4 ms·
A while ago I dabbled a bit in GBA homebrew development. I have to say that many of the modern open source handhelds aren't all that interesting from a homebrew
by ginko 5y ago
A while ago I dabbled a bit in GBA homebrew development. I have to say that many of the modern open source handhelds aren't all that interesting from a homebrew development point of view either.
Devices like the GBA, the SNES etc. have specialized sprite and tile map co-processors that are an interesting challenge to use, especially due to the very limited CPU and memory. Effects like Mode 7 perspective requires you to catch a interrupt to change the affine transform of the tile map at every scanline. That's fun!
Many of the modern devices are just a fast CPU and an RGB framebuffer.
- mrmattyboy 5y agoI completely agree.. it's really interesting to have the limitation and have to work around them. Personally, I feel I can make a nice of-the-era game on an old console like the gameboy and feel accomplished. Anything simplistic, or rather, games made with a low artistic skill (at least that I try to make) on newer hardware just feels cheap/tacky to me. Not sure if I'm getting across what I mean, but having 8x8 sprites and limited colour palette means I don't have _as_ much to worry about, so trying to design a semi-alright looking player sprite doesn't take much effort (not that some people don't put in a lot of time and do incredible things with it)