Today I was once again asked if I have a blog for my game boy emulator project. Well I didn't. Why write posts if you could spend that time programming? Fair enough right?
But it got me thinking. The only reason I'm able to write a game boy emulator is because of all the great documentation I find online posted by others. But it took me quite a while to find all those resources and allot details I had to discover for myself.
So here I am...
I hope maybe some day someone else will want to write they're own game boy emulator and stumbles onto this blog. Maybe it'll help them find the needed resources faster. Or as an archive for information that else might have gotten lost.
Anyhow, this isn't a programming course. So don't expect to learn step by step how to program an emulator. Hell, I'm still learning how to do it! Right now my emulator isn't even running.
It's a learning experience for me. An adventure of sorts. But this obsession with programming didn't happen overnight.
I was born in '81 in the Netherlands. A wonderful age to grow up in. I started programming in basic when I was just over 8 years old on a BBC micro. Later dabbled with a C64 but (in hindsight to quickly) got my first x86, a Zenith lug-able laptop.
My working years was mostly as a programmer. Writing software for security systems and actually writing an e-mail client from scratch which scrapes e-mail and automated back office stuff like shipping. It was fun, payed reasonably well ... life was good.
But I got a chronic illness which ended up resulting in me not programming for over a decade. It involves brain damage. Which sucks. Basically on the 27th of November 2000... it was game over.
Things are however going very well for a few years and slowly I'm picking it up again. It's all still in that grey blob between my ears. But it's something like learning how to walk again. I get headaches from time to time.
But I stay at it. It's just way to much fun and I missed that rush you get when your code just work. I'll admit it... I am and have all-ways been addicted to it. I can't stop. So at-least I have a project to keep me busy for a long time.
I've already coded all opcodes, just started on a debugger and gui to glue what I have together to start testing the cpu. Timers and interrupts are also very high on my todo list. I have test roms that output thru the serial (gamelink) port so I can add the lcd stuff later.
I'm writing it in Delphi, why I'm doing that is a story on itself. Best told another time. I'll try to at-least once per week post something about the project, game boy hardware or emulation.
If I get questions, I'll try to answer them. But no guarantees and like I said. This isn't a programming course. But I'll try to help where I can.
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