Have you ever wanted to make a PS1 game?
Well now you can, with Net Yaroze!
Game Jam
2024 Net Yaroze Game Jam
This game jam will run from the 1st of October to 31 of December. This year's theme is: peripherals!
The Net Yaroze kit came with 2 black PlayStation, standard (non analog) controllers. However, Net Yaroze also supports many peripherals, including:
- Analog controllers, DualShock and Analog Joystick (rumble is not supported).
- Namco NegCon controllers.
- Steering wheels (based on NegCon or Analog controls).
- Namco Guncon lightgun (Konami's Justifier is not supported).
- PlayStation Mouse.
- PlayStation Link cable.
- And many other devices that are yet to be tested.
The Net Yaroze input function, GetPadBuf simplifies the initialization of the controller ports and also limits the data to 8 bytes. Probably so it didn't compete with (real) licensed developers. Unfortunately this means no MultiTap support.
The Net Yaroze can also read and write to memory cards. And also read files* and play audio tracks from the CDROM, video streaming is not supported.
*The Net Yaroze PlayStation can not read burnt CD-R's however it can still read files from PlayStation discs.
With the small and simplified Net Yaroze SDK in conjunction with the supported peripherals and devices mentioned above, you are only limited by your imagination in terms of novel and interesting game design, running on PlayStation.
Alternatively to the above, you can also submit a Net Yaroze game based on previous Net Yaroze Game Jams, this includes:
- A single screen 2D game.
- A scrolling 2D game.
- A 3D game.
And recommended if you are new to PlayStation programming.
Peripheral Tips
You don't have to have a specific peripheral to program for it. Most emulators support most peripherals mentioned above, IE:
- Mednafen
- DuckStation
- No$PSX (Supports Link cable)
A USB Mouse to PlayStation is very easy to make or one can be purchased.
- Peripheral info page.
- Peripheral tutorials.
- CDROM tutorials.
- Link cable is programmed using ioctl(), read() and write() through the serial port at 9,600bps or 115,200bps.
- Net Yaroze FAQ.
What you get
- Community support and encouragement.
- All successful submissions will be included in a Net Yaroze yearly demo disc (CDROM image), created by qobol, which can be played in emulators.
- And optionally, make a project static homepage and it will be hosted here (50mb limit), just like the original Net Yaroze did, ie: http://netyaroze.com/~username
- A big smile, knowing you made a PlayStation game! :D
- More to be announced at a later date (join the discord).
Scoring & Ranking
None, the process of creating something into existence is hard enough, there will be no pressure of scrutiny and judgement here! You either did a thing, or not... and hopefully enjoyed, learnt and grew from the process. Read the Net Yaroze Ethos section for more information.
Rules
- Games must use Net Yaroze API - No other API can be used, except for region/display detection, no circumvention of the API.
- Games must start with a title screen image with: Name of the game, Creators, Date start and finished. And displayed for at least 5 seconds.
Guidelines
These guidelines also serve as rules, in the spirit of Net Yaroze community. But if you feel strongly about braking them, that's fine too, just make sure the Net Yaroze title screen, readme, etc reflects the correct information.
- Because these a relatively small projects and the Net Yaroze community is very small, a maximum of 2 person teams, ie if you have a bigger team, split up to make multiple entries.
- Theme and limitations are flexible.
- The game should be distributable and the source code available, ie licensed GPL, BY-NC-ND, etc.
- Unfinished submissions are fine, but must compile and run.
- Late submitted projects are fine, just have the correct date on the title image.
- 3rd party assets or code is fine, just give correct credit in game, code, or readme.txt etc
- Games must not contain copyright material of any third party.
- Copyright is the property of the game creators.
- Game creators agree to the use of their game in videos and images and names in text by third parties.
Introduction
About Net Yaroze
Net Yaroze was a hobbyist's PlayStation development program ran by Sony from 1996 to 2009. It was only sold to individuals and not for commercial purposes. See #4 of the Net Yaroze member's contract).
Net Yaroze was not about making a commercial product, nor encouraged to, it was more about developing skills and personal growth:
- Can you code a game loop?
- Can it run without crashing?
- Can it be fun?
- Can it look and sound good?
- Can you do it solo or with one or two other people in your spare time?
- Can you do it before a deadline?
You might think that the list above is what teams of commercial developers do, but they too had to prove themselves before they became commercial developers, Net Yaroze was that proving ground with Sony developer support and professional tools. Can you actually make something relatively small on PlayStation? Now you can with Net Yaroze!
This game jam is run in the spirit of continuing Sony's Net Yaroze monthly game competition initiative started in December 1997 and continued by publishing Net Yaroze games on the UK Official PlayStation Magazine demo disc's.
Why PlayStation and Net Yaroze in 2024?
Why PlayStation hardware?
The original PlayStation was a great and historically important console, it's the mixing of the old and new hardware, it's old enough to have retro Colour Look Up Tables (CLUT) for pallet swapping and fixed point math. And yet modern enough to have a feature rich, 3D graphics processor, 24 voices, CD Digital Audio and dual analog controllers.
And thanks to emulation, PS1 games play on most things. Including cheap ROM players, embedded web pages, mobile phones, PC's etc, etc.
Why use Net Yaroze API?
While the Net Yaroze is a subset of the original Sony professional development kit, it does not make it a lame duck as most would think. Net Yaroze is most of the high level API's for 3D, 2D, controllers, memory card, CD file reading and CD digital audio, with no low level API's. Early and budget commercial games used these high level API's and were also recommended for prototyping ideas, before creating a custom engine.
Being limited only to high level API's is both good and bad. It made the API very small, making it easier to learn and quicker to create. The major down side is the 3D API's support of all hardware features, which uses extra resources (memory and CPU) to process each 3D object. This results in a slower and a less detailed look compared to creating a custom 3D engine.
There are simple ways to improve 3D performance, but the slower 3D trade-of for a small and easy API is a well worth one, and fits with the hobbyist and beginner focus of Net Yaroze, reducing low level complexity in exchange for simple creativity.
Using "Professional" tools will not make you a professional. And a professional using "Hobbyist" tools, will not make them amateurs.
Getting started.
It's possible to make a PlayStation game without the need of a Net Yaroze, a normal (or modded) retail PlayStation will do just fine, you will need a USB to PS Serial transfer cable, which are relatively easy to build with a little soldering. However, with a few good PlayStation emulators, the actual hardware while ideal for testing, isn't completely necessary, and in fact it can be quicker to develop using emulators, so they are strongly recommended.
It's suggested to first read through the Start-up and User Guides, to familiarize yourself with the platform hardware and software.
Next, you will need the Net Yaroze SDK, setup, running and tested working. The toolchain's are C/C++, so you'll need some programming experience, the C language is a relatively small and low level language, but not completely impossible for a novice to create something from scratch with enough motivation and determination.
Next, to learn the API and tools see: https://github.com/gwald/netyaroze_demo
Recommended tools.
Apart from the typical Sony supplied development tools, here are few helpful apps:
Development tools:
- Net Yaroze toolchain options.
- Yarexe to package assets and converts to a PSX.EXE.
- YOC, Siocons script generator.
Net Yaroze related 3D asset tools:
- Blender RSD plugin.
- Blender TMD plugin.
- RSDLink2 (RSD to TMD alternative).
- MarbleClay RSD, TMD Animation and debugging.
- OBJ2RSD.
Net Yaroze related 2D asset tools:
- img2tim converts to TIM format, with VRAM placement.
General 2D asset tools:
- Tile studio, A free app that does cell pixel art, sprite animation and level maps, and is scriptable.
- Gimp, A free photoshop alternative.
- Imagistick, command line image conversion.
General Audio asset tools: