Hi folks!

[Pilgrimm]

Hi gang! Just joined recently and I'm pretty stoked to be here.

I'm honestly rather new to a lot of programming but I've worked with an oddball bit of coding before and I'm greatly fascinated by the challenge of C(++) and assembly.
PSX homebrew's been on my radar for a couple of years too, at least since late '09. I never grew up with the original PSX - I'm a lot younger than a lot of you I reckon - but at the time, the idea of developing for such a platform was greatly appealing (I'd been familiar with Genesis hacking for a few years before that, but mainly just the Sonic hacking side of things); just the fact I could load up something like Loser's Bootedit and change up the bootscreen was the coolest thing to me. I'm sure that I have a lot of the old tools saved somewhere

Anyhow, recently I've been curious about programming for old platforms (generally speaking, not just for games) and I remembered a lot of this stuff. Actually, what led me here was an old video about the old-school PISS emulator. While my skills are nowhere near that level, I'm generally curious about what makes that stuff run.

Looking forward to contributing here!

[danhans42]

Hey hello and welcome!

When you mention that old school PISS emulator, do you mean that CD that was doing the rounds with the master system emulator on it? Think that was released by a team called 'PISS' or something.

Anyway welcome :0)

[Pilgrimm]

When you mention that old school PISS emulator, do you mean that CD that was doing the rounds with the master system emulator on it? Think that was released by a team called 'PISS' or something.

That's the one, yeah. I remembered it the other day and while watching a video of it I noticed there was a shoutout to the #psxdev IRC on the menu, so that led me here via Google

Thanks for the welcome! I noticed your wifi project btw; I'm intrigued by the concept of wifi on the PS1.

[danhans42]

Yeah the emulator itself wasn't written.by them, just the menu that loaded the ROMs.

If I remember correctly, the emulator was written by someone called Bero, who also wrote a PC Engine emulator also.

[Pilgrimm]

If I remember correctly, the emulator was written by someone called Bero, who also wrote a PC Engine emulator also.

That's really fascinating actually, I googled Bero's work and I found an original page for what appears to be the original emulator: http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown/200 ... sxdev.html
From what you're telling me, it appears as though PISS was just a frontend for a port of an old MS emulator called MasterGear (which is still being made!). Honestly it does make me wonder if it could be improved upon (sound wise especially ). If only Bero made it open-source.

[danhans42]

Thats his page, hasnt been updated in decades.

I am pretty sure he used to have the source as part of the download. But basically all the "piss" menu system does is load the rom file into the correct memory address, it loads LIBPS into memory and executes the Yaroze binary (just as you would if you were doing it manually).

[gwald]

welcome...
what do you want to do?

[Pilgrimm]

I am pretty sure he used to have the source as part of the download. But basically all the "piss" menu system does is load the rom file into the correct memory address, it loads LIBPS into memory and executes the Yaroze binary (just as you would if you were doing it manually).

Dang! Shame the source isn't up anymore, I would've liked to take a look at it.

Pardon my lack of knowledge but what differentiates the "unofficial" ( ) PSX binary from the Yaroze binary? Is it libps?
I know some things about the PSX hardware but I don't know very much about the Yaroze kit, I must admit.

welcome...
what do you want to do?

Honestly, I'm trying to learn much more about programming. I have a very basic grip of C at the moment and I'm trying to learn more, so I wanted to take a shot at PSX homebrew, specifically demos; I like new challenges and I love working with older platforms

[danhans42]

Yaroze creates ecoff binaries that are linked against LIBPS.EXE - this is the standalone yaroze library - basically this contains libraries. Its quite big (400kb from memory). It can be quite limiting in functions and by its RAM usage.

PsyQ uses its own libraries, and creates its own EXE's that can be easily converted to PS-EXE format. Because you only define the library functions you actually need its memory usage is much more optimal. PsyQ is massive, and as an amatuer programmer you wouldn't ever probably hit a limit to its potential.

There is also the open source PSXSDK. This can be a little more tricky to set-up as you need to get it working in a posix like environment (linux/OSX or Cygwin/MinGW/WSL for Windows).

Id probably start with PsyQ - its massively supported on here and the EXE's is creates are simple to upload to the hardware either by a serial cable or burning to CD.

If you are new to it, pick a small project and start researching and building up the project and let it evolve whilst you get used to the environment.

[gwald]

Honestly, I'm trying to learn much more about programming. I have a very basic grip of C at the moment and I'm trying to learn more, so I wanted to take a shot at PSX homebrew, specifically demos; I like new challenges and I love working with older platforms

Cool, there's a big learning curve, and C is the easiest part IMO.
I would agree with danhan42 and add to stick to the GSlib's when starting, (which is what Net Yaroze is anyway).
Start with 2D, it's pretty simple and it's well implemented IMO

I wrote a far bit about my revisit of Net Yaroze in 2016, specifically "The development process" which might give you an idea of what you're in for