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Getting Started

Compiling pokecrystal.gbc requires a certain Pokemon Crystal rom:

Pokemon - Crystal Version (UE) (V1.0) [C][!].gbc
md5: 9f2922b235a5eeb78d65594e82ef5dde

Save it as baserom.gbc in the repository.

Feel free to ask us on nucleus.kafuka.org #skeetendo if something goes wrong!

Windows

If you are on Windows and can't install Linux, Cygwin is a great alternative.

Installing Cygwin

Cygwin provides a virtual Linux environment on Windows systems. Just get setup.exe.

http://cygwin.com/install.html

During the install:

Keep the defaults.
Most mirrors are molasses. Use http://mirrors.kernel.org.
From the package selection, select wget.

Using Cygwin

Launch the Cygwin terminal. Maybe you know your way around the Linux terminal, bash. If not, a crash course:

# list files in current directory
ls

# show current directory
pwd

# change directory
cd /away/we/go

Getting up and running

We need a couple more things to be able to compile.

If you're feeling lazy, just paste these commands into your terminal.

apt-cyg lets you install new packages without running Cygwin setup.

wget http://apt-cyg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/apt-cyg
chmod +x apt-cyg
mv apt-cyg /usr/local/bin/

Now we can use apt-cyg to install everything else.

apt-cyg install make git python python-setuptools unzip
easy_install pip

rgbds will let you compile Game Boy roms.

wget http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/irc/pokered/rgbds/rgbds-0.0.1.zip
unzip rgbds-0.0.1.zip
mv rgbds-0.0.1/* /usr/local/bin
rm -r rgbds-0.0.1*

Set up the pokecrystal repository:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/kanzure/pokecrystal
cd pokecrystal

# install python requirements
pip install -r requirements.txt

Don't forget baserom.gbc!!

Make sure you downloaded a base rom. Name it baserom.gbc.

pokecrystal only compiles with the use of a git submodule. To activate the submodule type:

git submodule init
git submodule update

Now you should be able to build pokecrystal.gbc for the first time.

This compiles a new rom from the source code, with any patches filled in from the base rom.

make

This ought to take between 3 and 15 seconds, depending on your computer.

If you see cmp baserom.gbc pokecrystal.gbc as the last line, the build was successful!

Your first compile processes every source file at once. After that, only modified source files have to be reprocessed, so compiling again should be a few seconds faster.

Other make targets that may come in handy:

make clean deletes any preprocessed source files (.tx), rgbds object files and pokecrystal.gbc, in case something goes wrong.

make pngs decompresses any lz files in gfx/ and then exports any graphics files to png.

make lzs does the reverse. This is already part of the build process, so modified pngs will automatically be converted to 2bpp and lz-compressed without any additional work.

Linux

sudo apt-get install make gcc bison git python python-setuptools 

# unittest2 is required if using python2.6
sudo easy_install unittest2
sudo easy_install pip

# download rgbds source code
git clone git://github.com/bentley/rgbds.git

# compile rgbds
cd rgbds
make
sudo make install

# check if rgbasm is installed now
which rgbasm

# download pokecrystal
git clone git://github.com/kanzure/pokecrystal.git
cd pokecrystal

# grab extras/ which is required for compiling
git submodule init
git submodule update

# install python requirements
pip install -r requirements.txt

# use hexdump to diff binary files
git config diff.hex.textconv hexdump

To compile the rom from asm source:

make

That will take between 3 and 15 seconds, depending on your computer. If you see cmp baserom.gbc pokecrystal.gbc as the last line, the build was successful! Rejoice!

Now what?

main.asm is a good starting point. The structure of the source is laid out here.

Can't find something? Anyone can add to the source. There's lots to be uncovered.
Do your own thing! The asm source is hack-friendly, and the supplementary scripts in extras/ can be used for other projects.
We'll be happy to answer any questions on nucleus.kafuka.org #skeetendo.

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