Developing a game for NES and Game Boy possible?

[slobu]

A script interpreter is how LucasArts built Maniac Mansion. But a script interpreter is even slower than C. It'll work fine for turn-based games and simplistic action games, but I don't see how it'd work for anything like Recca.

Okay, maybe not a full fledged runtime engine for scripts. How about just data with attributes for movement patterns, hits needed to kill, etc..? I'm sure Dezaemon must do something similar.

[tepples]

In my professional career working on console games, the developer generally needs a parallel PC port for tool/editing/testing purposes, but the publisher will often push for multiple consoles in parallel.

So why does this parallel PC port so often end up not published? A game comes out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 but not PC, even though PC supports a lot of the same DirectX APIs as Xbox 360.

[psc]

Super Mario DX, Ghosts & Goblins (dual compatible), and Crystalis for the GBC were all based on NES games.
There used to be an internal Nintendo doc here: http://web.archive.org/web/201210082358 ... g/library/
which discussed the difficulties they had converting Super Mario Bros for the GBC.
I think the doc also compared the op code similarities and sound functions between the two systems.

Kid Icarus on the original GB may be similar to the NES game, but other than that I don't know of many original black & white GB games that were similar to NES counterparts.

[Shiru]

GB Kid Icarus (a sequel, in fact) is not more similar to the NES game than games like Duck Tales or Mega Man. I.e. it is similar in design and gameplay, reuses the same graphics, but has many differences, like less levels, different level maps, etc. Kid Icarus has the maze levels that aren't present in NES version.

[Drag]

As long as you're aware of what your subroutines are doing in terms of logic and calculations, you can reimplement them for any processor you want, without having to literally translate every single opcode from one CPU to the other. I don't think there's any way to escape the need to manually write the code for both platforms.

Keep in mind, the NES/GB were in a time before code portability was a concern for most people. (Hell, even now, trying to set up a cross-compiler is still excessively complicated. )

[rainwarrior]

So why does this parallel PC port so often end up not published? A game comes out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 but not PC, even though PC supports a lot of the same DirectX APIs as Xbox 360.

That's the publisher's call. A lot of publishers are relatively uninterested in PC releases because of the perceived piracy risk.

If the publisher is only interested in console release, and does not contract a PC port with the developer, the developer might create a PC version for their own internal needs anyway. However, because they aren't being paid for it, they never put in the work to make it publish-ready, and would never deliver it to the publisher for release.

If the console release is successful, the publisher may decide to have a delayed PC release once console sales of the title have dropped off (supposedly mitigating the impact of PC piracy on console sales). I think this scenario might be the most common one for multiplatform titles.

There are of course platform exclusivity deals made here and there, too, but if something came out on 360 and PS3 obviously that wasn't the case. This is kind of outside the scope of multiplatform development discussion.

Also, sometimes a multiplatform release gets aborted before all platforms are finished. A game I worked on had a PC and 360 release, but no PS3 release, even though we developed for all three platforms. The publisher cared most about the 360 release and it passed official testing first. The PC version wasn't subject to official scrutiny so it got very quickly wrapped up and released. The PS3 version just had to pass official testing but it never got submitted; the publisher decided to wait and see how the 360 sales went before they bothered, and apparently they were so disappointed with that they just dropped it altogether, even though the game was all but ready to ship on PS3.

At any rate, I have yet to be involved in any professional game development that didn't have a working PC version for at least internal use. This statement applies to TV consoles as well as handhelds and cell phones. (I'm sure there are developers/projects out there who don't do this but I haven't worked with them yet, and I think they're in the minority.)

[DRW]

I was hoping to be able to program a game for both consoles simultaneously (i.e. not just port it) with the platform-specific stuff of course written separately, but where the game logic is exactly the same, so that you really have one and the same game for NES and Game Boy and every change to the contents is reflected in both. But it seems like the Game Boy is really too different from the NES to implement this.

[slobu]

Couldn't you just use C with the system specific stuff parceled out?

Also, what's wrong with writing 2 different hardware specific game engines that both use mostly the same game data?

[tokumaru]

Couldn't you just use C with the system specific stuff parceled out?

The problem is that AFAIK there isn't a C compiler that targets both the 6502 and the GBZ80, so the peculiarities of each compiler would most likely prevent you from sharing the same source files.

Also, what's wrong with writing 2 different hardware specific game engines that both use mostly the same game data?

That seems like the way to go, but even then each CPU has a different way of optimally addressing data, so you might benefit from reorganizing the data into formats that best fit each CPU as opposed to simply .incbin'ing the raw data.

[mikejmoffitt]

Super Mario DX, Ghosts & Goblins (dual compatible), and Crystalis for the GBC were all based on NES games.
There used to be an internal Nintendo doc here: http://web.archive.org/web/201210082358 ... g/library/
which discussed the difficulties they had converting Super Mario Bros for the GBC.
I think the doc also compared the op code similarities and sound functions between the two systems.

Kid Icarus on the original GB may be similar to the NES game, but other than that I don't know of many original black & white GB games that were similar to NES counterparts.

Does any body have this doc? I'd really like to read it...

[Hamtaro126]

Super Mario DX, Ghosts & Goblins (dual compatible), and Crystalis for the GBC were all based on NES games.
There used to be an internal Nintendo doc here: http://web.archive.org/web/201210082358 ... g/library/
which discussed the difficulties they had converting Super Mario Bros for the GBC.
I think the doc also compared the op code similarities and sound functions between the two systems.

Kid Icarus on the original GB may be similar to the NES game, but other than that I don't know of many original black & white GB games that were similar to NES counterparts.

Does any body have this doc? I'd really like to read it...

I do have it, But someone might have a hard time unless the admins and moderators allow me,

Plus, Copyright is an issue here if I give it, Nintendo might sue me if I'm not careful, It is a leaked document after all.