CJ takes us behind the scenes of Hackweek to share how he built a custom Sega Genesis game from scratch, complete with assembly code, level loading, and retro hardware tricks. From SGDK to parallax faking, this episode is a deep dive into old-school game dev with a modern twist.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
00:44 Why a Sega game?
- Sega Genesis.
- Sega Master System.
- MKBHD Retro Tech: Sega.
06:55 What is it running on?
07:49 Working with assembly code.
10:11 Sega Genesis Development Kit.
- Stephane-D GitHub.
10:54 Awesome Megadrive.
12:02 Booting on an emulator.
13:07 Gens and KMod.
15:54 Compiling stage.
17:44 Genesis Code VS Code Extension.
18:22 Images and Assets.
19:46 Loading images with bitmap.
23:50 Megacat Studios.
25:21 Z index?
- Faking Parallax.
27:34 Specific code examples.
27:51 Platformer Engine.
30:01 Platformer Sample Game.
30:44 LDTK (Level Designer Toolkit).
33:13 Tiled Collision mapping.
37:42 What about debugging?
39:37 Loading in levels.
- RetroGameMechanicsExplained.
- Sega Mega-CD Development Unit.
43:56 Challenges with graphics.
49:56 Adding music.
- Super Cartridge.
- Flahskit Programmer MD.
- Flashkit Cart MD.

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