nbasic

Game : N/A

Platform : Nintendo Entertainment System

Author : Bob Rost

Release date : 14 Mar 2014

Category : Assembly Tools

OS : OS Independant

Skill Level : Advanced

Version : 1.0

Downloads : 556

Utility description

nbasic is a high-level programming language designed for the 6502 processor, the main CPU of the Nintendo Entertainment System. It has BASIC-like program flow, relying on goto, gosub, and return for most execution flow. It also has no dynamic memory allocation and no actual function parameter passing; rather, globally scoped variables and arrays take the place of these. This kind of language design allows for a very efficient implementation on a low-powered 8-bit CPU such as the NES's 6502.

The language was originally created by Bob Rost for development of the homebrew original NES game Sack of Flour, Heart of Gold, and its development continues as the language is used in Bob's class at Carnegie Mellon, Game Development for the 8-bit NES. While this document can be a useful guide when dealing with the language, the best way to learn is to play with some of the example nbasic programs on the course website.

This file pack includes the March 14, 2004 build of nbasic, the updated cygwin1.dll file available from bobrost.com as well as the documentation.

Reviews

Better than nothing	tcaudilllg	2008-10-12	-
It may not be the best, but hey, it's all we've got. Better not to bite the hand, if you catch my drift. In any case, it has been used to create an actual game. That's a meaningful point. Maybe it's not compatible with actual hardware; in that case, maybe some minor debugging is in order. You could make, for example, a companion program to directly patch such code. Or you could make a whole other compiler completely. The point is that it's all we've got in the absence of a more viable (NES specific) alternative, and sometimes you recommend not for what could be, but for what is, and this is certainly the simplest NES programming tool out there as of October 12, 2008.

I really do not recommend this period.	Hamtaro126	2008-10-10	-
Because 1: NESDEV has proven that this isn't appropiate for a BASIC interpreter. Concerning that it's code may lead to glitches and bad code. Making it incompatible with REAL NES hardware. Making it invauable for that reason and 2: There are better 6502 basic interpeters/compilers. One of them that I recommend is Batari Basic at http://bataribasic.com/download.html. Although this is specifically for another system (Atari 2600). This can be recoded or redone to be for the NES. That is all.

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