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How would someone begin to work on something like this?

by gf263 8y ago

jchw 8y ago
My recommendation is to start with the CPU emulation. The CPU in the Gameboy has decent documentation and there are plenty of implementations to look at if you're stumped. (One I like particular is the core in Higan, a multisystem emulator written in C++.)
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  I remember seeing some people recommend starting with the NES rather than the Gameboy - any ideas on this?
  - notafraudster 8y ago
    Start with Chip-8 or Space Invaders, both of which are substantially easier than the NES and Gameboy.
    - voltagex_ 8y ago
      Took me a minute to realise you were talking about 8080 emulation - not Atari emulation: https://github.com/superzazu/invaders https://github.com/superzazu/invaders
      - jacobush 8y ago
        How did you reach that conclusion?
  - 0xcde4c3db 8y ago
    The main advantage to NES emulation is that it's a very mature area of study. High-quality documentation is much more readily available than for other systems, and there's more public discussion of the specific problems that NES emulator authors encounter (both primarily on nesdev.com [1] [2]). There's even a sort of tool-assisted speedrun of writing an accurate NES emulator, if you're into that sort of thing [3] [4]. [1] https://wiki.nesdev.com https://wiki.nesdev.com [2] https://forums.nesdev.com/viewforum.php?f=3 https://forums.nesdev.com/viewforum.php?f=3 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y71lli8MS8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y71lli8MS8s [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZWw745wPXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZWw745wPXY
  - hrydgard 8y ago
    Gameboy is actually a bit friendlier than the NES to get started with, because of the low number of mappers (programmable chips in the cartridges to do tricks with addressing, NES had much greater need for these than the GB due to the dearth of tile RAM). But Sega Master System is even friendlier, I hear.
corysama 8y ago
http://emulator101.com http://emulator101.com
stevekemp 8y ago
http://emulator101.com/ http://emulator101.com/ is a good resource, as is https://www.reddit.com/r/emudev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emudev/. Or you can just cheat, design a "toy" instruction set, and write something to process it. A couple of years ago I did that, in C/Perl: * https://github.com/skx/simple.vm https://github.com/skx/simple.vm Later I rewrote the interpreter/emulator in go: * https://github.com/skx/go.vm https://github.com/skx/go.vm The downside with my approach here is that I ignored graphcs, sound, & I/O. These days I'd recommend you write an emulator for the Chip-8 system..

How would someone begin to work on something like this?

by gf263 8y ago

How would someone begin to work on something like this?

jchw 8y ago

My recommendation is to start with the CPU emulation. The CPU in the Gameboy has decent documentation and there are plenty of implementations to look at if you're stumped. (One I like particular is the core in Higan, a multisystem emulator written in C++.)

voltagex_ 8y ago
I remember seeing some people recommend starting with the NES rather than the Gameboy - any ideas on this?
- notafraudster 8y ago
  Start with Chip-8 or Space Invaders, both of which are substantially easier than the NES and Gameboy.
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    Took me a minute to realise you were talking about 8080 emulation - not Atari emulation: https://github.com/superzazu/invaders https://github.com/superzazu/invaders
    - jacobush 8y ago
      How did you reach that conclusion?
- 0xcde4c3db 8y ago
  The main advantage to NES emulation is that it's a very mature area of study. High-quality documentation is much more readily available than for other systems, and there's more public discussion of the specific problems that NES emulator authors encounter (both primarily on nesdev.com [1] [2]). There's even a sort of tool-assisted speedrun of writing an accurate NES emulator, if you're into that sort of thing [3] [4]. [1] https://wiki.nesdev.com https://wiki.nesdev.com [2] https://forums.nesdev.com/viewforum.php?f=3 https://forums.nesdev.com/viewforum.php?f=3 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y71lli8MS8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y71lli8MS8s [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZWw745wPXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZWw745wPXY
- hrydgard 8y ago
  Gameboy is actually a bit friendlier than the NES to get started with, because of the low number of mappers (programmable chips in the cartridges to do tricks with addressing, NES had much greater need for these than the GB due to the dearth of tile RAM). But Sega Master System is even friendlier, I hear.

corysama 8y ago

http://emulator101.com http://emulator101.com

stevekemp 8y ago

http://emulator101.com/ http://emulator101.com/ is a good resource, as is https://www.reddit.com/r/emudev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emudev/. Or you can just cheat, design a "toy" instruction set, and write something to process it. A couple of years ago I did that, in C/Perl: * https://github.com/skx/simple.vm https://github.com/skx/simple.vm Later I rewrote the interpreter/emulator in go: * https://github.com/skx/go.vm https://github.com/skx/go.vm The downside with my approach here is that I ignored graphcs, sound, & I/O. These days I'd recommend you write an emulator for the Chip-8 system..