Hello,
I am interested in asking anyone with technical knowledge about a query regarding an idea I had.
Please be warned: I am by no means proficient on this subject and lack even basic technical knowledge.
My query is this:
I have noticed in homebrew development, devs are limited by how many tilesets, code etc... their cartridges can have for a single game. I understand that utilising different mappers gives more options but even with these, the limitations are evident for anyone wishing to have long cutscenes, variety in locations (meaning different tile sets), variation in music etc...
For many, I am sure these limitations are the reason they like to create projects for the Nes, but what about those who want to overcome this?
I thought about the idea of making a game which uses multiple cartridges. The idea is reminiscent to the days of having multiple floppy disks or CDs. Yet I don't particularly like the idea of having to carry around 20 cartridges and being like "play my game" lol
I wondered if it were possible for the ability to utilise an everdrive type of hardware to perform this task of making a 'multi-rom' game. The idea of having a fluid game experience without the need to change cartridges etc...
If I am correct, the everdrive has a firmware built into the cartridge which enables things like save states and the game selection menu etc... What if one was to make a similar device catered specifically to a single game.
A device which could seamlessly use multiple rom images and has the ability to flash specific roms when needed.
So for example - the 'multi-rom' cart boots up the title screen etc... It reads the previous save information meaning a player can resume their game or delete this save data by pressing new game.
Once an option is selected, the part of the game needed (the correct rom file) is flashed or however it would be done and the player is effectively playing that rom.
As they progress, the rom will have someway of letting the firmware know to load up the next rom file at the specific needed point and so on.
If there would be a delay in timing - for example how long the rom file takes to flash, then a simple 'now loading' screen could be used.
If this is a possible reality, it would mean we would be able to create lengthy nes games which used much more flexibility in their restrictions.
Please let me know if I am crazy.
Chris
I am interested in asking anyone with technical knowledge about a query regarding an idea I had.
Please be warned: I am by no means proficient on this subject and lack even basic technical knowledge.
My query is this:
I have noticed in homebrew development, devs are limited by how many tilesets, code etc... their cartridges can have for a single game. I understand that utilising different mappers gives more options but even with these, the limitations are evident for anyone wishing to have long cutscenes, variety in locations (meaning different tile sets), variation in music etc...
For many, I am sure these limitations are the reason they like to create projects for the Nes, but what about those who want to overcome this?
I thought about the idea of making a game which uses multiple cartridges. The idea is reminiscent to the days of having multiple floppy disks or CDs. Yet I don't particularly like the idea of having to carry around 20 cartridges and being like "play my game" lol
I wondered if it were possible for the ability to utilise an everdrive type of hardware to perform this task of making a 'multi-rom' game. The idea of having a fluid game experience without the need to change cartridges etc...
If I am correct, the everdrive has a firmware built into the cartridge which enables things like save states and the game selection menu etc... What if one was to make a similar device catered specifically to a single game.
A device which could seamlessly use multiple rom images and has the ability to flash specific roms when needed.
So for example - the 'multi-rom' cart boots up the title screen etc... It reads the previous save information meaning a player can resume their game or delete this save data by pressing new game.
Once an option is selected, the part of the game needed (the correct rom file) is flashed or however it would be done and the player is effectively playing that rom.
As they progress, the rom will have someway of letting the firmware know to load up the next rom file at the specific needed point and so on.
If there would be a delay in timing - for example how long the rom file takes to flash, then a simple 'now loading' screen could be used.
If this is a possible reality, it would mean we would be able to create lengthy nes games which used much more flexibility in their restrictions.
Please let me know if I am crazy.
Chris