CNES

Framework for building NES games that run natively on PC

What is CNES?

CNES is a framework that focuses on a cross platform solution for making NES games that conviently compiles and runs on PC as well. The goal is to have a truly cross platform solution, where the same assets and game code can be shared across all platforms. By building with the CNES interface, your game will run natively on the NES through the optimized NES implementation, and also natively on PC with SDL2 (and maybe other platforms in the future!)

How does CNES compare to other C based NES libraries?

Right now, CNES is a very small library with almost no features. As such, I recommend that you use any other NES C library that you find out there! The eventual difference will be that unlike any other NES C library out there, CNES is built from the ground up to compile natively to PC as well. Your game code will truly be cross platform with CNES.

(TODO full feature comparison/breakdown!)

Where can I see a sample?

CNES is still in heavy development so expect it to change often! Check out the example directory for the full example.

/**
 * Main game loop called by the CNES engine
 * 
 * See: example/main.c for the full code
 */
void runframe() {
    update_joypad();

    if (player1_pressed(PAD_A)) {
        music_start(SONG_MEGALOVANIA);
    }
    if (player1_released(PAD_B)) {
        music_start(SONG_METAL_CRUSHER);
    }
}

What about a feature roadmap?

Audio

NES

Current

Basic support for playing/pausing Famistudio audio tracks

Build script to export to NES

Planned

Sound effect support

Maybe Someday

Other NES sound engine support

PC

Current

Basic support for playing ogg audio tracks

Build script to export to PC

Planned

Sound effect support

Multiple audio tracks (ie: optional HD track support)

Controller

NES

Current

Reading player 1 and 2 data

Maybe Someday

Alternate input devices (Zapper, Multi tap, etc)

PC

Current

Reading player 1 (keyboard only)

Planned

Game controller support

Controller/Key mapping.

Hotkey support

Maybe Someday

Touch screen support (for mobile phones)

Graphics

NES

Current (None)

Planned

Omni-directional screen scroll

Screen split support

Animated background tiles

Asset pipeline for metatile/metasprites

PC

Current (None)

Planned

SDL based renderer of the sprites/tiles.

Asset pipeline to generate sprite sheets and tilemaps

HD Viewport (widescreen support)

HD Asset configuration

Configuration

NES

Current (None)

Planned

Save data helper methods

PC

Current (None)

Planned

Save data helper methods

Default configuration menu (for setting graphics/audio/controller options)

Maybe Planned:

Adding a UI library (Dear IMGUI or similar) for UI widgets

jroweboy / cnes