New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

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jsburke
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New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by jsburke »

Hi all,

I wanted to introduce myself and try to get a sense of the space here. I tried joining these boards for a while but only today was able to join. I'm grateful to be here now, so thanks to all those who do the hard work.

My name is John, I do security research mainly, sometimes some OS and embedded work, but I really like NES and SNES games as a kid. I started cutting into making NES games a few years back using the wiki, but stalled out when I couldn't join here. I had some good success like getting text pushed to screen, flicking colors about, and a few other things. All very manual processes, but fun to see the results. Hoping to make something fun soon.

I saw there was a competition that happens each year, and I think it would be a good goal to have something for that as a near term goal. I don't know my way around here, so where can I learn more? I was also curious about tools for making NES game art on Linux. I can see a pretty straitforward path on how to make one on my own if it doesn't exist or isn't very good, but I thought I might ask

Hope to get to know the group here soon enough

Happy Friday!
-John
unregistered
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by unregistered »

Hi jsburke, welcome to nesdev membership! 😀

Ummm… Linux graphics… there’s this page by shiru that has his NESst (NES screen tool):

http://shiru.untergrund.net/software.shtml


That is a Windows tool, but the other 2 current projects on that page list that their source can be compiled for Linux… however, shiru doesn’t mention Linux for his NESst; so, am unsure about NESst working on Linux. Why it wouldn’t work on Linux is beyond me; shiru clearly knows his programming. :)

My sister uses/used NESst, on Windows, to create all the graphics for our game; it’s a great tool! 👍
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jeffythedragonslayer
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by jeffythedragonslayer »

Welcome~
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Dwedit
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by Dwedit »

I hope the registration questions (for deterring bot spam accounts) aren't too hard.

I've been on highly technical forums where they want you to solve a calculus problem, then convert your answer to Base-64.
Here come the fortune cookies! Here come the fortune cookies! They're wearing paper hats!
calima
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by calima »

Start with the nesdoug tutorials. They are modern and target C, the old nerdy nights is both archaic and asm.

Linux art, I use mtpaint/gimp and then my conversion tools at github.com/clbr/nes.
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by Garth »

calima wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:09 pm Start with the nesdoug tutorials. They are modern and target C. The old nerdy nights is both archaic and asm. [Comma splice fixed.]
Note that assembly language can be structured and clear. See viewtopic.php?p=277069#p277069 .
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by Oziphantom »

Linux graphics tools
GraphX2 has a linux distro http://grafx2.chez.com/index.php?static3/downloads its another "next Deluxe Paint" tool, very good for pixel art. GIMP is poor but better than nothing. Running stuff in WINE probably the other bet most older tools that use Win32 should be fine these days in WINE.
Aesprite and Libsprite has linux support ( or at least Arch for Aesprite ) https://libresprite.github.io/#!/downloads
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Hamtaro126
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by Hamtaro126 »

Welcome to the forums!!!

Hope you enjoy it here, Please be cozy... :wink:
AKA SmilyMZX/AtariHacker.
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jsburke
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by jsburke »

Dwedit wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 7:15 pm I hope the registration questions (for deterring bot spam accounts) aren't too hard.

I've been on highly technical forums where they want you to solve a calculus problem, then convert your answer to Base-64.
The filter was super simple, no issues at all.
unregistered wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 4:31 pm That is a Windows tool, but the other 2 current projects on that page list that their source can be compiled for Linux… however, shiru doesn’t mention Linux for his NESst; so, am unsure about NESst working on Linux. Why it wouldn’t work on Linux is beyond me; shiru clearly knows his programming. :)
I checked out NESst, I'll have to take a deeper look at how to compile it on Linux. Hopefully not too hard, and if I can figure it out I'll share a Makefile or something here
Oziphantom wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 5:04 am Linux graphics tools
GraphX2 has a linux distro http://grafx2.chez.com/index.php?static3/downloads its another "next Deluxe Paint" tool, very good for pixel art. GIMP is poor but better than nothing. Running stuff in WINE probably the other bet most older tools that use Win32 should be fine these days in WINE.
Aesprite and Libsprite has linux support ( or at least Arch for Aesprite ) https://libresprite.github.io/#!/downloads
I forgot about Aseprite! I have that installed and functioning from a while ago. Is there a simple way to get it to produce formats easily consumed by ca65? Nothing inherent in it seemed to point that direction.

--------------------------

Also, thanks to all for the warm welcome!

Figure I may as share some of the NES work I did before, It's likely super janky, since it was for learning

https://github.com/jsburke/nes-demos

I was starting to try controller things out before something stole my attention and I hadn't quite got a clean coding style down yet. I also opted for the odd .s65 file suffix so that I wouldn't have syntax highlighting clashes with different assembly languages
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rainwarrior
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by rainwarrior »

unregistered wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 4:31 pmThat is a Windows tool, but the other 2 current projects on that page list that their source can be compiled for Linux… however, shiru doesn’t mention Linux for his NESst; so, am unsure about NESst working on Linux. Why it wouldn’t work on Linux is beyond me; shiru clearly knows his programming. :)
NESst relies heavily on Windows API, and also an old proprietary compiler that not a lot of people use anymore. Shiru's newer programs were written with Linux in mind as a possiblity, NESst was not. So, that's why.
jsburke wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:00 amI checked out NESst, I'll have to take a deeper look at how to compile it on Linux. Hopefully not too hard, and if I can figure it out I'll share a Makefile or something here
I don't think it will compile for Linux, short of a substantial rewrite, but I do think it should run fine in Wine?
jsburke wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:00 amI forgot about Aseprite! I have that installed and functioning from a while ago. Is there a simple way to get it to produce formats easily consumed by ca65? Nothing inherent in it seemed to point that direction.
I don't think so, it's not designed to export to every possible format, just to standard image formats. You can export a sprite sheet to PNG, and then use some tool that works with PNGs to create what you need.
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nesrocks
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by nesrocks »

I'm building a linux computer so I can try to export NAW to linux. Should take a few weeks still to know if it'll work.
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by Pokun »

For NES I create my art in Gimp, save as BMP (indexed colors) and use NESst to manually convert into CHR.
For SNES I create my art in Gimp, save as PNG (indexed colors) and use Superfamiconv to automatically convert it the Snes formats using shell scripts. Superfamiconv can also calculate and fix the checksum and complement check values for the Snes ROM after assembling it, not strictly required for testing but is nice to have.

Dwedit wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 7:15 pm I've been on highly technical forums where they want you to solve a calculus problem, then convert your answer to Base-64.
Wow, I can't tell if that is to keep out humans or machines. :P
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jsburke
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by jsburke »

nesrocks wrote: Sun Jun 12, 2022 9:05 am I'm building a linux computer so I can try to export NAW to linux. Should take a few weeks still to know if it'll work.
If NAW is some kind of application, I may be able to offer help on Linux exporting
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nesrocks
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by nesrocks »

jsburke wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 9:52 amIf NAW is some kind of application, I may be able to offer help on Linux exporting
I've programmed it in GameMaker Studio 2's GML language.
It requires GMS2 installed on a Windows PC. And on the local network there must be a Linux PC to set as the target. I'm in the "having a linux pc" step. https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/art ... For-Ubuntu
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Re: New Here, Trying to get my feet wet

Post by gauauu »

rainwarrior wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:11 pm
jsburke wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:00 amI checked out NESst, I'll have to take a deeper look at how to compile it on Linux. Hopefully not too hard, and if I can figure it out I'll share a Makefile or something here
I don't think it will compile for Linux, short of a substantial rewrite, but I do think it should run fine in Wine?
Yes, Screen Tool mostly works fine in Wine, I use it regularly. There are a few little glitches (Sometimes it thinks a mouse button is held down and you accidentally draw all over the place before you realize), but it's completely usable.
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