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FAQ Sticky

A topic by Matt Hughson (NES Dev) created Aug 31, 2023 Views: 503 Replies: 3
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Host (1 edit)

If you have any general questions about the competition, feel free to ask below and I will add them to a list here!

Is there an official Discord Server for the compo?

There is not, but I recommend where most of the NES development community seems to reside and is often happy to help people out:

Videogame Sage Discord

NESDev Discord

And of course, there is always the traditional NESDev Forums.

How do I learn to make NES games?

I wrote this article on the topic: How to Create NES Games

Here's a few resources to check out:

  • Nerdy Nights: Probably the most popular tutorial series on learning to code for the NES in assembly.  This will take you from "no programming experience" to "making a basic Pong game".
  • Famicom Party: Another NES programming tutorial, this time using the more modern CA65 assembler. It is still a WIP, so you will need to go beyond the tutorial a bit to have a full game experience.
  • NESDoug: Probably the most popular tutorial series on learning to code for the NES in C. The Minimal Mapper 28 project is an extension of the nesdoug tutorials.
  • NESFab: A new programming language specifically targeting the NES. It lives somewhere between C and Assembly, and has specific support for this nesdev competition!

Can I submitted a game that is not free?

Yes, but your game must have a free demo or similar, and that is what will be judged. 

Can I submit a game made with NESMaker?

Out of the box, probably not. NESMaker uses more than the 64KB PRG ROM limits imposed by the competition. However, it might be possible to hack things up to the point of meeting the requirements!

tepples has put together a guide to how this might be done here. If you end up doing this, please let us know how it goes!

Can we rely on 32 KB of CHR RAM being available if doing a native mapper 28 game?

Cheers,
Michael Noland

Host (2 edits)

I believe that is true. Here is a shot of the 4 CHR pages (32KB) in Witch n' Wiz which uses Mapper 28:


I would reach out to folks on the nesdev forums or the nesdev discord to confirm this though, as I had a lot of help with the CHR banking on this game!

NESDev Discord

NESDev Forums.

Hi, I'm really excited about this jam, but I was also thinking about submitting to more than one jam. Would it violate the spirit of this competition or disqualify my entry ("Stretch Goal: Limited Edition multi-carts for all meritorious entries (at judges discretion)") if I submit to one or two jams after the NESDev Compo deadline? Specifically, I'm thinking about https://itch.io/jam/inspired-by (ending Nov 25th) and https://itch.io/jam/one-game-a-month-29 (ending Nov 29th). I'm less interested in competing for prizes than simply participating and having other folks try my game. Thanks!