About Neo.Geo devkit

[Dr.Wily]

I never have seen any NeoGeo devkit. Does exist it or game developers builds their own proprietary devkit ?

If yes, how is possible ? Neogeo has some custom SNK chip and developers need some information about it.

[TonK]

Here you go:

http://www.neobitz.com/Downloads/DevKit/NeoDev001.zip

http://www.neobitz.com/Downloads/DevKit/NeoDev001fix.zip

You must download the second file.

This runs in Windows and is C/C++

Please read the readme1st.txt file.

Credit goes to a great friend of mine who is also one of the pioneers of modding the Neo Geo.

[Calpis]

Really how many 3rd party developers were there? <10? So few that I image they all used SNK's tools. There have been references to an official development kit, which for certain included a manual (hardware and BIOS documentation). I believe it would also include software for graphics/sound driver sequencing and a 3rd party 68K assembler/compiler. The hardware was probably optional. To debug your program you'd have needed a 3rd party 68K ICE in your Neo. To test your audio/character data you'd need SNK's JEIDA flashcard boards or an EPROM test board.

I'm willing to bet that by the mid-late 90s developers used emulation for the quick cycle time over gigantic flashcards.

[ASSEMbler]

I'm guessing it's more like NES where it comes down to the skill of the individual engineer or programmer.

[TonK]

Can anyone understand the devkit files?

[neogeocdworld]

Hello

I list some adress and program for the NeoGeo and NeoGeo CD, after the test of the homebrew program

http://www.neogeocdworld.info/html/jeux/jeuxamateurs.htm

you never see NeoGeo devkit beacause he not existe, SNK work with HP station

[neogeocdworld]

Hello

I create a new page

http://www.neogeocdworld.info/html/aide/programmation/programmation.htm

[XxHennersXx]

what is HP Station?

[neogeocdworld]

Hewlett Packard station

[port187]

Hewlett Packard station

No shit sherlock :thumbsup: i think he is asking what kind of device is it, just a normal desktop/workstation? what kind of hw and running what OS? etc

[neogeocdworld]

I haven't the contract between SNK and HP... :110:
An french newspaper mentioned than SNK program with HP Unit but he give not Model, Os etc

It's probably the 9000/300 HP station series with DOS/Unix for Os

[port187]

I haven't the contract between SNK and HP... :110:
An french newspaper mentioned than SNK program with HP Unit but he give not Model, Os etc

It's probably the 9000/300 HP station series with DOS/Unix for Os

HP 9000 series servers were running on HP own OS HP-UX which was a unix flavour.

Can't seem to find any relation on SNK/Neo Geo development and HP-UX on google tho.. anyway with answers?

[neogeocdworld]

i never see information on it too

the french article was writte in 1990
In 97 snk edit an publication on the firm, SNK Corporate File, you could see it if you recognize some soft or hard

http://www.neogeoforlife.com/photogallery.php?album_id=167

[l_oliveira]

At picture #6 someone is working on chip development. Seems like VERILOG stuff for me, not game development. And it looks like a NEC PC.

Picture #8 shows what seems to be a classic Macintosh user interface running a graphic editor tool. And the data being edited seem to be one frame of Haohmaru animation on Samurai Spirits 2.

Picture #9 show what appear to be NEC PCs on a midi enviroment for music authoring.

Neo Geo rocks ;)

But then honestly, I believe most DEVs had to build their own tools and all SNK would provide them was a huge book with the system specs and design rules along with a EPROM test board.

It's 1990 ! Nobody ever thought of dealing with "middleware" back then. And companies who were already using anything closely resembling middleware would use it internally only.
:shrug:

So I believe DEVs could use any kind of system they wanted to.

[Calpis]

Hewlett Packard (Agilent) is the leader in test equipment. The development hardware would be a Neo fitted with a HP 68000 ICE, not a HP workstation...

I believe SNK had a standard development kit including a manual, ICE and software. I would guess they didn't support Z80 programming, but instead encoured people to use their sound driver and sequencer. How they tested graphics on hardware, I don't know. Either they had a very expensive ROM emulator (never heard it mentioned) or they could only test animations in the character software.

[neogeocdworld]

Hello Link i say I don't know the real HP Hardware than SNK Used, the articles don't mention it, and in this article they said it was just for coding they not mention grapph and music
I think it could be the 9000/300 series because it's an 68k serie (68010 to 68040)

what is the HP 68000 ICE ? i don't know what it was

l_oliveira (http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/member.php?u=8612): thanks to your remarque

[Calpis]

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902559.536881059.00

[neogeocdworld]

yes but this one ara not avalid in 1990' ?

[Calpis]

That particular model may not have been (though it looks that age), but there are plenty that were (dating back to at least 1980)... Lots of logic analyzers were also used as ICE. There's no question that the development hardware consisted of a 3rd party ICE, not something like a custom TOOL workstation; for popular processors it's the logical solution over rolling your own.

If it was HP, it was probably some of this hardware:

http://www.hparchive.com/Journals/Low-Resolution/HPJ-1980-10-Low-Resolution.pdf

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/64000/brochures/5953-2795_General_Purpose_Preprocessor_Interface_Module _Nov-1982.pdf

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/64000/brochures/5953-2789_Real-Time_Emulator_Motorola_MC68000_Sep-1982.pdf

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/64000/brochures/5953-9246_68000_68010_Preprocessor_Interface_Module_Jul-1984.pdf

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/64000/brochures/5953-9281_Real-Time_Emulator_Motorola_MC68000_68008_Aug-1985.pdf

[HI_Ricky]

I haven't the contract between SNK and HP... :110:
An french newspaper mentioned than SNK program with HP Unit but he give not Model, Os etc

It's probably the 9000/300 HP station series with DOS/Unix for Os

may be OS/2 ?

[neogeocdworld]

OS/2 ?

HP propose the two system but not in the same time