N64 SDK

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If you want to learn how to use the N64 SDK to create your very own ROMs that you can play on an emulator, you’re going to have to do a lot of work since it requires getting deep into the system’s hardware and coding a lot of it by hand. As of now, I don’t understand all of it myself but will try to add to this as I learn more about it.

Setting up a development environment

Being that the N64 was released in the mid 90’s, a lot of  the tools will not work on a modern 64-bit windows computer. This section will help you build an environment in which you can build ROMs with the N64 SDK.

Set up a development environment

Exporting ROMS using the N64 SDK

The SDK comes with a whole bunch of demos that you can export from the get-go once you’ve set up the environment. Here you will learn how to do so.

Compiling ROMs

Texture editing

This section will cover how to convert your manky old PNG into a texture that is usable in a Nintendo 64 ROM using our X2C tool. It also shows you how to attach these textures to polygons to complete your model.

Adding textures

N64 development hardware

This is a list of the various bits of hardware that were used or can be used to develop games on the N64. Most are hard to find and will not be used for the purpose of this tutorial so this is for reference only.

N64 development hardware

NuSystem

NuSystem is a C library that is used by the SDK to simplify some of the most common bits of code to make it easier to develop. This section will look at some of the demos that come with the SDK to grow an understanding of how it all works together.

Nusystem

Type definitions

These are the various custom C typedefs used by the Nintendo 64. You need to be familiar with these in order to understand how the N64 code works.

Type definitions

Page index

• Setting up a N64 development environment
• How to compile a Nintendo 64 ROM
  • Writing a Makefile for the N64
  • Segments and the spec file
• N64 Development Software
  • X2C – Convert files to N64 format
  • MIPSE / Ultra GCC
    • Makemask
• Graphics and Display Lists
• Adding textures to 3D models on the N64
  • Colour and image format types for the N64
• Nintendo 64 development hardware
  • Monegi Multi Viewer (MMV)
• NuSystem
  • Nu0: Starting a N64 program using NuSystem
  • Nu1: Adding input and output to the N64 program
• Type definitions
• N64 SDK Glossary

Resources & documentation

• Devkit manual
• Nintendo Ultra64 Programming Manual & Addendums
• Nintendo 64 Music Tools Library documentation

Other resources

• Computerphile playlist on rendering graphics – a good introduction to getting your head around various concepts in working with polygons and how they are rendered into a final image. Approx 51 mins.
• Guide to controller protocols for the N64