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A curated list of Sega Mega Drive development resources

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Awesome Mega Drive Development

A curated list of useful resources for Mega Drive programming.

Despite being over 30 years old, the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis) is still alive and kicking. A community of passionate fans has kept the 16-bit dream alive by releasing new projects and games throughout the years. If you've also always wanted to create your own Mega Drive game, then here is a list of various resources to help get you started!

Feel free to submit a pull request if you have anything to add to the list.

Documentation and Articles
Programming
- Frameworks
- Toolchains
- Engines
- Snippets and Demos
- Tutorials
  - Assembly
  - SGDK
Tools
Sound and Music
Open Source Games
Reverse Engineering
- Disassemblies
Communities
- Boards
- Discords
Extra Hardware
Other Sites and Resources

Documentation and Articles

Making a SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis game in 2019 - An article about current MD development
Mega Drive Development Wiki - A wiki about the technical aspects of the Mega Drive
Sega Genesis Manual - A technical overview of the Mega Drive by Sega
Hardware Notes by Kabuto - SEGA Mega Drive hardware notes written by Kabuto of TiTAN during the development of Overdrive 2
Pushing Polygons on the Mega Drive - Overdrive 2 demo polygon renderer write-up
Red Eyes demo technical details - Details on the Red Eyes demo of Remute's music album Technoptimistic
MD Development Kit Hardware - A look at the MD development kit hardware
Hello, Sega Genesis - A post about experimenting with MD dev (includes code examples)
Sega VR Revived - Reviving the unreleased Sega VR accessory
Porting Fantasy Zone to the Mega Drive - Porting Fantasy Zone to the Mega Drive (in Japanese)
M2 Interview on 3D Sonic the Hedgehog - Interview with M2 about developing the Sega 3D Classics version of Sonic
Sega Japan Sound Documents - Technical documents on the YM2612 and the Mega Drive sound drivers
Digging for Treasure in Aladdin's Source Code - An article exploring the source code of Aladdin
An authoritative reference on the YM2612 - A whole pile of Japanese documentation on the YM2612
Exodus MD Tech Docs - Technical details important for emulation and development
The Sound Drivers of Sonic the Hedgehog - An article about the sound drivers used in the classic Sonic games
Sonic Megamix is not Sonic CD! - An article about what Sonic Megamix is (and isn't)
How I built my own Sega Mega Drive hardware dev kit from scratch - An article about building a devkit, hardware and all.
16 Bits Homebrew Development Book (Spanish) (Amazon) - Mega Drive Development Book using SGDK (In Spanish).

Programming

Frameworks and Compilers

SGDK - Allows you to develop Mega Drive games in C
SecondBasic - Allows you to develop Mega Drive games in Basic
Java Grinder - Allows you to develop Mega Drive games in Java
32x DevKit - Devkit, manuals and links for 32X development
NEXTBasic - Page about the NEXTBasic compiler
BasiEgaXorz - The Sega Genesis Tiny BASIC Compiler
BlastForth - Development kit for the Mega Drive using the Forth programming language
mdk - Barebones megadrive development setup.
pysega - Sega Genesis / Mega Drive development kit (SDK) written in Python
mddev - A small Megadrive devkit with learning purposes.
GINCS Studio - A tool to create text adventures and visual novels for the Mega Drive (Page in Russian)
MEGADEV - A Sega Mega CD development framework
choice4genesis - A ChoiceScript clone that generates Sega Genesis ROMs; it can be used for visual novels or simple multimedia presentations

Toolchains

Marsdev - Cross platform Mega Drive / 32X toolchain
mdcc - Sega Mega Drive GCC Based Toolchain
SGDK for Linux - A set of makefiles to get SGDK working on Linux

Engines

KAdventure - An adventure game engine using SGDK and Python
BSPView - An in-progress 3d graphics engine
PortalView - A second-gen BSP/Portal renderer

Snippets and Demos

Samples in 68000 Assembly - Small, discreet, complete samples for the SEGA Mega Drive in 68000 assembly
ArcadeTV Samples - Code snippets in assembly for the Mega Drive
Hijacking the S&K Lock-on Cart - How to hijack the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cart
Writing ROMs using Rust - A proof-of-concept project using Rust to write Mega Drive ROMs

Tutorials

Assembly

Plutiedev - Various tutorials on programming the 68000, Z80 and more
68000 Assembly Programming for the Sega Genesis - Various tutorials on assembly coding for the Mega Drive
Big Evil Corporation - A tutorial on getting started with assembly coding for the Mega Drive
Mode 5 - A few basic assembly tutorials
MarkeyJester’s Motorola 68000 Beginner’s Tutorial - An extensive 68000 assembly tutorial for beginners
Hugues Johnson Tutorials - An assembly programming tutorial

SGDK

Ohsat Games - Various full project and one-off tutorials for SGDK
Danibus - Various SGDK tutorials in Spanish and English

Tools

Beehive - A complete content tool for the SEGA Mega Drive
MDTools - A collection of several free tools designed to aid in development of Mega Drive homebrew
Genesis Code - Visual Studio Code Extension For Use Easily SGDK and some other tools like Tiled.
Color Mixer - Color Mixer for SEGA Mega Drive
Sonic Retro Tools - Collection of tools and disassemblies by the members of Sonic Retro
Palette Batch - Converts images to use certain color palettes (made for use with SGDK)
240p Test Suite - A test suite to evaluate upscalers and related equipment
TILED-Python-to-C - A Python tool to convert Tiled XML data to C for use with SGDK
Retro Graphics Toolkit - A graphics tool to convert images for use on retro systems
TUME - An old map editor for 8bit and 16bit games
Aseprite Mega Drive Digitizer - Display images from Aseprite on your CRT using the Mega Drive
MCD-Verificator - A test program for CD core accuracy verification

Sound and Music

Echo - A Mega Drive Sound Engine
Mega PCM - A sound driver that exclusively plays digitized audio samples through an YM2612 sound chip's DAC channel
Mega Drive MIDI Interface - Control the Yamaha YM2612 and PSG of the Sega Mega Drive via MIDI
MDTracker - Native music tracker for the Mega Drive
MDSDRV - A sound driver for Sega Mega Drive
MML2VGM - Converts MML files to Mega Drive format
Lusid-Dreams - A SID player for the Sega 32X
VGM Music Maker Primer - A primer on creating music for the Mega Drive
DefleMask Instrument Tutorial - A video guide to making FM instruments for the Sega Mega Drive
GENNY VST - A VST for DAWs emulating Mega Drive instruments
Chipsynth MD emulation (Video) - Video about rigs created for chipsynth MD's emulation
Furnace - A multi-system chiptune tracker compatible with DefleMask modules
Pseym - A retro-style YM2612 instrument editor

Open-Source Games

Tanglewood - A platformer made in assembly
5 Stars - A minimalistic shmup made in assembly by SikTheHedgehog
Miniplanets - A unique platformer made in assembly by SikTheHedgehog
Project MD - Another game by SikTheHedgehog
Dragon's Castle - A platformer made in assembly...by SikTheHedgehog
Mega Grappler X - And another game by SikTheHedgehog!
Cave Story MD - A rewrite/port of Cave Story for the Mega Drive
Penguin World - A game made using SGDK
Lunch Break - A game made using SGDK
Right 2 Repair - A 2-player game made using SGDK
Dr. Mario MD - A port of Dr. Mario, made using SGDK
MegaDriveSnake - A Snake game made using SGDK
Moon Watcher Games - Various games and ports using SGDK and/or assembly
Tetris MD - A Tetris game made using SGDK
Tro-Now - A Tron lightcycle game made using SGDK
Retail Clerk '89 - An interactive fiction game made in assembly
Chris Shrigley Source Code Archive - Collection of code of games Chris Shrigley worked on (for educational purposes only!)
BattleCity Online - A port of BattleCity with online multiplayer
Fatal Smarties - An entry for Global Game Jam 2016
Pingouin Bleu - A horizontal shmup written with SGDK
Downforce - A futuristic racer written in C
Ramless Pong - Source code of Pong that does not use RAM, only CPU regs
xRick - A clone of Rick Dangerous for the 32X
Wolf32X - Source code for Wolf32X
Uwol - Quest For Money - Source code for Uwol
Doom - Proof of concept Doom port for Mega Drive
Crazy Driver - A simplistic top-view driving game written in C
Casanova: Love mission

Reverse Engineering

Disassemblies

lory90 dissassemblies - Dissassemblies of various Mega Drive games
Vladimir Kononovich Videos - Videos on reverse-engineering (in Russian)
Vladimir Kononovich Tools - Various tools for Mega Drive reverse-engineering
Shining Force Central - A github with projects relating to the Shining Force games
TMSS Disassembly - A disassembly of the TradeMark Security System

Communities

Boards

Discords

Extra hardware

SVP chip development - Open-source hardware boards to turn retail Virtua Racing cartridges into a "devkits", an assembler for the SVP chip DSP, sources and docs.
MegaWiFi - WiFi enabled cartridge for the Mega Drive

Other Sites and Resources

Romhacking.net MD - Resources for Mega Drive development
Romhacking.net MCD - Resources for Mega CD development
Romhacking.net 32X - Resources for 32X development
SMS Power! - Resources on Master System development
Super Splash Wave - Youtube videos by strafefox covering the development of various games, including Mega Drive games
Dithering on the Sega Genesis with Composite Video - Examination of dithering and composite video on the Sega Genesis
Sega Genesis Low Resolution Aspect Ratio - Examination of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive output of low resolution games (256x224) to a CRT
flamewing Github - A github with various Mega Drive projects
GenesisFan64 Github - A github with various Mega Drive and 32X projects
Mega Cat Studios Blog - A blog on Mega Drive development by Mega Cat Studios
2020 Games on Dreamcast and Mega Drive - A list of games made in 2020 for the Dreamcast and Mega Drive

awesome-megadrive's People

Contributors

Stargazers

Watchers

awesome-megadrive's Issues

Suggestions for the list

Thank you for creating this list, great idea!

Check out these two extensive retrocoding GitHub lists (probably the best of their kind) as an example of how the Mega Drive list could possibly be developed further when it comes to the content and look:

Awesome Game Boy Development: https://gbdev.io/list.html
Awesome N64 Development: https://n64.dev/

Some suggestions for the list:

Two links for the beginners: Mega Drive Architecture A Practical Analysis (https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/mega-drive-genesis/) and A Guide to the Graphics of the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis (https://rasterscroll.com/mdgraphics/)
Coding Secrets: https://www.youtube.com/c/CodingSecrets/
matteusbeus retro game dev channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/matteusbeusRetroDev/
SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis hardware notes written by Kabuto of TiTAN during the development of Overdrive 2: https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1ST9GbFfPnIjLT5loytFCm3pB0kWQ1Oe34DCBBV8saY8/
Pushing Polygons on the Mega Drive [Overdrive 2 demo polygon renderer write-up]: https://jix.one/pushing-polygons-on-the-mega-drive/
Red Eyes demo technical details: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17pX_PS5uXSWoaS71JurC-DSKIV8ZAzlaP4o1jXbJ9CA/edit
Blast Processing demo by Gabriel Morales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvvL6S5Buiw
32X DevKit: https://github.com/viciious/32XDK
DOOM 32x: Resurrection project: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/119202-32x-resurrection/
ProjectCD -- Mega CD Boot Loader: https://github.com/LukeUsher/ProjectCD
240p Test Suite for Sega Genesis/Sega CD: https://github.com/ArtemioUrbina/240pTestSuite/tree/master/240psuite/Genesis/240p
Mike Pavone's Projects, BlastEm, Sega CD research: https://www.retrodev.com/
Sega CD Frog Feast homebrew source code: http://frogfeast.rastersoft.net/SegaCDSrc.html
Look carefully through the stuff gathered here by moon-watcher — homebrew (especially check out ports of the indie games l’Abbaye des Morts and Bug Hunt, as well as Griel’s Quest, Chase, Zooming Secretary, MegaAtoms), demoscene examples, and some other things: https://github.com/moon-watcher They update this collection from time to time.
TetrisMD homebrew: https://github.com/NeroJin/TetrisMD
Tro-Now homebrew: https://github.com/bitbitjam/bbj2/tree/master/%5BMD%5D%20Tro-Now
Retail Clerk '89 homebrew: https://www.huguesjohnson.com/rc89/ And the dev's programming tutorial: https://huguesjohnson.com/programming/genesis/palettes/
Mode 7 demo by gasega68k technical discussion: http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1959
Wolfenstein 3D by gasega68k technical discussion: https://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1537
Star Fox demos by gasega68k (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUZpF2JLF4s) and Stef (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuYFmIEtLLk) could also be mentioned
Resistance Sega Mega Drive demos: http://www.resistance.no/?location=platforms&category=9
Paprium is controversial, but because of its interesting technical side (the use of an enhancement chip, for example), I think the project could be mentioned: https://www.retrorgb.com/paprium-reviews-are-in.html
Source Code Archive : The Chris Shrigley Page [including Sega Genesis, Sega CD games]: http://shrigley.com/source_code_archive/
Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) Development Kit Hardware: https://www.retroreversing.com/sega-mega-drive-genesis-development-kit/
Hello, Sega Genesis: https://log.martinatkins.me/2020/01/20/hello-sega-genesis/
Sonic Retro on GitHub: Collection of tools and disassemblies by the members of Sonic Retro: https://github.com/sonicretro
Demonstration of hijacking the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cart to run user code: https://github.com/BigEvilCorporation/s3k_hijack
lory90 disassembly projects: https://github.com/lory90
Vladimir Kononovich creates Sega Genesis software reverse-engineering videos (in Russian, one can use automatic CC translation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNJtvdeVllA&list=PL9T2Lv4uZytQxcYFUG9bZ0IBSFiljVV70 On Github they have also some tools for Sega Genesis reverse-engineering: https://github.com/lab313ru
Sega Genesis (https://www.romhacking.net/?page=documents&category=&platform=11), Sega CD (https://www.romhacking.net/?page=documents&category=&platform=29), Sega 32X (https://www.romhacking.net/?page=documents&category=&platform=31) Documents section at ROMhacking.net
MegaWiFi: https://github.com/doragasu/mw
Battle City port with network support: https://github.com/krikzz/BattleCity-online
A proof-of-concept project using Rust to write Mega Drive ROMs: https://github.com/ricky26/rust-mega-drive
How to make Sega Genesis music (in 1994): video about GEMS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEvnZRCW_qc
Creating Music and Sound for the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive: A Primer for Using the VGM Music Maker: https://megacatstudios.com/blogs/retro-development/creating-music-and-sound-for-the-sega-genesis-mega-drive-a-primer-for-using-the-vgm-music-maker
DefleMask Instrument Tutorial - Sega Genesis / Megadrive FM Sound video [currently part 1 only]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS8edjurjDw
PaletteBatch: https://allone-works.itch.io/palette-batch
Sega VR Revived: https://gamehistory.org/segavr/
Widescreen Genesis Emulator (could be an interesting feature, if someone would like to put their homebrew game on Steam, for instance): https://www.retrorgb.com/retroarch-now-has-a-widescreen-genesis-emulator.html
Communities: SpritesMind.Net, Discords: SGDK (https://discord.com/invite/hpHesQG), Plutiedev (https://discord.com/invite/k79rzTz), Mega Drive Developers Collective (https://discord.com/invite/QdudKChTxn), SegaXtreme (https://discord.com/invite/C5TbdCH), BlastEm emulator (https://discord.com/invite/mQW4MKD), DefleMask (https://discord.com/invite/bqSNKHE), The Fourth Modulator (https://discord.com/invite/PSwpJ85)
Popular emulators (http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Sega_Genesis_emulators), hardware reimplementations MiSTer FPGA (https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki), Mega Sg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZCQ6kN9Ie0)
Flashcarts could also be mentioned. Including the functionality of some to use enhanced CD audio (Mega Evedrive PRO: https://github.com/krikzz/msu-md, MegaSD: https://downloads.terraonion.com/public/MegaSD_DEV_Manual.pdf), SVP chip support, Mega Evedrive PRO can also run accelerated Doom, utilize MegaColor enhanced video playback (https://twitter.com/GamesUniq), emulate NES.
One could also try to list Mega Drive homebrew publishers, and what choice does one have when it comes to new homebrew cartridge boards to put their games on
SMS Power! community could be mentioned as well, if someone would like to use Mega Drive's Master System capabilities and make a game for that system: https://www.smspower.org/

Regards

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