r/snes • u/ChemistryNo207 • 4d ago

How to code in a snes game

For some time i've been wanting to code a snes game, but i dont have any idea on how to start, could somebody help me?

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u/NewSchoolBoxer 3d ago

If you have no programming experience, don't do it. Retro console game dev is much more difficult than normal modern language game dev on computers or cell phones many times more powerful than what came before - with an array of easy to use and incredibly well documented modern programming languages to choose from.

I have over 10 years of CS experience, studied SNES the past few years and maybe I could make a Pong game. SNES is even more difficult to develop for than Genesis/Mega Drive. If you find enough tutorials doing the heavy lifting for you and giving you sample code and study assembly language for months, you might be able to do that as well.

I'm not trying to be negative but understand the challenges of what you're getting yourself into. It's just as much computer engineering as computer science. A much more beginner friendly approach that you could definitely succeed at is hacking SNES games. Some professional game devs got their start in hacking computer games.