Updated 8/18/2014 I noticed that there are frequently questions in The Brewery regarding the best tools to use for creating or modifying NES games. I thought it might be nice to collect a list of the most frequently used tools with links to their homepages. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of everything that's out there, but instead a sort of "greatest hits" list.

I went through the painful process of moving my NES development from Win XP to Ubuntu to Mac OS X to Win 7, and I know that finding a whole new set of tools can be a pain. So I've included compatibility notes for as many tools as I could.

I know that the list is incomplete; this is just my first throwdown to get it started. For example, most of the compatibility notes are just based on personal experience. I'll continue to improve this list and update it regularly. Any suggestions for improvement or additional information would be most welcomed! I would also like to include any tools that you all have written. Hope this is helpful!

ASSEMBLERS These assemblers turn your code into an .NES file--it's magic!

NAME	SOURCE	COMPATIBILITY	NOTES
ASM6	http://home.comcast.net/~olimar/NES/
ca65	http://www.cc65.org/doc/ca65.html
DASM	http://www.neshq.com/6502program/
NESASM3	http://www.nespowerpak.com/nesasm/	Windows--Yes Linux--Yes	The Nerdy Nights code samples are written for this assembler.
WLA DX	http://www.villehelin.com/wla.html
X816

EMULATORS Test your .NES file with an emulator.

NAME	SOURCE	COMPATIBILITY	NOTES
Nestopia	http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/	Windows--Yes Mac--Yes Linux--Yes	Does not have a debugger.
Nintendulator	http://www.qmtpro.com/~nes/nintendulator/	Windows--Yes	Good debugging tools.
FCE Ultra		Windows--Yes Mac--Yes Linux--Yes	Does not have a debugger.
FCEUX	http://fceux.com/web/home.html	Windows--Yes Linux--Yes (Limited features)	Windows version is very nice and has a good debugger.
FCEUXD SP	http://www.the-interweb.com/serendipity/index.php?/categorie...	Windows--Yes	Has a debugger

MUSIC TOOLS These programs, called trackers, are used to make NES music code that you can include in your game.

NAME	SOURCE	COMPATIBILITY	NOTES
FamiTracker	http://famitracker.shoodot.net/	Windows--Yes Linux--Yes (WINE)
NerdTracker II	http://nesdev.parodius.com/nt2/	Windows--Yes Linux--No

TILE EDITORS Tile editors allow you to create and edit the graphics in your games.

NAME	SOURCE	COMPATIBILITY	NOTES
NES CHR Editor	http://homepage.mac.com/squirrel2/nes_chr/	Mac--Yes
NES Screen Tool 2.0	http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopi...	Windows--Yes	Haven't tested this personally but looks cool.
Tile Molester		Windows--Yes Linux--Yes
YY-CHR 0.99b	http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/119/	Windows--Yes Mac--No Linux--Yes (WINE)	Easy to use, many features, including new GUI nametable builder.

TEXT EDITORS The text editor that came with your OS will allow you to write assembly code, but these text editors have additional features that make coding easier.

NAME	SOURCE	COMPATIBILITY	NOTES
ConText	http://www.contexteditor.org/	Windows--Yes	ASM syntax highlighting, tabbed files
gedit	http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/	Windows--Yes Mac--Yes Linux--Yes	ASM syntax highlighting (plugin), tabbed files
Notepad++	http://notepad-plus-plus.org/		ASM syntax highlighting, tabbed files

HEX EDITORS Hex editors are useful for chopping out, adding in, or rewriting certain parts of your files.

NAME	SOURCE	COMPATIBILITY	NOTES
GHex	http://live.gnome.org/Ghex	Linux--Yes
Hexecute	http://www.emulationzone.org/projects/hexecute/	Windows--Yes
Hexposure		Windows--Yes
HxD	http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/	Windows--Yes Mac--No	Useful feature that allows files to be split into multiple files of a set size.
KHexEdit	http://home.online.no/~espensa/khexedit/	Linux--Yes

GRAPHICS EDITORS Unlike tile editors, these programs won't help you get graphics directly into your game. But they will help you complete any initial design work you might wish to do first.

NAME	SOURCE	COMPATIBILITY	NOTES
GIMP	http://www.gimp.org/	Windows--Yes Mac--Yes Linux--Yes	Photoshop-like graphics editing. Has layers support.
GraphicsGale	http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/index.html	Windows--Yes
Paint.NET	http://www.getpaint.net/	Windows--Yes	Lightweight program with layers support, color reduction. Can import NES palette. User-made plugins available.
Pixen	http://download.cnet.com/Pixen/3000-2191_4-44996.html	Windows--No Mac--Yes	Has layers support, color reduction, customizable palettes. Prone to crashes.

 

Nintendulator would be another good addition to the emulators section. It is frequently regarded as the most cycle accurate NES emulator. Newer versions have a debugger which some people prefer over FCEU. Debugger should also be mentioned for the others, specifically that all versions Nestopia have none and the Mac/Linux ports of FCEU have none.

I'd add Nintendulator on to the list of accurate emulators for testing.

*edit, apparently I read a little too slow lol.

HXD great free hex editor for windows for sure not sure about other OS's

Awesome idea rachel. Great start.

If you use ca65 and fceuxdsp 1.07, then nlgen is awesome: http://nesdev.com/nlgen.zip...

It generates .nl files that fceuxdsp uses to put your labels on all your variables/addresses in the debugger. I don't know what I'd do without it.

Stickyed! Awesome.

Why have I never seen this before!! Thank-you so much for sharing that link!

No problem.  It's pretty new and ca65 assembler-specific, so that may be why you haven't seen it before.  But it's a great little program.  I call it in my make batch file, so every time I assemble I get fresh .nl files for debugging.

Nooo, why is pixen mac only?! Thanks for sharing those other tools, just awesome.

Graphic Converter is what I would suggest for MacOS. It has the normal paint/pixel editing tools. As a side benefit it can import/export pretty much every possible graphics format.

On the subject of image editors, I like GraphicsGale for windowze. I'm not knocking Gimp, but it has way more features then you need for simple sprites and animation.

Cool, thanks! Updated. Bunnyboy--is Graphic Converter not a free program? I hadn't even thought to include the for-pay stuff. But then, I'm cheap, soo...
This has reminded me how completely awesome it would be to actually have an emulator with a debugger again. Mmm, memories...

Thanks for the kind remarks about nlgen. I'm happy to see it get more exposure. If anybody has trouble using it or has suggestions, I think I included my email address in there but failing that pm me on here or nesdev.

Rachel, what are you using for your assembler now that you've transitioned to OS X?

Haha... nothing yet . My plan was to move all of my dev stuff from the Ubuntu netbook to the Mac Mini; doing graphics on a tiny screen was getting to be a pain. However, I haven't really played with getting an assembler set up yet, and I'm still doing all my dev (except for graphic design) on the Ubuntu machine. This is my first foray into Mac Land since the Apple 2e I had as a kid, and I'm not really up to speed on it yet. I somehow finagled NESASM 2 into working in Linux, so maybe there's hope for me yet. Anyone else assemblifying on a Mac?

P.S. Going to try setting up NESASM3 now... will let you know if I don't blow up.

just a note, TileMolester (0.16 at least) works fine on linux.. it's just a java program, no wine required.

You should add Shirus' screen tool on here, I'll add a link later to the NESDev post.

Updated! Gonna try to fill in the last of the holes on this list soon. If you don't have it, be sure to grab the new version of YY-CHR with the integrated nametable builder. It's raaadical.

I will definitely check it out. Thanks Ray-ray.

Curious, has anyone written a C (or C like) NES compiler? And if so (or even, if not) has someone created something of a stdlib?

One more, not related to my last comment.

The FamiTracker appears to be a dead link. :/

Ca65 is linked above but it's just the assembler of a C compiler, CC65.
http://cc65.github.io/cc65/...

Shiru's NES C stuff can be found here:
https://shiru.untergrund.net/code...

and here:
https://shiru.untergrund.net/arti...

Dougeff's NES C tutorials:
https://nesdoug.com/...

I personally don't use C, but I'm glad to see the scene growing to include folks who for whatever reason have brains that like C. Haha. I'm weird. I actually think it causes me more trouble and takes me more time to build a game with it than with straight asm.

CC65 has stdlib, but in my opinion it is totally useless on the NES. For example, you won't really ever need to allocate/deallocate memory dynamically, for performance reasons. There is just about 1.2-1.5K of RAM for variables, after all.