your development environment

[GradualGames]

Maybe someday everyone will be using NESICIDE, but until that project is completed we all will figure out what works best for us. For me I use:

*Notepad++
*Make
*CA65/LD65
*ASM6 (for testing small programs without having to bother with a makefile and configuration required by CA65)
*Paint.NET for minor edits to art I receive from my artist
*a custom graphics/sprite/animation editor and bitmap importer
*a custom level editor
*Famitracker
*JNes, Nestopia, FCEUXDSP 1.07, Nintendulator
*a custom namelist file generator for use with FCEUXDSP 1.07
*edit* I forgot to mention (some of you reminded me), I also use TortoiseSVN, and I use a PowerPAK to test on the real system.

I've set up scripts in Notepad++ with NppExec so all of these tools are a keystroke away. It's particularly fun to just hit "F11," and Notepad++ cleans, makes, generates namelist files and runs FCEUXDSP 1.07 with the debugger populated with all of the source code from my game and all labels and comments. It feels almost like using Visual Studio, only for the NES.

[Celius]

Yeah, I should probably improve the development process for myself, as it's pretty pathetic. I use the following tools:

* Notepad.
* WLA-DX (for everything, basically)
* YY-CHR and MS Paint for making graphics
* Custom made level editor (It's a NES ROM, and saves the data in SRAM. Works nice though).
* FCEUXD, Nintendulator, PowerPak. Usually in that order. FCEUXD just speeds up the debugging process greatly. I'm not doing things that are really timing specific (besides sprite #0 for a status bar), so it suffices for testing my game. The computer I'm using sucks, so Nintendulator has some problems on it, and I for some reason haven't downloaded NEStopia onto this one yet so I don't know how well it would run.

So yeah, I type my code and enter data with notepad. I hear lots of great things about Notepad++, so I'll try that sometime. There are a few other native editors I might make, such as a cutscene screen arranging editor, a music editor, animation editor, etc. The cutscene screen arrangement editor would be really handy, as I'm using NROM which means I have to make large images by cleverly arranging background and sprite tiles. I think in the end it will look cool, as I've set aside some CHR space for triangles and squares to make these images out of. But yeah, it's annoying to try and type in the definitions of these images rather than editing them with a nice editor of some sort.

So needless to say, my tools are fairly crappy, but so far my game's coming along great, so I'm not really complaining.

[Dwedit]

TextPad 5
TASM
Ulead PhotoImpact
YY-CHR
Little VB programs that convert the graphics data

Of course, I haven't really made much NES stuff yet.

[never-obsolete]

Notepad++
custom assembler
Tile Layer Pro/YY-CHR
MapEd Pro
SpriteTool
FCEUXDSP 1.07, Nintendulator
HxD

*a custom namelist file generator for use with FCEUXDSP 1.07

Have you ever used the symbolic debugging with more then 2 prg banks? If so, I'm interested in how you got it working. Every address < $C000 used prg0 symbols the last time I messed around with it.

[loopy]

text editor - EditPad
assembler - asm6
art/maps - ProMotion+custom tools
testing - powerpak, nintedulator, FCEUX

[Drag]

Notepad++ with custom 6502 highlighting, and comment based blocks (for "folding", like {} in C++)
DASM
YY-CHR
Numerous Emulators of varying accuracies and debugging abilities
A batch file for compilation
6502 opcode reference + Nesdevwiki

[mic_]

Editor: TextPad
Assembler: NESASM
Music: MCK/PPMCK
Art: Photoshop, mspaint
Testing: Nintendulator, FCEUX, PowerPak
Lots of custom tools for converting graphics data, generating lookup tables and whatnot.

[thefox]

The usual boring stuff:

Editor: Notepad++ with 6502 syntax hilighting file from somebody on this forum (maybe miau?)
Assembler: CA65, sometimes DASM for older sources
Music: Pornotracker
Gfx: YY-CHR / Photoshop / bunch of custom command line tools
Testing/Debugging: Nintendulator primarily, PowerPak occasionally

That Pro Motion app mentioned by loopy seems really good, have to give it a go.

[miau]

Editor: Notepad++ with 6502 syntax hilighting file from somebody on this forum (maybe miau?)

If jmp/branch instrutctions etc. are printed bold then quite possibly, yes.


Editor: Notepad++
Assembler: CA65
Music: Famitracker, custom MML compiler
Gfx/maps: YY-CHR, GraphicsGale, custom map and sprite editors/command line tools, 8name for smaller projects
Testing/Debugging: FCEUX with lua scripts, Nestopia, Nintendulator, PowerPak (old devcart is collecting dust)

A lot of professional pixel artists seem to use ProMotion. It has a lot of useful features, but there's also a certain learning curve which isn't too easy to overcome.

[tokumaru]

Notepad++
ASM6
FCEUXD, Nestopia, Nintendulator, PowerPak
Custom tile converter (from BMP)
Custom level converter (from PCX)
MS Paint (for drawing tiles)
GIMP (for drawing levels)
Several custom C programs to create or convert data
Akoff Music Composer and Anvil Studio (for testing melodies)
Batch file for assembling

I like to keep it all portable, because I have access to several PCs and I like to be able to continue development in any one of them. This means I have most of the applications in an email account, so I can download them anywhere. Whatever is small enough to be packed along with the game itself, is.

[GradualGames]

Notepad++
custom assembler
Tile Layer Pro/YY-CHR
MapEd Pro
SpriteTool
FCEUXDSP 1.07, Nintendulator
HxD

*a custom namelist file generator for use with FCEUXDSP 1.07

Have you ever used the symbolic debugging with more then 2 prg banks? If so, I'm interested in how you got it working. Every address < $C000 used prg0 symbols the last time I messed around with it.

Yes..
FCEUXDSP 1.07 recognizes various "keys" in the namelist filename... ram.nl, 0.nl, 1.nl, ...to however many PRG banks you have. My namelist file generator accepts arguments that specify which .segments (it works with CA65 output files at the moment) are to fill which namelist files. Then, it uses the .map file in conjunction with individual .lst files for every individually compiled module in my source code to figure out the correct address for every label and also every comment.

Currently my game has 8 PRG banks (most of which are as yet unused), and I have my namelist file generator generating namelist files for banks 0, 1, 2, and 7 (fixed bank). Bank 2 contains entity intelligence routines, and I've tested setting break points in those and also the fixed bank when one of the other PRG banks are visible. Sure enough when I hit those break points, the correct labels and comments are visible in the $8000 - $BFFF range.

It took a little bit of effort to get that namelist file generator working properly, but I'm really glad I did it. It has saved me huge amounts of development time, being able to debug and see all my labels and comments while stepping through the code. I'm actually kinda hoping I can share this tool with others at NesDev if they would find it useful, so I can feel like I've given back to a community from whom I've learned so much.

So, I guess pm me if you'd like a copy of the namelist generator. It'd be cool to see someone else using it and maybe get feedback. If you don't use CA65, I did write a version for ASM6 before this one so I may be able to expand/adapt it to your favorite assembler.

[UncleSporky]

Really simple for me.

Notepad
asm6
YY-CHR, MSPaint, GraphicsGale
FCEUX, Nestopia
never-obsolete's MapEd

Is FCEUXD better than FCEUX? FCEUX's main page says its intent is to combine all branches of FCE Ultra together, including FCEUXD. I assumed that meant it would be the definitive version.

[koitsu]

Is FCEUXD better than FCEUX? FCEUX's main page says its intent is to combine all branches of FCE Ultra together, including FCEUXD. I assumed that meant it would be the definitive version.

I tend to lean towards FCEUXD SP, since the guy is highly technical and understand both hardware and software.

It's like FCE is more or less like MAME -- ten bazillion "ports" or sub-versions of it so you never know which one to use, why, when, etc... Frustrating.

[tokumaru]

I tend to lean towards FCEUXD SP

I remember running into several bugs while using its debugger, so I quickly went back to FCEUXD.

[MetalSlime]

design: the backs of stray pieces of paper that appear on my desk at work, a little notebook, graph paper, notepad++

code: Notepad++, with my own 6502 highlighting. TortoiseSVN for backup and version control. If I have time and an idea but no computer around, I write and debug code/data on paper.

assembler: ca65, assemble with a batch file. I have nesasm3 onhand for quick programs, my sound tutorials and helping newbies.

art: YY-CHR, GIMP. Started using YY-CHR today after reading this thread. It's great!

testing: FCEUX?? (+LUA), Nintendulator, Nestopia (hopefully PowerPak soon)

music: my guitar, FamiTracker, Notepad++