SGDK - Sega Genesis Development Kit

SGDK is a small development kit for the Sega Megadrive / Genesis system.

It's divided in 2 parts :
- GCC compiler & tools binaries (only for Windows platform currently, sorry for osx and linux users).
- Development library sources which provide facilities to develop on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis System.

I tried to keep only the strict minimum GCC binaries so the whole archive maintains a reasonable size (< 10 MB).

Download it here : http://code.google.com/p/sgdk/

You can find some tutorials about how use it in the Wiki section of project's page.
Free feel to post issues or requests, also if you want to contribute in some way you can contact me on the project page :)

Don't hesitate to post bugs or feature request in the issues tracker :
http://code.google.com/p/sgdk/issues/list

Updated version 0.94

* Major rewrite of the Bitmap engine:
- Fixed 256x160 resolution.
- Removed all specifics flags as it now always use deferred flip operation with extended blank.
- Simpler and easier to use.
- Better performance (checkout the cube face sample to see the difference).
- Backface culling now directly handled in the BMP_drawPolygon(..) method.
- Removed useless FF BMP engine (too complex, incomplete..)
- Many others changes you will discover :)
* Added "Bitmap" structure for better bitmap handling.
SGDK automatically convert 16 colors bitmap images to "Bitmap".
* Major rewrite of Maths3D engine:
- Added many 3D related structures (as matrix, transform..).
- More flexibility.
- Improved performance (not much).
* added DMA capability to VDP_setHorizontalScrollxxx(..) / VDP_setVerticalScrollTile(..) functions.
* Added VDP_doDMAEx(..) so we can specify if we modify the VRam step.
* Refactored palette functions.
* Fixed QSort function.
* Removed useless VRAM table (eat rom space for minor speed boost).
* Minors fixes/tweaks in memset and memcpy functions.
* Updated WavToRaw tool (now support any output rate).
* Added Genitile 1.7 sources.
* Minors tweaks on makefile.
* Fixed a minor issue in rom_head (Thanks Chilly Willy).
* Updated demo samples.
* Others minors changes or improvements.

Far out man.

Wow, thank you, this is definitely interesting, might give it a look actually...

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Far out man.

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Yep, but realized i did not had any topic here to announce new version :p

I didn't even know something like this exists.

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Originally Posted by Stef

Yep, but realized i did not had any topic here to announce new version :p

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Hehe now you know ;)
I only posted about it in the Spritesmind forum but i guess it could have some interests here too.

Goplanes is being made with SGDK. It got me much more far along than if I had to learn and work in assembly. I recommend it! If there were a "DJCC APPROVES!" sticker, I'd put one on it.

Thanks for your support DJCC :D
I'm really amazed how far Godplanes comes ! It's rare to see Genesis homebrew project going to that level and i'm happy SGDK helped a bit for that :)

And before any mod moves this to "Blast Processing": said forum shouldn't even exist. This place was a lot better when this kind of stuff wasn't confined to some kind of ghetto.

Edit: And yes, this is a pretty cool project Stef! The ADPCM driver sounds especially nifty. :D

Cool stuff, dude!

I don't mind there being a separate section for homebrew stuff. I like forums with categories instead of having everything in one large section.

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

And before any mod moves this to "Blast Processing": said forum shouldn't even exist. This place was a lot better when this kind of stuff wasn't confined to some kind of ghetto.

Edit: And yes, this is a pretty cool project Stef! The ADPCM driver sounds especially nifty. :D

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Thanks :p
The basic idea of this driver was to make small games with PCM driven sound.
You could use a channel for music and the second one for SFX ;)

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

And before any mod moves this to "Blast Processing": said forum shouldn't even exist. This place was a lot better when this kind of stuff wasn't confined to some kind of ghetto.

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How soon they forget...

Blast Processing was created specifically for and at the request of programmers because our threads were being ridiculously quickly pushed off the front page of any other forum by everything else. We needed a forum where the ONLY thing allowed was development threads. No reviews, no hardware (unless it relates to programming), no idiotic polls - nothing but developer goodness!!

Just watch how quickly this thread disappears from the front page... in fact, in less than a week, you won't be able to find it without a search.

I downloaded the package :) I will look into the archive later. Great stuff man .

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Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

Blast Processing was created specifically for and at the request of programmers because our threads were being ridiculously quickly pushed off the front page of any other forum by everything else.

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I see. Still, it was more fun when everyone participated in these threads, plus this forum seemed way more active before the split. I think I was for creating a dedicated forum but in hindsight I regret not being more vocal about the concerns I had as well.

I prefer it being separate. This forum's just too active to fit everything in here.

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

I see. Still, it was more fun when everyone participated in these threads, plus this forum seemed way more active before the split. I think I was for creating a dedicated forum but in hindsight I regret not being more vocal about the concerns I had as well.

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I like the look of this. ill have to download it.

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Originally Posted by Christuserloeser

I see. Still, it was more fun when everyone participated in these threads, plus this forum seemed way more active before the split. I think I was for creating a dedicated forum but in hindsight I regret not being more vocal about the concerns I had as well.

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I've seen no lack of activity in these forums... most threads still disappear in a week unless they're popular. The oldest thread in THIS forum right now is only 6 days since the last post, and that's only because we're in the middle of a holiday. I've seen times when the oldest thread on the front page is 1 day. :shock:

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Originally Posted by Anonymouse

I like the look of this. ill have to download it.

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Please - the more folks who get into homebrew, the better! :D

Version 0.94 is out :) Check it out

If i had the knowledge i wouldn't mind porting games like Samurai Shodown and Metal Slug 3 over to the Genesis.

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Originally Posted by Saturn Fan

If i had the knowledge i wouldn't mind porting games like Samurai Shodown and Metal Slug 3 over to the Genesis.

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Samurai Shodown is already ported to Genesis and Sega CD. Metal Slug 3 is impossible to port. Metal Slug 1 is barely doable, but would require severe cuts in content, sprites on screen, etc.

If you can port the first Metal Slug by cutting stuff, then you can do the same with Metal Slug 3.

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Originally Posted by Guntz

Samurai Shodown is already ported to Genesis and Sega CD. Metal Slug 3 is impossible to port. Metal Slug 1 is barely doable, but would require severe cuts in content, sprites on screen, etc.

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I meant Samurai Shodown 2, and using a full 5MB rom unlike the first game.

And with games like Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, and Mega Turrican, there's no reason a scaled down but still impressive port of Metal Slug 3 isn't also doable. Near the end of the Genesis lifespan it was seeing graphics & music on-par with low-end Neo Geo games.

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Originally Posted by Saturn Fan

I meant Samurai Shodown 2

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You don't like the Asian pirate version? https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profil...400_normal.jpg

Well, this looks pretty sweet! Definitely going to download and play with this :)

I need to preface this post by saying that I'm really sorry to bump this old thread but I'm not sure where else to post this. I also have a history of ineptitude, sometimes I can't distinguish my ass from my elbow, and my doctor suspects that my skull may be empty.

Now with that out of the way, can someone please tell me how exactly I get SGDK running? I tried using SGDK about 2 years ago, but I couldn't figure it out, so I decided go back to it later when I was more confident with my programming skills. But I can't get anything to compile with this. I recently finished programming a game with Microsoft directX IDE, and I decided to try converting it to run on MD/gen, but after reading the setup guide for it, I still can't figure it out. I got a buddy of mine to look at it and he couldn't do it either.

I believe that my astounding stupidity may be the culprit here, but once people have stopped laughing at me, can someone give me some clue as to how I'm supposed to work this. I have a vague familiarity with Eclipse so I decided to run it with Eclipse in Windows, but nothing happens. This tool obviously works, there's been some decent projects made with it, but is there some steps missing from the setup guide or something?

*Edit, just so people know, I've been programming on and off since 1996, starting with a BBC Micro, so I'm not totally new to programming.

Can you get it to compile outside of Eclipse? Like if you run this command in your project directory:

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%GDK_WIN%\bin\make -f %GDK_WIN%\makefile.gen

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If there is an error message what does it say?

Personally I kind of ignored the guide and just added C:\SGDK\inc and C:\SGDK\res to the includes in project settings. That was enough to get code completion to work and I just compile outside of Eclipse.

If you don't want to modify your PATH variable try this batch file. It requires copying makefile.gen to the project directory though.

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Originally Posted by Grind

Can you get it to compile outside of Eclipse? Like if you run this command in your project directory:

Code:

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%GDK_WIN%\bin\make -f %GDK_WIN%\makefile.gen

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If there is an error message what does it say?

Personally I kind of ignored the guide and just added C:\SGDK\inc and C:\SGDK\res to the includes in project settings. That was enough to get code completion to work and I just compile outside of Eclipse.

If you don't want to modify your PATH variable try this batch file. It requires copying makefile.gen to the project directory though.

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Thanks for trying to help, but I get nothing

This is ridiculous, its now 1:40am, I've been trying to get this running for days and nothing works at all. I have very carefully followed the instructions here: https://singularityprogramming.wordp...cdt-with-sgdk/

And I've gone through the instructions on here: https://github.com/Stephane-D/SGDK/w...tup-SGDK-basic

I set this up in a Windows 8 VM just now. Here is everything I did, without skipping over the obvious stuff.

SGDK:

1. Grabbed 1.21 from here: https://github.com/Stephane-D/SGDK/wiki/Download

2. Extracted it to C:\SGDK

3. Added the environment variables in this interface:
Attachment 11596

First one
Name: GDK
Value: C:/SGDK
Second one
Name: GDK_WIN
Value: C:\SGDK

4. In the same interface also edit the PATH system variable, add to the end:

Code:

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;C:\SGDK\bin

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The semicolon is important.
Attachment 11597

5. Go into C:\SGDK\sample\sprite, then hold shift and right click to get the command prmpt option:
Attachment 11598

6. In that command window enter the same make line from that install guide:

Code:

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%GDK_WIN%\bin\make -f %GDK_WIN%\makefile.gen

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That's it. You want the output to look like this after finishing. The rom goes in out/rom.bin:
Attachment 11599

If this isn't what you see, show me what you see. Copy paste it, take a screenshot, anything.

Eclipse in next post because attachment limit.

Then for Eclipse:

1. I assume you have both JDK and Eclipse set up already

2. Do File -> Import. Pick in the list C/C++ -> Existing code as Makefile project. Browse to the sprite sample, then hit Finish.
Attachment 11601

3. Now the project is loaded, but Eclipse doesn't know where genesis.h is, so we add the includes by going to this interface:
Attachment 11602

4. You want to add 2 directories to the include path: C:\SGDK\inc and C:\SGDK\res:
Attachment 11603

5. Hit OK and Yes in the popup, the errors and red underlines should disappear, and code completion should now work. For some reason some of the "sonic_sprite" variables still showed as errors to me. Not sure why, doesn't happen in my other projects. If I ever figure out why I'll tell you.

6. Last thing: Eclipse also doesn't know how to build the project. We have to tell it to run the command from earlier when you click "build".
Attachment 11604

7. Now when clicking build, you should see the same output in the console as when you ran that command earlier.


So that's not what the install tutorial tells you to do and it's probably not the "correct" way either, but it's what "works" for me.

Thanks, I really appreciate the help. It turns out I didn't set "Path" correctly before. Now the project builds properly. I've never had to set "Path" for any other software I use so that was new to me.

I'll let people know if I get my game converted to run on MD/Gen.

SGDK is on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/StephaneD/

Stef deserves all suport that we can provide, go on Stef!

Link is down... what happened?

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Originally Posted by Pyron

Stef deserves all suport that we can provide, go on Stef!

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stef deserves our support.
I have already supported and will support monthly :)

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Originally Posted by Gryson

Link is down... what happened?

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the link changed
https://www.patreon.com/SGDK

It's been a while since I posted anything here... I was once here under a different name, but lost my password wasn't able to recover my old account so here I am. I've had this account for a minute now, but never really used too much. Anywhoo... Here's a "Wayback Machine" link that seems to work with downloading the SDK.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190209.../wiki/Download

What games have been made with the SGDK? Is it really difficult to get something spun up?

Will this work on WINE or only Parallels on a Mac?

Most recent games are SGDK. Some use instead Basic, Basiegaxorz or however it's written, and a couple went to the pains of 100% asm. As for difficulty, it depends. It is no more difficult than any other C library. If you've made a game for SDL or a similar C lib, you can use SGDK without any trouble. If you've never made a game, or only used high-level tools like GameMaker or Unity, it will be difficult.

The toolchain is all open source, and works natively on Linux. Probably on Mac too, but not sure if anyone's tried.