NES Development Environment

In this episode I show you how to setup a basic NES Development Environment on Windows 10.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:23 Code Editors
2:12 Installing VS Code
3:55 VS Code 6502 Extension
5:35 Assemblers
6:14 Installing CC65
7:44 Emulators
8:26 Installing FCEUX
9:24 Git / Github Overview
9:50 Demo Project Tutorial
14:27 Conclusion

[NesHacker]

*UPDATES*

- There is a problem with spaces in paths when using VSCode to build the project. If you run into issues, try moving the project folder from the Desktop to the C:\ (or any other path that doesn't contain spaces) [Thanks ​ @Plazma Dolphin & @keithstone001]

[jaysonl]

Much respect for your color commentary on SourceForge :D

[WikiPeoples]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this video. Clear, patterned speech. Direct repeatable steps. Well designed structure and cadence. Masterfully done tutorial.

[VinnyStout-jo]

to anyone following this video as of 4-2-2024, the extension used needs to be downgraded to v 1.2.4, otherwise the c65a macro assembler will have problems and fail to load.

[hectorpagan]

I am a computer engineering student and I honestly wish you'd teach me all my subjects. I like how detailed your explanations are and how you always back up what you say. Criminally underrated channel

[DrPeeper]

I'm frustrated that you are typing links into google instead of the url bar

[FloatingSunfish]

I'll leave Assembly programming to the hardcore programmers.
My brain can only handle higher-level languages. 😅

[Akutabai]

I've been getting more and curious about trying to make a game for an older system. I'm glad I found this channel, you break this stuff down very well

[bobweiram]

Thank god there's no distracting background music!

[Hatchetk]

I've always had a pretty good idea of how the NES works and know just enough asm to be dangerous.. but thanks to this and your other NES assembly videos, I just built my first NES rom today! Awesome stuff, looking forward to more from you. :)

[mikethered]

If you're having problems finding ca65: Build without config when opening the CTRL+SHIFT+P menu, make sure you've opened the demo folder as a workspace.

[TheAbsoluteMadLad]

Something useful is if you're having difficulty with getting it to compile install ca65 version 1.2.4 not the newest one because they removed some of the problem matchers.

[percyduartegalvez]

Your videos have so much dedication and passion that you just can't help but be amazed.

I really loved this particular video as I just got interested in creating video games for the NES. Thank you very much for what you do and with such quality and excellence.

[ArtyomK-dupc]

Hello! Your videos are amazing!
Will you show where to get empty NES or Gameboy cardridge and how to write assembly code directly to it?

[ohno]

I love how you explained what was happening at every step. I'm a total beginner and using Linux instead of Windows and it still all worked. I knew what I had to change because you took the time to go more in-depth than just listing off the steps.

[zukinokaemono]

I followed the described steps, but on macOS, and was able to build a demo ROM! I've installed cc65 with brew and set /usr/local/bin/cl65 as "executable" for cl65. Thank you for clear instructions, it was a breeze. I'll give a try to more of your tutorials :)

[benmorgan]

I have over 10 years of software engineering experience. You've done a great job teaching this, especially for the beginners. Meanwhile I'm taking your build commands and setting up a Makefile and writing the system deps into a Brewfile, but I really like how you get people a simple dev environment right off the get go with VS Code.

[Bunnokazooie]

I never would have thought to explain what syntax highlighting is in a programming video, it is really awesome how you are able to get in the mind of a newbie.

[mr_noodler]

lol You really hate sourceforge, have to say that now that you have pointed it out, I can't stop seeing how ugly it is :)

[XeonProductions]

For whatever reason I had to restart VSCode after editing the tasks.json, otherwise I just kept getting a cryptic error message "Error: The ca65 task detection didn't contribute a task for the following configuration". I'm on Linux though, so maybe its a quirk specific to my system.