3 ms·

Huge props for diving in to a mostly-extinct platform! I've always wondered what the process was for game programmers on the early PCs and consoles. Are there

by namuol 12y ago

Huge props for diving in to a mostly-extinct platform! I've always wondered what the process was for game programmers on the early PCs and consoles. Are there any books or documentaries that go into depth about the development process of, for instance, Super Mario Bros? I've only seen stuff targeting "mainstream" audiences that glosses over anything technical.

gr3yh47 12y ago
NES development is alive and well in the Romhacking community, and although I don't know of any detailed commercial project documentation of the sort you asked about, there are tons of guides out there for NES development in general. It's pretty intense. You don't even have proper sprites. they had to work with 8x8 pixel tiles and piece them together to create images. There were also pretty severe pallet limitations. All in all it's very interesting.
rbl 12y ago
Let's see... "The birth of a Paradroid" - Paradroid development journal for the C64 by Andrew Braybrook: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap3/para_birth01.html http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap3/para_birth01.html "Mental Procreation" - Morpheus development journal for the C64 by Andrew Braybrook: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap23/mental1.html http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap23/mental1.html "It's behind you" - R-Type Arcade conversion for the ZX Spectrum, free e-book by Bob Pape: http://bizzley.com/ http://bizzley.com/ Free sample pages of the development journals for Prince of Persia and Karateka by Jordan Mechner: http://www.jordanmechner.com/backstage/journals/ http://www.jordanmechner.com/backstage/journals/ Prince of Persia code analysis after it got open-sourced in 2012; by Fabien Sanglard: http://fabiensanglard.net/prince_of_persia/ http://fabiensanglard.net/prince_of_persia/ Analysis of Pacman; long after the fact: http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html Any other? I'm sure there must be many nowadays...
- Narishma 12y ago
  I can't seem to find it right now but there is a development journal somewhere of the reverse-engineering and porting of Prince of Persia to the C64 that was done before the game was open-sourced. Edit: Here it is (in 10 parts): http://popc64.blogspot.fr/2011/10/part-one-why-hell-would-anyone-want-to.html http://popc64.blogspot.fr/2011/10/part-one-why-hell-would-an...
corysama 12y ago
Here's a fun video on how a modern 8-bit style game was ported to actually run on an NES. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx4xXhZMrU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx4xXhZMrU You would probably enjoy the book Racing the Beam http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/racing-beam http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/racing-beam For a collection of (mostly consumer-oriented) behind-the-scenes material, check out http://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/ http://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/ Or, if you want to get really technical http://handmadehero.org/ http://handmadehero.org/
rbl 12y ago
Ah, I almost forgot "The Game That Time Forgot" http://vimeo.com/97875387 http://vimeo.com/97875387

by namuol 12y ago

gr3yh47 12y ago

NES development is alive and well in the Romhacking community, and although I don't know of any detailed commercial project documentation of the sort you asked about, there are tons of guides out there for NES development in general. It's pretty intense. You don't even have proper sprites. they had to work with 8x8 pixel tiles and piece them together to create images. There were also pretty severe pallet limitations. All in all it's very interesting.

rbl 12y ago

Let's see... "The birth of a Paradroid" - Paradroid development journal for the C64 by Andrew Braybrook: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap3/para_birth01.html http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap3/para_birth01.html "Mental Procreation" - Morpheus development journal for the C64 by Andrew Braybrook: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap23/mental1.html http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap23/mental1.html "It's behind you" - R-Type Arcade conversion for the ZX Spectrum, free e-book by Bob Pape: http://bizzley.com/ http://bizzley.com/ Free sample pages of the development journals for Prince of Persia and Karateka by Jordan Mechner: http://www.jordanmechner.com/backstage/journals/ http://www.jordanmechner.com/backstage/journals/ Prince of Persia code analysis after it got open-sourced in 2012; by Fabien Sanglard: http://fabiensanglard.net/prince_of_persia/ http://fabiensanglard.net/prince_of_persia/ Analysis of Pacman; long after the fact: http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html Any other? I'm sure there must be many nowadays...

Narishma 12y ago
I can't seem to find it right now but there is a development journal somewhere of the reverse-engineering and porting of Prince of Persia to the C64 that was done before the game was open-sourced. Edit: Here it is (in 10 parts): http://popc64.blogspot.fr/2011/10/part-one-why-hell-would-anyone-want-to.html http://popc64.blogspot.fr/2011/10/part-one-why-hell-would-an...

corysama 12y ago

Here's a fun video on how a modern 8-bit style game was ported to actually run on an NES. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx4xXhZMrU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx4xXhZMrU You would probably enjoy the book Racing the Beam http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/racing-beam http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/racing-beam For a collection of (mostly consumer-oriented) behind-the-scenes material, check out http://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/ http://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/ Or, if you want to get really technical http://handmadehero.org/ http://handmadehero.org/

rbl 12y ago

Ah, I almost forgot "The Game That Time Forgot" http://vimeo.com/97875387 http://vimeo.com/97875387