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Thread: How would you go about making a homebrew game from a console?

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    Default How would you go about making a homebrew game from a console?

    I've seen fan made games of Sonic, Mario, Zelda, etc.

    What's the best method? Learning a programming language? How do you recreate the game mechanics?

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    You could try to do it with something like the Unity engine. 3d or 2d games. It's pretty straightforward if you have a some programming skills and some logic. I use C# but you can also use Javascript or Boo (I have no idea what Boo is) It's also free. https://unity3d.com/
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    If you'd like to make a homebrew game for a console, you'll have to read up on the game console's API and learn a programm language associated with it. If you wanna make something for NES or SNES, you'll have to learn assembler, which is very hard for beginner programmers. I'd suggest learning a high level language like Java, Visual Basic or C# and go from there.

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    Very true. I didn't know if he wanted to make a game for the actual console, or if he just wanted to imitate the look and mechanics of a game. Writing a game for the NES or SNES to be played via a console or emulation takes a pretty extreme knowledge of programming. NES and SNES games were written in assembly code. Not a very easy thing to dive into, even for those with prior programming experience. I know there's a project over at GitHub called PyNes that you can use if you know the python programming language.
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    A lot of the stuff out there actually available for console emulators are actually hacks of existing games, that don't require rewriting an entire game.
    http://www.romhacking.net/
    There are some solid PSP homebrew SDK's, also. I guess it depends how much experience you have. If you have little actual coding experience, I would suggest starting with something like Game Maker Studio. If you have the time to invest and are serious about it, learning unity would be best though. I actually read an interview with Peter Molyneaux (sp?) where he endorsed it as the best way for someone to get started in game design.

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    Learn C. C can be compiled into assembly for most any system. Sure there are differences that you must take note of, but the syntax and usage is very much the same and you won't have to worry about those until you decide on the system you will be coding for.

    Gameboy, Atari, NES, Genesis/Megadrive, just to name a few that may use a variant of C.

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