Tooling

Rookie (29)

30-09-2020, 16:13

What kind of modern tooling can one use as of 2020 to develop MSX games? What kind of compilers and languages? Is there any cross compiler that could be used from a different platform and then test the resulting .rom file in an emulator?

Por geijoenr

Champion (392)

30-09-2020, 16:46

There are several frameworks available for cross compiling roms.

If you use Linux or Mac I recommend you mine of course

https://github.com/retrodeluxe/rlengine-msx1

Por albs_br

Champion (499)

30-09-2020, 22:24

I'm using an recommend (on PC - Windows): VS Code (with plugins) with tniAsm and openMSX.

Easy to setup and get the job done.

Por diogoeichert

Rookie (29)

01-10-2020, 13:55

Thanks for the tips. Nice framework, geijoenr.

Por ren

Paragon (1947)

01-10-2020, 14:08

Relevant perhaps: Which assembler/IDE to use to code on the MSX?

(That's a recent topic, probably you'll find a lot more if you search for it.. ;))

(cool stuff btw @geijoenr ;))

Por Metalion

Paragon (1628)

01-10-2020, 15:22

Personnaly, I use:
- Editing: Notepad++ (very flexible and customizable)
- Compiling: Sjasm (powerful yet easy to master)
- Testing: BlueMSX (by habit) and OpenMSX (for its accuracy, it's the closest thing to real hardware)

EDIT: Oh, i just saw this was not really the question asked, sorry.

Por MsxKun

Paragon (1134)

01-10-2020, 15:34

Well I use (and happy with):

- Geany for text editing. Very customizable, nice colors, tabs and that kind of unecessary stuff Really, any text editor would do, but that tools save time and that's also nice.
- TniASM 1.0 for assembling. Customizable as hell.
- OpenMSX for quick test and checks and also debugging. Real MSX with SD card reader is required to avoid surprises.
- DI.FM with Classic Acid House online radiostation to put my brain in focus. Nothing else does better!

Everything on linux native. But also, all of the above is available on Win and probably Mac. (not sure about TniASM on Mac tho)

Por diogoeichert

Rookie (29)

02-10-2020, 18:53

Ok, so as far I understand most of you are coding it straight in MSX Assembly, right? I wonder what kind of tooling did Konami use back then, I've herd they would cross-compile from another platform, but I have no idea about what kind of languages did they use.

Por ren

Paragon (1947)

03-10-2020, 13:08

(Not exactly my territory but anyway..)

Recent topic about (learning) asm vs. C: https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/development/should-i-lear...

There's MSX-BASIC-KUN (a.k.a. X-BASIC / Turbo Basic) as well. I believe e.g. Kai Magazine uses that for his games. https://www.msx.org/downloads/utilities/miscellaneous/x-basi...

Some (recent) links/topics:

# SDCC (& libs)
https://www.msx.org/wiki/SDCC
https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/development/making-real-2...
https://www.msx.org/news/development/en/fusion-c-is-available

# (Game) dev (general/various)
https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/development/msx-applicati...

- Regarding Konami, this might be interesting: https://www.msx.org/news/en/metal-gear-annotated-disassembly...

Por Manuel

Ascended (19691)

03-10-2020, 12:36

Don't forget NestorBASIC: https://www.konamiman.com/msx/msx-e.html#nestorbasic

Por hamlet

Scribe (4106)

03-10-2020, 12:54

And the Z80 Runner.