Updated "Getting started on the Uzebox" page

[danboid]

Tonight I updated

https://uzebox.org/wiki/Getting_Started_on_the_Uzebox

by correcting a few typos, fixing a couple of links, adding the packages required to build the Uzebox repo under Debian and Ubuntu and adding a link to my guide to setting up Kate as a Uzebox IDE.

[danboid]

I've updated this page again by adding a new Tutorials section that currently reads:

What if you want to write video games but you have no programming knowledge whatsoever? I can highly recommend that you read the free online book Program Arcade Games With Python And Pygame. That book will teach you to develop games using Python, which you can't use to code for the Uzebox directly but you will find C much easier to learn after learning Python. Almost all of the concepts you will learn in that book can be applied to writing Uzebox games in C and also other game engines such as Godot, which uses a scripting language called gdscript that is very similar to Python.

If you already know C or a similar programming language, then you should watch Matt Pandina's "Let's code for the Uzebox" series of videos for a good introduction to getting started with developing for the Uzebox under Linux.

For more in depth and advanced Uzebox development tutorials see Weber's Rants.

[danboid]

I can't recommend the Program Arcade Games book highly enough. I've tried to read books on learning C or C++ etc before but most programming books and videos are so dry and boring. Program Arcade Games makes learning programming fun for anyone who is into video games because all the examples it gives are used in the context of writing games. Yeah, pygame is a pretty crappy game engine that no-one is going to use to write a game with but after finishing the book its easy to start reading the Godot tutorial and the then the game dev world is your oyster.

I was able to write my first Uzebox game not long after reading PAG and I didn't have to read any books on C, I just watched Matt's videos and looked at the source of several Uzebox games to see how others did stuff. The most useful (understandable) examples for me were the pong clone in the Uzebox repo and Ghosty Ghost, which is very well commented.

[danboid]

I've added a link to Ghosty Ghost in the tutorials section. Its probably the best commented Uzebox game source code there is.

[danboid]

I added the SD cards that I've tested with the Uzebox to https://uzebox.org/wiki/SD_Card_Compatibility_List last night.

[uze6666]

Hi, I finally managed to update the (quite outdated) installation information for Windows. Took me a while to find relatively recent toolchains that are easy to install and that works without changes to the current code base.

I also used the occasion to tidy up a bit the "Getting Started" page. To lighten the text I moved platforms toolchains installations/source checkout/compiling to their own pages. As it is, it's still pretty basic, but it's a start!

[Artcfox]

Hi, I finally managed to update the (quite outdated) installation information for Windows. Took me a while to find relatively recent toolchains that are easy to install and that works without changes to the current code base.

I also used the occasion to tidy up a bit the "Getting Started" page. To lighten the text I moved platforms toolchains installations/source checkout/compiling to their own pages. As it is, it's still pretty basic, but it's a start!

Awesome!

Unless I am looking at the wrong wiki page, why not also (or firstly?) point people to the official latest and greatest GCC toolchain directly from Microchip? They offer the same version for Windows, Mac, and Linux along with super easy installation instructions in the release notes PDF: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/tools-r ... -compilers

It is as easy as extracting a zip file, and making sure its bin/ directory is on your PATH, and you are good to go with the toolchain part.

[uze6666]

Unless I am looking at the wrong wiki page, why not also (or firstly?) point people to the official latest and greatest GCC toolchain directly from Microchip?

Good point, because the version that downloads from that page (at least for windows) is actually AVR-GCC 7.3.0?! I spent a maddening whole evening trying to find chains that would work fine and could just be unzipped. For instance I tried some GCC 11 chain for x86 and it would fail to compile uzem. So I just went for the higher version I remembered using that was fine everywhere and used that. Just needed to start somewhere. I'll revisit it for sure in the short future but, for now, I reckon it's good enough.

Interestingly I get get an Access Denied from that page tonight! https://www.microchip.com/en-us/tools-r ... -compilers

[danboid]

Good work Uze!

What is it that keeps you on Windows Uze? I'm presuming there must be at least one app you need that doesn't run under Linux or maybe you actually prefer Windows? Have you ever had the joy of using ZFS or BTRFS snapshots to instantly revert your system state from the boot menu? That alone is worth the effort to switch to Linux IMO.

We don't seem to have any Mac users here. Cool!

[uze6666]

What is it that keeps you on Windows Uze?

Just getting too old to change perhaps? I used and developed under Windows since version 3.1 so I know the innards of the system more than I could ever hope with Linux. Windows came a long way since and it works just fine for me.