SMS programming

[EmOneGarand]

Anybody know of any C compilers for Sega Master System programming? I've gotten into it through some great guides on ASM by Maxim on the SMSpower forums but theirs just not enough documentation on programming for beginners and most of the sources I've found are in C, gets frustrating when you want to learn how to program :/

[Bill Brasky]

What are the CV programmers using? Wouldn't that work?

[Bruce Tomlin]

I just program Z-80 stuff in assembly language. Of course I got most of my Z-80 skills back in the early '80s on the TRS-80, including disassembling a lot of existing code, so I had plenty of time to learn how to write it well.

 

I know there are some Z-80 C compilers out there, and at least one generates ugly code (the one that was used for the 128-in-1 Coleco USB cart made some particularly strange code). 8-bitters just aren't really good targets for C, except for the 6809.

 

One thing you might want to consider is trying the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive instead. For one thing, the hardware is a lot easier to find, and you can still get game copiers for it to let you load your own code. And the 68000 is great for C programming. Any knowledge you already have about programming the SMS is pretty much directly usable. (And you get that l33t Blast Processing too!)

 

Of course the best part is no bank-switching. The SMS only ever used a rather complicated mapper chip, which they really should have built into the console. This means that for >32K games, you have a choice between easy emulation and a life of wrecking Phantasy Star carts, or easy cartridge design with no emulator support.

[PkK]

Anybody know of any C compilers for Sega Master System programming? I've gotten into it through some great guides on ASM by Maxim on the SMSpower forums but theirs just not enough documentation on programming for beginners and most of the sources I've found are in C, gets frustrating when you want to learn how to program :/

 

There's someone on the SMSpower forums that uses z88dk, there's a thread about it.

 

Philipp

[PkK]

Of course the best part is no bank-switching. The SMS only ever used a rather complicated mapper chip, which they really should have built into the console. This means that for >32K games, you have a choice between easy emulation and a life of wrecking Phantasy Star carts, or easy cartridge design with no emulator support.

 

You can use up to 48K on the SMS without bank switching.

http://www.smspower.org/dev/docs/wiki/MemorySystem/MemoryMap

gives the ROM area as 0x0000-0xbfff

 

Philipp