Huge Idea, but I'm not sure about some stuff.

[Gooseberrysoda]

I'd like to do a 32X homebrew, which would hopefully make it to cartridge eventually. It would be a sidescrolling schmup, but I'm not sure

1. Which program to write it with
2.would the program work on a mac.


I'll ask around some genesis homebrew sites, but I'm asking here first.

[Niode]

Why 32x?

Have you coded before?

[Gooseberrysoda]

Why 32X? I've felt for a long time that it's an underrated system with huge potential, and, though I wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the potential, I would be increasing it's small library of games.

And no, I've never scripted before, which will probably be a problem. Maybe my local community college has classes.

[dlmvii]

Um...more power to you and everything, but if you've never written ANY code before, an antiquated piece of hardware like the 32x with very little support is definitely NOT the place to start. Spend a few months (or longer, depending on your commitment) learning a nice, beginner friendly language and write some code on your PC. Maybe you can start with Microsoft's XNA framework, which is geared towards making games, and is based off the C# language. It will be much easier, and you will learn a lot more. Then, maybe someday you can write something for a console (though is there much in the way out there for 32x homebrew anyways?) But don't start with it. You'll quit before you ever get anywhere.

[racketboy]

Yeah, for old-school console stuff, you're gonna need some decent experience.
I'm guessing a language like C would be your best start.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Yea. At the very least do some XNA work. Im not sure it would be handy but Visual Basic is pretty easy to learn and may help you get used to some other developer tools.

[Jrecee]

Do you understand how a 32X works? Learning to code is only one step. I'd imagine the 32X would be even more complicated than creating a game for the genesis since it requires understanding both devices.

Have you ever done any game graphics?

Have you ever done game design?

How would you go about creating the actual cartridge?

Maybe look into rom hacking first, you could learn a lot about the genesis that way. Also, the sega cd might be a better bet since I believe most of the work is done by the genesis itself, I could be wrong though. Anyone know the differences between how the sega cd works with the genesis and how the 32X does it?

Anyway, if you get anywhere with this show us your project. I'd be interested in doing the same thing; creating new games for an old system. . . on the graphics and design side anyway. Programming is not my friend.

[Overload]

You have a long ways to go before you can do what you're setting out to do, especially since you have never coded anything before. Like others have said, start out with something easy, be it XNA, a BASIC programming language, etc. After you've familiarized yourself with the fundamentals of programming, you will have an easier time moving onto a more powerful language. Perhaps you'd be interested in Blitz Basic. It's a pretty user-friendly language geared towards game creation.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, for old-school console stuff, you're gonna need some decent experience.
I'm guessing a language like C would be your best start.

C is good to start getting the fundamentals down of programming. But I don't know when games moved over to higher languages. I know the NES is all assembly, which is all kinds of hard to do anything big with, and I suspect the SNES/Genesis were still assembly as well.

[Dakinggamer87]

Good luck with your 32X homebrew... As others have mentioned I would get a decent amount of experience in programming before starting...