloading them and trying them out. Oh and gcc is just a command line compiler that is used heavily on unix/linux systems. It is also the compiler used by Xcode.
I would suggest to keep trying things out and reading whatever you can. Even if you don't ever accomplish anything you will probably walk away a better programmer with more knowledge of low level coding.