Nintendo emulation has not been a new thing for more than a decade. But there’s a benefit to being that old: The techniques for making NES games from scratch can be understood. This is where PyNES comes in.
Created by Guto Maia, PyNES basically does what its name implies: use Python to create NES assembly code, which in turn could be used to create NES games. But there’s a catch, according to Maia: “trying to compile a such evolved language to a such limited processor as the C6502, it’s MADNESS.”
Madness indeed, yet there is a version 0.1, which is capable of doing some very simple stuff, as seen below.
Now that it’s on GitHub, developers can help Maia make progress on this project. And he’s going to need that help, as he’s identified several things the project can’t do yet, such as scrolling screens and sprite animation. But he says he is making progress.
Maia emphasizes the challenges in recreating NES code, even with modern tools. But if it pays off, homebrew NES games could conceivably be made without the use of emulation (perhaps), which would be, well, neat at the very least.
Top 5 projects trending on GitHub
1. C++ Core Guidelines: A set of guidelines for programming in C++.
2. Better Java: A simplified version of Java.
3. Xcode Ghost: Earlier this week, Apple had to clear out a slew of programs from its iOS store due to malware. Evidently this is that malware. Open with caution?
4. Brotli: Google’s new compression algorithm that we covered this week.
5. 3030: A simple browser game that demonstrates a bug in Chrome.
