Hey all. This is me making an attempt at creating a Virtual Boy game. However, my skills are absolutely beginner. If this was only art and music with live instruments and pencil and paper I’d be off to the races, but this is entirely new territory for me.

Does anyone have a recommendation on how or where to start? A tidbit of advice I got today was to set up an environment, so what is that? I downloaded VBDE and messed around with one of the free super basic pixel art programs and that’s about it. How do you make it go, like when you push run or play or whatever in Unity?

As far as game concept, that isn’t hard to come up with for me, but I’d like to find out how to begin making that delicious Virtual Boy ROM sausage.

Please help… VB is cool. I like the colors and sounds and stuff. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

There are several pre-made demos in the VBDE package. Just open them, navigate to the main C file, and press “Compile & run in ___” on the toolbar. Are you fluent in any programming language? The language used in VBDE is C with some macros to facilitate some object-orientation. To program in it requires some assembly know-how

Like Shokwav said. The best way to start would be to just dive in, modify some existing demos and see what happens.

I want to clarify a few things because many people seem to have problems differenciating between VBDE and the VUEngine.

VBDE is the IDE package consisting of a modified gcc compiler, a code editor and some additional tools like emulators or graphic converters.

You can either write your software in plain C using just libgccvb, which is slim system library that has long been the standard for VB homebrews, or using the VUEngine. The latter is a generic, higher level VB game engine offering OOP features through the use of macros. It’s very powerful but there’s also a steep learning curve to get started, so I suggest looking into some plain libgccvb projects first.

Hi IOwnMyWiiULEGIT You Mentioned about you downloaded a free art program, well I’m sure it helped you on your way to creating great art.
However what I believe should be the VB’s art program (the reason is that it is totally set up for 3d stereo graphics, to make them simple and the program is free with all of the stereo tools intact for free).
the program is ProMotion NG https://www.cosmigo.com
The reason is simple flat graphics on a 3d system look like their paper cutouts, whereas 3d graphics look like their modeled instead. So it’s paper cutouts verses little models

Thanks for the tips guys. Looks like I need to poke around a little more to see how things work. Even simple stuff like opening the right software to check things out seems daunting. As a MAC user primarily, I have to relearn (and buy) a Windows machine. XP is my most recent.

Morintari, I downloaded ProMotion and it looks so cool. I can’t wait to bring some creations to life with it. But just like programming, learning the software looks and feels daunting.

Since my exposure to a Windows machine is limited to a local makerspace right now, progress is looking to be on the slow side of things.

KR155E, thank you for the tip on programming software.

Shokwav, my understanding of programming languages is beginner at best, but I do understand the difference in high and low languages. As far as writing any code though I have never done it except for a line or two at a community intro course.

Please forgive me for my noobular format. I am so lost. Maybe. Probably. I don’t know. Gonna say yes. Files were downloaded and unzipped. I opened the demo1 folder then the demo1c. Computer asks me what program I’d like to use to run the program and the options are like notepad, wordpad, and media player. None work. I am lost. Is this due to my modern Windows noobness? Gonna post here and then ask for help at the local dev spot in town. :/

Hi LEGIT. As far as I know, the vbde-folder needs to be placed directly on the main directory of your hard drive (see screenshot). You can start VBDE by double clicking the link file (“VBDE”) in the vbde-folder (see marked file on the screenshot). Via File > Open … you can then choose a project folder …
KR155E has made another nice VUEngine template, that we are going to post soon along with a step-by-step guide: the “Stereo Viewer” template allows you, to merge your own 3D images into a VB ROM and view them on the Virtual Boy. I don’t have any programming skills too and this template was a nice and easy entry to VBDE for me …

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I never want to discourage anyone from learning new skills or trying to create new things, but the title of this thread seems more and more apt as time goes on…

It sounds like you’re trying to build a house on an empty plot of land by starting with the wallpaper 😛

For one thing, the VBDE is a handy bit of kit, but if you’re not used to Windows (or even have your own copy of Windows to run), it’s going to be more of a hindrance than a help. There are a few members developing for the VB on a Mac, and they’ve shared some of what they’re doing on the forums, so maybe a thorough search of what’s already been done would be in order?

If the existing posts are too vague or outdated, maybe a new thread should be started specifically about getting started on Mac. It could point to good Mac-based tools for graphics, sound, music, tilemaps, etc. along with stuff about setting up the compiler tools and a good programmer’s editor (the one called Atom from the guys at Github is pretty good, if you don’t already have a favorite).

Besides setting up the tools on your system, it sounds like you could use a little improvement yourself. I know it’s boring, but if you really want to write computer software – including VB games – you’re going to have to knuckle down and learn at least one programming language (namely, in this case, C). Get a book, try some online tutorials, find a knowledgeable friend willing to teach, or even take classes at an actual school. Once you get started, programming is actually quite straightforward and logical, but you have to start at the beginning and pick it up gradually.

Two last pieces of advice: 1. keep asking questions (unless you can find the answers for yourself), and 2. don’t expect anyone else to do all your work for you; get in there and get your hands dirty!

StereoBoy and RunnerPack,

Thank you so much for responding. I will keep coming back to this thread for help when needed.

A few minutes after posting, I asked for and received help at a local dev spot. A lot of it was based on “implied” knowledge that someone like me would never have figured out without asking, like, the main directory thing or downloading another program to view the code. So in a sense I have learned. This is my level of computer programming: laughable probably from the eyes of an experienced coder on a Windows machine I’m sure.

As far as the language self improvement, RunnerPack, I don’t think you could be more correct. Thankfully there is a spot in town where local devs hang out and help noobs like me for a small fee.. Up until this point I have been providing sound design and music for their games. They have encouraged me to program but I didn’t have a vision to jump in and get dirty. Now I do. It’d be great if there was a MAC version for this but I’m not bummed there isn’t, it would be nice to get a new DELL anyway. But if there are MAC tools available, yeah it’d be great if they were in a single location. I’ll look around a bit more for them. For me the last few years have been full of watching and digging for tutorials to learn music software and transcribing scores, so I’m sure learning C should be a similar experience. Also, if there is a thread about this somewhere on the forum please let me know. The last thing I want to do is something redundant.

The end result here is that I should come out a better sound programmer and composer, be able to communicate more effectively to more levels of a dev team, and hopefully be on my way to creating something cool.

Lastly, I wonder how many other people feel the way I do about this type of thing. Several months ago I asked about composing for VB and got good feedback on PVB but it was all so technically confusing to me. My hope here is to also overcome this.