Programming the Neo Geo AES in C

Previously published as "Programming the NEO GEO AES in C" by Daniel Novak.

The Neo Geo AES is one of the most powerful home consoles of its era - and one of the most exotic to program. No background layer. A sprite-only video system. 64 KB of working RAM and a Motorola 68000 at its heart.

This book shows you how to harness all of it, in C.

Starting from a blank project with ngdevkit - the open-source toolchain for Neo Geo homebrew - you will build a complete, playable shoot'em up from scratch: sprites, parallax scrolling, palettes, input handling, collisions, and a state machine tying it all together. Every concept is introduced when you need it, demonstrated in runnable code, and reinforced with exercises - including wiring up the Z80 sound driver and building a final boss from the pieces you've already learned.

What you will learn:

• The Neo Geo hardware architecture: video system, sprites, palettes, sound
• Setting up a modern C development environment with ngdevkit on macOS, Linux or Windows
• Building a complete game step by step: from Hello World to a full shoot'em up
• Fixed-point arithmetic, sprite animation, collision detection, game architecture
• Optimization on a 12 MHz 68000 with 64 KB of RAM
• Running your game on a real AES console via flashcart

No prior console experience required. If you know C - pointers, structs, a while loop - you are ready to program the most powerful home console of 1990.