Hi,

    My name is Bill and my son just got his first GBA. I have been
doing some programming both in C and some game programming in
DarkBasic, but I am not a programmer by any means.

    I just wondered if GB proramming was a viable hobby. I see that
some of the tools have not really had much in the way of recent
development, it seems that Visual HAM may be on the back shelf, and
the advent of the DS may even put the whole GBA world in limbo.

    I sent off for the flash adapter kit and I downloaded some tools
and have been playing around with the emulators, but I don't want to
get too far into another field without knowing what landmines I might
find.

    Any conversation on the issue appreciated.

i wouldn't mind a copy of that either...

-Brett


On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:45:11 -0000, alessandro090c07bd
<mullah@...> wrote:
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm doing a research work on the GBA platform for an Entertainment
> Hardware course.
>
> I've found plenty of informations for the GBA memory maps, assembly
> opcodes, etc. Unfortunately I cannot find a schematic for the
> internals of the GBA anywhere, and I think that it should be a core
> part of my report.
>
> Do you know where I could find it? Or if anyone has got it, could you
> please mail it to me?
>
> Thanks a lot.
> Alessandro
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Hi everyone,

I'm doing a research work on the GBA platform for an Entertainment
Hardware course.

I've found plenty of informations for the GBA memory maps, assembly
opcodes, etc. Unfortunately I cannot find a schematic for the
internals of the GBA anywhere, and I think that it should be a core
part of my report.

Do you know where I could find it? Or if anyone has got it, could you
please mail it to me?

Thanks a lot.
Alessandro

Hi folks,

I hope you'll forgive the somewhat spammy email, but I just thought I
should write to let you know that the Apex Audio System has been updated.

The main changes are:

+ Support for 16 channels, including support for 16 channel MODs.
+ Volume boosted mixing modes (which you really need with large numbers
of channels).
+ Improved performance.
+ Various bug fixes and scaleability improvements.

You can download it (for free!) here:

http://www.apex-designs.net/tools_aas.html

Cheers,
James.
--
James Daniels, Apex Designs
http://www.apex-designs.net

Hi, all!. I may be new to this group and to development of S/W for
the Game Boy platform, But I am not new to writing code for micros.
My experience extends through intel, motorola and microchip
processors, mostly assembly language, but I can write in C if needed.

My question pertains to the resident code in the GB processor.  I
understand that it tests the data in the cart rom for appropriate
entries and the like, but so far in my reading I have not discovered
whether there are subroutine calls that can be made to the resident
rom to do keyboard and display activity.  Something like DOS BIOS
calls to read the keyboard and put characters on the screen.  Is
there such S/W in the rom, or do you guys have to write that stuff
yourselves?  I none exists, do any of you have "canned" routines that
can be included in any source code I develop.  BTW, I'm not a game
developer, I want to design specialized S/W and H/W for the GB
platform, more like the GBDSO (digital sampling oscilloscope).  Oh,
did I mention that I also design digital and analog H/W?

Feel free to contact me off line, too.
Thanks in advance.

Bill

Hello

Question, has anybody used Noctural Ent's Catapult ROM builder? I
dl'ed the free version, which seems kinda fine, say it contains
macros and stuff to accelerate and simplificate GBA dev, but it's
got it's own... style, to make things, so I was wondering, is it
worth learning how to use? I know everything you learn helps you at
some point, you never know too much, but should I better stick to C
in order to perfect my skills? or it is a really good tool which'll
help me take advantage of GBA HW at the low level it supposedly has?

Any comments about this or other better tools or approaches to GBA
Dev will be more than appreciated

K'

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Palamon 3 [mailto:palamon_3@...]
<snip>

The Y sorting is good if your game uses a 2D field.  If it's simply a
platformer, such as Mario, you can get away with sorting just the axis
you're primarily moving along.  If you're doing an overhead game, such as
most sports games, where movement along both axes are common *and* you are
likely to want to either check for all sprites close to a boundary or in a
straight line along either axis (laser fire, for instance), then sometimes
the second axis can come in handy.

Something to note when checking an axis list in either direction is that you
need to check all sprites out to the maximum width of the largest sprite.


Hope that helps.


Jesse

That's a really good idea, (I'm still wondering how
come I didn't come up with it on my own :)  )


But after some thought, I'm just wondering how to
implement both sorted lists into the collision
function.

I mean, my guess is that first you would check the x
sorted list (up one and down one) to see if there is
any overlaping, going further through the list if
there are sprites with the same x coordinate, then
check to see if the x overlap sprites are also
overlaping on the y coordinate too.

But from that, I don't see where using a sorted y
coordinate would make it any faster, expecially in
games like mario where many sprites would be on the
exact same horizontal plane as mario.

I just want to make sure I am understanding your idea
correctly.

Thanks for the help!



--- Jesse McClusky <thought@...> wrote:

>
> Another way to do it is to have all of your sprites
> in X-sorted and Y-sorted
> linked lists.  The list only changes when one sprite
> moves past another one,
> or when you add/remove a sprite, and you only have
> to change a couple of
> pointers when that happens.  But the big benefit it
> gives you is that you
> know exactly what the closest sprite in the X and Y
> direction is, so you
> only have to look at the closest couple of sprites
> in each direction, and
> only when a sprite is moving.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Phantasm4489
> [mailto:phantasm4489@...]
> > Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 6:15 AM
> > To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: RE: [gbadev] Character collision systems
> >
> >
> >
> > You could use the two techniques you describe at
> the same time, by having
> > a
> > collision map which is of a lower resolution than
> the spite movement.
> >
> >
> >
> > so have a collision map which is say on eight
> pixel boundaries and each
> > time
> > an object moves you write the object number into
> the collision map at the
> > relevant place.
> >
> > Then you will know which sprites you need to check
> rather than looping
> > through all of them.
> >
> >
> >
> > Depending on the size of the collision you choose,
> you may also have to
> > consider that there could be more than 1 object in
> any location.
> >
> >   _____
> >
> > From: Palamon 3 [mailto:palamon_3@...]
> > Sent: 03 October 2004 04:37
> > To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [gbadev] Character collision systems
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've been trying to figure out a good way to
> detect if
> > two objects touch each other in an action game
> like
> > mario brothers.
> >
> > The first game I am making, I wanted to take the
> easy
> > road so I have the sprite characters simply move
> in 8
> > pixel increments, so they always stop aligned with
> the
> > background tiles, just like in the Pokemon games.
> I
> > keep track of the different sprite characters
> through
> > creating a big 2d array about the size of the
> > background array, and I simply keep track of where
> the
> > different sprite characters are by putting markers
> on
> > the game map based on their xy coordinates so is
> is
> > easy to see if they collide with anything by
> simply
> > checking the xy coordinates in the map array that
> is
> > right next to the other sprite character.
> >
> > It's an easy and quick way to keep track of the
> > different locations and see if the different
> sprite
> > characters collide with each other, etc.
> >
> > However this only works for games that have only a
> few
> > set spots where the sprite characters can be, not
> > games like mario and other action games where your
> > character can move pixel by pixel. I'm afraid the
> map
> > array becomes too big to be the best option for
> the
> > job, plus you have to fill up every pixel of the
> map
> > array that the sprite takes up, which will slow it
> > down.
> >
> > The only other option I can think of is to scroll
> > through a list of all the sprites on screen and
> check
> > their xy coordinates and the sprite width/height
> to
> > see if it overlaps the sprite character you are
> > checking to see if those sprites collide or not.
> I'm
> > hesitant to do this because I'm afraid it will be
> too
> > slow when the sprite list is a little large since
> it
> > has to run though all the sprite characters and
> their
> > positions every time something moves.
> >
> >
> > I was wondering what programming techniques you
> all use.
>
>
>
>
>




__________________________________
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http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

Another way to do it is to have all of your sprites in X-sorted and Y-sorted
linked lists.  The list only changes when one sprite moves past another one,
or when you add/remove a sprite, and you only have to change a couple of
pointers when that happens.  But the big benefit it gives you is that you
know exactly what the closest sprite in the X and Y direction is, so you
only have to look at the closest couple of sprites in each direction, and
only when a sprite is moving.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phantasm4489 [mailto:phantasm4489@...]
> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 6:15 AM
> To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [gbadev] Character collision systems
>
>
>
> You could use the two techniques you describe at the same time, by having
> a
> collision map which is of a lower resolution than the spite movement.
>
>
>
> so have a collision map which is say on eight pixel boundaries and each
> time
> an object moves you write the object number into the collision map at the
> relevant place.
>
> Then you will know which sprites you need to check rather than looping
> through all of them.
>
>
>
> Depending on the size of the collision you choose, you may also have to
> consider that there could be more than 1 object in any location.
>
>   _____
>
> From: Palamon 3 [mailto:palamon_3@...]
> Sent: 03 October 2004 04:37
> To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [gbadev] Character collision systems
>
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I've been trying to figure out a good way to detect if
> two objects touch each other in an action game like
> mario brothers.
>
> The first game I am making, I wanted to take the easy
> road so I have the sprite characters simply move in 8
> pixel increments, so they always stop aligned with the
> background tiles, just like in the Pokemon games. I
> keep track of the different sprite characters through
> creating a big 2d array about the size of the
> background array, and I simply keep track of where the
> different sprite characters are by putting markers on
> the game map based on their xy coordinates so is is
> easy to see if they collide with anything by simply
> checking the xy coordinates in the map array that is
> right next to the other sprite character.
>
> It's an easy and quick way to keep track of the
> different locations and see if the different sprite
> characters collide with each other, etc.
>
> However this only works for games that have only a few
> set spots where the sprite characters can be, not
> games like mario and other action games where your
> character can move pixel by pixel. I'm afraid the map
> array becomes too big to be the best option for the
> job, plus you have to fill up every pixel of the map
> array that the sprite takes up, which will slow it
> down.
>
> The only other option I can think of is to scroll
> through a list of all the sprites on screen and check
> their xy coordinates and the sprite width/height to
> see if it overlaps the sprite character you are
> checking to see if those sprites collide or not. I'm
> hesitant to do this because I'm afraid it will be too
> slow when the sprite list is a little large since it
> has to run though all the sprite characters and their
> positions every time something moves.
>
>
> I was wondering what programming techniques you all use.

You could use the two techniques you describe at the same time, by having a
collision map which is of a lower resolution than the spite movement.



so have a collision map which is say on eight pixel boundaries and each time
an object moves you write the object number into the collision map at the
relevant place.

Then you will know which sprites you need to check rather than looping
through all of them.



Depending on the size of the collision you choose, you may also have to
consider that there could be more than 1 object in any location.

   _____

From: Palamon 3 [mailto:palamon_3@...]
Sent: 03 October 2004 04:37
To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [gbadev] Character collision systems




Hi,

I've been trying to figure out a good way to detect if
two objects touch each other in an action game like
mario brothers.

The first game I am making, I wanted to take the easy
road so I have the sprite characters simply move in 8
pixel increments, so they always stop aligned with the
background tiles, just like in the Pokemon games. I
keep track of the different sprite characters through
creating a big 2d array about the size of the
background array, and I simply keep track of where the
different sprite characters are by putting markers on
the game map based on their xy coordinates so is is
easy to see if they collide with anything by simply
checking the xy coordinates in the map array that is
right next to the other sprite character.

It's an easy and quick way to keep track of the
different locations and see if the different sprite
characters collide with each other, etc.

However this only works for games that have only a few
set spots where the sprite characters can be, not
games like mario and other action games where your
character can move pixel by pixel. I'm afraid the map
array becomes too big to be the best option for the
job, plus you have to fill up every pixel of the map
array that the sprite takes up, which will slow it
down.

The only other option I can think of is to scroll
through a list of all the sprites on screen and check
their xy coordinates and the sprite width/height to
see if it overlaps the sprite character you are
checking to see if those sprites collide or not. I'm
hesitant to do this because I'm afraid it will be too
slow when the sprite list is a little large since it
has to run though all the sprite characters and their
positions every time something moves.


I was wondering what programming techniques you all use.

__________________________________________________
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Hi,

I've been trying to figure out a good way to detect if
two objects touch each other in an action game like
mario brothers.

The first game I am making, I wanted to take the easy
road so I have the sprite characters simply move in 8
pixel increments, so they always stop aligned with the
background tiles, just like in the Pokemon games. I
keep track of the different sprite characters through
creating a big 2d array about the size of the
background array, and I simply keep track of where the
different sprite characters are by putting markers on
the game map based on their xy coordinates so is is
easy to see if they collide with anything by simply
checking the xy coordinates in the map array that is
right next to the other sprite character.

It's an easy and quick way to keep track of the
different locations and see if the different sprite
characters collide with each other, etc.

However this only works for games that have only a few
set spots where the sprite characters can be, not
games like mario and other action games where your
character can move pixel by pixel. I'm afraid the map
array becomes too big to be the best option for the
job, plus you have to fill up every pixel of the map
array that the sprite takes up, which will slow it
down.

The only other option I can think of is to scroll
through a list of all the sprites on screen and check
their xy coordinates and the sprite width/height to
see if it overlaps the sprite character you are
checking to see if those sprites collide or not. I'm
hesitant to do this because I'm afraid it will be too
slow when the sprite list is a little large since it
has to run though all the sprite characters and their
positions every time something moves.


I was wondering what programming techniques you all use.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Its been a long while since I was involved with GBa but I know the
principals of these.

Since you said you used both soundchannels, well those 2 are both used for
stereosounds, one channel for each ear. The trick is to write software which
combines all the sounds so it can fit into one stream, wich is basically
taking the strings of sounddata and adding each variable of each soundsample
in their own seperate new string and then devide it by the number of strings
used.

Background music is usually given in the MOD form, which is taking small
soundsamples and then adapted to new tones through the program and thus
making the music, basically like midi only the samples are not govorned by
the soundchip (or samples in the program itself) but by the samples in the
MOD file.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Palamon 3" <palamon_3@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 5:57 AM
Subject: [gbadev] Background Music and Sound effects


>
> I've been trying to learn how to incorporate music and
> sound effects into my game.
>
> I've figured out how to play Direct Sounds thanks to
> various websites and all and I've gotten it to work to
> the level that I need it to be for sound effects.
>
> I've also learned how to incorporate Sounds 1-4 using
> software and tutorials from boyscout.
>
> However I haven't had much luck playing both at the
> same time. When I do, the direct sound makes a
> crackling sound or a brief pause of silence.
>
> I've gotten two direct sounds to play at the same time
> using the two direct sound channels and as much as I
> would love to make one of those channels be just for
> background music, the background music file is just
> too big so unless there is a trick, my BG music will
> just have to be composed with boyscout.
>
> So how do you all nicely incorporate sound effects and
> background music into your projects?
>
> I don't know any assembly so I would really appreciate
> it if you all gave answers for C/C++
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out!
> http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

I've been trying to learn how to incorporate music and
sound effects into my game.

I've figured out how to play Direct Sounds thanks to
various websites and all and I've gotten it to work to
the level that I need it to be for sound effects.

I've also learned how to incorporate Sounds 1-4 using
software and tutorials from boyscout.

However I haven't had much luck playing both at the
same time. When I do, the direct sound makes a
crackling sound or a brief pause of silence.

I've gotten two direct sounds to play at the same time
using the two direct sound channels and as much as I
would love to make one of those channels be just for
background music, the background music file is just
too big so unless there is a trick, my BG music will
just have to be composed with boyscout.

So how do you all nicely incorporate sound effects and
background music into your projects?

I don't know any assembly so I would really appreciate
it if you all gave answers for C/C++

Thanks



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

I am trying to connect my GBA to a Magellan 310 GPS, similar to
gpsboy, but multi map. The GPS outputs @ 2400baud. Based on what I
have been able to find out I am going to have to monitor the serial in
pin and decode the bitstream myself. Does anyone know where I can get
information on how to monitor the serial in pin ?

Mark.

Does anybody have any hints on programming the gba wireless adapter.
What is the serial protocol used ?
What is the API ?

Just wanted to drop gbadev a line to let you all know that I've
started a new Yahoo group for developing for the new Aruze AP-3, a
Linux-based arcade platform. The URL to subscribe is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ap3dev/

In case anyone is wondering who the hell I am, I did some work on
Gameboy Color dev a long long time ago as luvcraft, and started the
ngpcdev Yahoo group, which I later handed off to Jeff.

I've been looking forward to a standard, Linux-based "MVS-style"
arcade system for a long time now, and hopefully with our combined
efforts we can create some really awesome software and finally
convince people that maybe Linux can do games after all. :)X

the following link...

http://bmf.wz.cz/index.php?search=GB

list few bitmap fonts that were used in several Gameboy Advance
games/demos/progs.
njoy!

Just a short post to announce that the largest Nintendo related game save
sharing community N-Scene is back in business!!!

It's been a very difficult past few weeks for our N-Scene team after Yahoo!
mysteriously deleted our group. But I am glad to say we're now back...
The group is however in a very restricted form and it will be a while yet before
things will be how they were! I am very confident though that once things get
rolling again we can continue redefining the image and way communities are
managed here at Yahoo! groups.

Over the coming weeks I will be re-invite our old members if they haven't yet
joined and thanks to our many affiliated sites should be back busting up those
member counts.

Any questions,.. feel free to email me direct at ngcfs@... and don't
forget to check the site out at http://www.gci.net.tc/
Laters, Dave (N-Scene Moderator)

--- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, Josh DeBonis <joshdebonis@y...> wrote:
> I'm trying to mix 2 sound samples on the GBA.  When I
> play them individually, they sound great. When I mix
> them together, a sound is produced, but it's not
> pretty.  I am simply adding the values of each sample
> together (it is a sample of the amplitude). I have
> tried scaling down the amplitudes before I add them,
> to prevent clipping, and this does not prevent the
> problem. Do I have to do any strange adding because of
> twos complement?  Anyone know what I might be missing?
>
> Thanks,
> Joshua

For example, at
http://www.work.de/nocash/gbatek.htm#soundchannelaandbdmasound you
can find that GBA's Direct Sound channels can reproduce sound of
signed 8bit data. therefore, if your input digitized sounds are 8b
signed, you needn't adjust it in any way.
mixing of 2 channels means:
1) doing average out of each input samples (in case of 2 channels it
really is: (sampleA+sampleB)/2)
2) clipping the result value to range of signed 8 bits ie. -
128...127.

btw. isn't the problem anywhere else? are you sure that, 4xmpl the
DMA suffices to the mixing speed, etc?
good day

Hi,
Im a graphic artist looking to hopefully teamup with somebody here to
perhaps work on a couple homebrew Ereader card games. Not only can I
do the artwork for the cards, and take them to get professionally
printed and cut, but I can also do sprite work. I'm hoping someone
else is out there with similar ideas. If your interested in
previewing my art, you can view my webpage(in sig below), and if your
interested in my previous sprite work, I can go through some backup
cds to see what I still have lying around. I think it would be a
unique summer project.

Regards,
Jesse
http://www.ayun.net/nomadik/

> Hello all I am new to the group and a novice gameboy developer. All
> the pages that I read say that you should download and install the
> gbdevkit. I have done that, but just looking at the zip file it seems
> just to be lcc. I already have lcc on my system do in need to install
> it again in the gbdevkit. Is there some file or zip that has just the
> gameboy specific files and tutorials that I need?

   It's gcc, and it's compiled for ARM support, I don't think your lcc is
compiled for cross development with ARM CPU support. (I forget the details
about lcc, but I'm suspicious it's x86 only)

   Also I think the build process of such gcc version was not as smooth, as
the Intel x86 and other common branches of gcc builds, and some patching
and editing was needed. (but I did never build it by myself, so I can be
wrong with those 3.x newer versions)

   I'm not aware of any GBA specific package as an add-on to standart ARM
gcc.

   On the other hand I had very positive experience with devkitadvance. If
you are at least a bit familiar with command line development and don't
mind gnu make, etc..., you will probably like the whole package too.
   I just recently tried to develop for PalmOS and Nokia S60 Symbian phones,
and their packages are lot less friendly to free developers, actually the
PalmOS doesn't support gcc at all for OS6.0+ (i.e. full ARM applications),
only the 5.0 is supported, and there you can make either M68K application
(which runs emulated on newer PalmOS devices) or use special protocol to
detect ARM processor inside M68K application and run the ARM code stored
as data by special interface. I was really put down by all the hassle.
   The Nokia S60 support is a bit better in some way. There's once again gcc
inside (builded upon some old 2.9.1 or so), it is used for "for device"
compilation and it's free and usable out of box. You can't build the newer
gcc with their ARM+SymbianOS support easily, this branch is not actually
supported by gcc development crew, so you are stuck to that 2.9. (unless
you are familiar with gcc code, and you can fix it by yourself)
   But still the debug build for "phone emulator" (it's simulator in fact)
is done by either Metrowerks Codewarrior or MS Visual C++, because the
simulator is running x86 binaries, simulating only entry points to
SymbianOS API.

   That's my recent experience with different embedded platforms, It may be
wrong at point or two, feel free to correct me, if you know more.
   But honestly I find the gbadevkit afterwards as very smooth and pleasant
experience to work with, if you want everything free and legal. (sort of,
beucase Nintendo never liked free developers)
   (if you don't mind to buy/get MS Visual Studio, the Nokia Symbian SDK
looks worth of try, PalmOS is worst, and unless you are really determined
to develop for it (or you need only M68K code, which will work w/o problem
for smaller applications, where you don't need CPU power)), don't try it
IMHO, it's not good for hobby developing)

   As stated above, it's personal experience, and I may be overlooking some
facts, and doing some stupid mistakes, resulting into poor experience.

   Err, the conclusion for you:
- don't bother, get devkitadv + some sources from free projects, and put
it on disc as different directory, don't mess with other gcc/lcc
installations, you will run sooner or later into problems not know by
others in community, and your non standard setup will make it hard to help
you in such case.

                    PED - Peter Helcmanovsky - wishing to have 48h days
               Braniskova 7 Kosice 04001 Slovakia / phone +420 721308701
     (_               -- actually in Brno, so don't look after me --
    "~/\~"      -=- deRATized RAT -=-  Being beyond Yer imagination  -=-
    ,_oo_,      7 GODS demo group WWW pages: http://7gods.org
      `'

Hello all I am new to the group and a novice gameboy developer. All
the pages that I read say that you should download and install the
gbdevkit. I have done that, but just looking at the zip file it seems
just to be lcc. I already have lcc on my system do in need to install
it again in the gbdevkit. Is there some file or zip that has just the
gameboy specific files and tutorials that I need?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ulrich Hecht [mailto:uli@...]
> >
> > "The big thing that I discovered after posting that version of the
> > code is that the multiboot file you're encrypting must be a multiple
> > of 8 words long or the encryption doesn't work! You can just pad
> > them with a hex editor (must be done PRE-ENCRYPTION!) or add the
> > logic into your version of the encryption tool."
>
> Are we talking 16-bit or 32-bit words here?

32bit words - this is nothing to do with the SMS stick itself but rather
part of the GBA multiboot protocol. I'm surprised the stick loader doesn't
take care of this automatically but there you go. You might also care to
note that the image must be a minimum of 448 bytes (not including the
header) but I don't think that's likely to be a problem :)

Dave

Hi!

On Wednesday 26 May 2004 14:31, tcharlier wrote:
> I get a working compiled version of Libstick from another GBA addict
> (sorry I do not know if I can publish his name). His version works
> fine with 8Mb sticks.

Hey, that's really good to hear. I hardly get any feedback on this
stuff, positive or negative.

> His advice is :
>
> "The big thing that I discovered after posting that version of the
> code is that the multiboot file you're encrypting must be a multiple
> of 8 words long or the encryption doesn't work! You can just pad
> them with a hex editor (must be done PRE-ENCRYPTION!) or add the
> logic into your version of the encryption tool."

Are we talking 16-bit or 32-bit words here?

CU
Uli

>
> The thing with using someone elses library is that you don't know
> how it REALLY works, only its interface. Later on down the road when
> making your game, you're going to want to do something difficult
> with the hardware, and it's going to be hard to do it because of the
> additional layer of abstraction.

If you want to solve the issue of the source code availability, you
can checkout The Sgade ( http://www.suddenpresence.com/sgade/ ), an
open-source GBA general-purpose library. At least, if you want to know
how it works, you can go and read the source. It's probably not as
optimized as HAM, but to start creating a few programs, it's a very
good start.

Best regards,

mathieu

Hi,

you do not need the source code for all your game components to pass the
Nintendo lot check. One of my registered members of HAMlib submitted and
passed Nintendo lot check for a commercial GBA game. Commercial developers
usually buy the source code version of HAMlib in order to get full control
over eventual bug fixes / additions that need to be made to the library.

Best
Emanuel
http://www.ngine.de


-----Original Message-----
From: Win Schutten [mailto:win.schutten@...]
Sent: Freitag, 28. Mai 2004 20:27
To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [gbadev] HAM or not to HAM?

If you are like some who plan to get the game released you do have to have
all the sourcecode to get it through Nintendo I have heard. Ham is great but
I don't know if they add the sourcecode for all their functions. Then again
I could be a n00b who fell for an urban myth cuz I have no idea if they
actually require all the sourcecode :).

> I have been trying to decide weather I want to write my new game
> using HAM, I hate the forced Splash Screen, but it has a fairly
> unsubstancial registration fee, or if I should write my game by
> hand.  Has anyone here used HAM/HEL?  And if so were you satisfied,
> disappointed by your experience?  Please let me know.  Thanks!







Yahoo! Groups Links

--- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, "H. Dean Hunter" <deanhhunter@y...>
wrote:

I have used HAM for a short while to get me introduced to the
system. It is a good library but I eventually moved away from it to
see what it was doing on the inside.

The thing with using someone elses library is that you don't know
how it REALLY works, only its interface. Later on down the road when
making your game, you're going to want to do something difficult
with the hardware, and it's going to be hard to do it because of the
additional layer of abstraction.

Bottom line is this, if your game is really going to use the
hardware to its fullest, then you need to make your own library and
use it. Otherwise, HAM should suit your needs.

> I have been trying to decide weather I want to write my new game
> using HAM, I hate the forced Splash Screen, but it has a fairly
> unsubstancial registration fee, or if I should write my game by
> hand.  Has anyone here used HAM/HEL?  And if so were you
satisfied,
> disappointed by your experience?  Please let me know.  Thanks!

> If you are like some who plan to get the game released you do
> have to have all the sourcecode to get it through Nintendo I
> have heard.

you heard wrong...

If you are like some who plan to get the game released you do have to have
all the sourcecode to get it through Nintendo I have heard. Ham is great but
I don't know if they add the sourcecode for all their functions. Then again
I could be a n00b who fell for an urban myth cuz I have no idea if they
actually require all the sourcecode :).

> I have been trying to decide weather I want to write my new game
> using HAM, I hate the forced Splash Screen, but it has a fairly
> unsubstancial registration fee, or if I should write my game by
> hand.  Has anyone here used HAM/HEL?  And if so were you satisfied,
> disappointed by your experience?  Please let me know.  Thanks!

I have been trying to decide weather I want to write my new game
using HAM, I hate the forced Splash Screen, but it has a fairly
unsubstancial registration fee, or if I should write my game by
hand.  Has anyone here used HAM/HEL?  And if so were you satisfied,
disappointed by your experience?  Please let me know.  Thanks!