HOWTO test

[ob1]

It has been discussed many, many times in the whole forum, but :

- some posts are really old, and I guess things have changed since then

- the testing ways are spreaded in the whole forum

I guess it's time for a sum up.


With the Genesis, here's how I do :

- I write my ASM with the Notepad. 1 file may be enough. The header is quite easy.

- I use Charles Doty's assembler and I get a BIN.

- I open it with GENS

et voilà !


But how can I do with Saturn ?

Do I have to include a security code ?

What tool do I use to compile and assemble ?

Once I get a binary, do I have to make an ISO out of it, or can I simply load it, as a cartridge (the 60004000 thing) ?


Since I'm not planning to buy a Saturn soon, and since the protection hasn't be cracked, except with the swap trick, I intend emu only for now.


I know, quite a newbie question. So, don't hesitate answering me with "RTFM" ! But that's exactly what I'm going to do now !!!


More newbie questions to come.

 

[mic]

You can load the binary in Yabause (or some other emulator). There's also the USB data link if you have a Saturn and a Pro Action Replay+ cartridge, which let's you upload and execute binaries.

 

[dibz]

Personally I've only ever used my PAR+ with a PC-Comms card to test binaries on my Saturn, although most seem to use emulators for this.

 

[ob1]

Right. But I guess you're limited to ... let's say 2MB or so ...

Isn't it ?

 

[ob1]

OK, so for testing, I'll go the yabause way. And I am limited to 1MB, up to 06100000h. The emulator asks me where to put my program, and sets the master CPU Program Counter to this address.


If I want a bigger program, I write a real ISO, IP.BIN at the real beginning and IP.BIN says the 1rst read address, while SYSStart says the master CPU PC, right ?

 

[mrkotfw]

OK, so for testing, I'll go the yabause way. And I am limited to 1MB, up to 06100000h. The emulator asks me where to put my program, and sets the master CPU Program Counter to this address.

If I want a bigger program, I write a real ISO, IP.BIN at the real beginning and IP.BIN says the 1rst read address, while SYSStart says the master CPU PC, right ?

You have around 1M to play with. You can load your app at 0x06004000-0x07ffffff