
Show HN: UltraEd – A level editor/game engine for the Nintendo 64 - deadcast
https://github.com/deadcast/UltraEd
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dewey
In case anyone else wants to know how it looks like:

[https://twitter.com/_deadcast/status/907485256827023360](https://twitter.com/_deadcast/status/907485256827023360)

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deadcast
Haha thanks for providing that! :) I should eventually add some gifs/png
showing the editor working.

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Answerawake
Hey I was wondering if you knew of any sites that provide info about inner
workings of n64 games like Ocarina of time or Rare games like Goldeneye? I
have always wanted to learn more about these titles but I have not heard of
any attempts to reverse engineer them.

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deadcast
Yes! :) There's a great book called the Nintendo 64 Anthology that is a
fantastic read to get in-depth history of the console. It also dives into how
Rare created Golden Eye and some good info about Silicon Graphic's hardware
development at the time.

For websites I would check out gamasutra. They great articles like this one
[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131556/postmortem_ang...](https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131556/postmortem_angel_studios_.php).
I know they have some others like on Indiana Jones and Star Wars Ep 1: Racer.

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Sir_Cmpwn
Wow - only supports Windows XP, and a MediaFire link full of questionable
executables? I hope fixing this is part of your "WIP"...

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deadcast
These files are necessary to setup the dev environment if you want to compile.
I use the link myself when setting up a new build machine.

If you don't trust the files that's perfectly fine. You could pretty easily, I
believe, find them all from repositories you trust.

Also yep Win XP only! Keeping it authentic lol. :)

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katastic
To clarify: The N64 SDK runs on XP.

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voltagex_
I wonder if it'd be possible to get it running on Wine for a safer experience.

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deadcast
I've tried but it doesn't seem possible. Wine and even DOS Box can't run the
16 bit SDK executables. I'd love to be able to run just the ROM build process
in Wine. :)

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Sir_Cmpwn
What's so special about the ROM process that it can't be ported or rewritten
in a more portable way?

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deadcast
Because the 16 bit executables are closed source. :/ The special linker
MILD.exe that organizes all of the RSP(Reality Signal Processor) microcodes
and game data is the piece that needs to be reverse-engineered which is
possible but currently beyond me. :)

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Sir_Cmpwn
I don't think it's beyond you, I just think you lack confidence. You can do
it! I've been in your shoes before and it worked out.

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deadcast
Aww thanks much! :D Yeah I just lack confidence I guess since reversing
binaries has always seemed a bit intense. I need to finally buy a really good
code reversal tool and then start my quest to reproduce! :) It would be great
if me or someone else was successful since then the N64 could be more easily
developed for on any OS!!

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Sir_Cmpwn
You probably don't even need to reverse anything. Just learn how other (open
source) toolchains work, read N64 manuals and information from other reverse
engineers, and work incrementally. It's probably not necessary to reverse this
proprietary ROM you're stuck with.

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deadcast
BTW here's a video of proof-of-concept ROM I built first to see if I could
actually achieve building what I wanted on the console. :)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59txD0ZyBic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59txD0ZyBic)

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TAForObvReasons
Out of curiosity, what cart are you using? And are you using a Nintendo or
custom expansion pack?

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deadcast
I'm using the 64drive cart from
[http://64drive.retroactive.be/](http://64drive.retroactive.be/). I've owned
both generations and they're very easy to develop with. There's a USB port on
the side of the N64 cart that lets you load ROMs very easily to test rapidly.

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Multicomp
I like the concept behind this. How may I ask would you go about getting this
onto the actual system, or is it just something to throw into Project64 or
similar emulator?

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deadcast
It's really easy actually to load on an emulator or on real hardware. The
build process I'm working on now creates a production ready ROM that can be
placed on an EverDrive 64 or 64 Drive cart. I always test on real hardware
when developing the engine for the N64 part of the system. :)

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Multicomp
Cool beans. This looks pretty exciting to me; it may not be the fanciest JS
framework, but this is a genuinely fun, different project. I'll be watching
this project for sure.

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deadcast
Aww thanks so much! Glad you like it! :D Yeah this is definitely not useful
haha but I'm learning more about 3d mathematics, rendering techniques, low-
level systems, constructing tools, etc...

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navjack27
So like... I'd need to use this in a VM? I'm not going out of my way to
install XP on my 8700k system. Just to see what it do, seems like a big ask.

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katastic
What's hard about a VM? You can download an entire VM complete with OS and all
relevant dev tools and have zero leakage of viruses or workspaces into your
normal client. It's a great way to encapsulate your development for a specific
task.

I use a Win10 VM in my Win7 machine for almost all of my dev work. It stays on
an SSD and completely keeps all that outlook, Microsoft SQL, Visual Studio,
IIS, NAV, CRM crap from destroying what is normally a fast machine for gaming.
I also host it on a separate IP so I can RDP into it from my crappy work
laptop (which becomes nothing more than a thin client) and have remote access
(from say my phone wireless hotspot if wifi is unavailable) and I've got all
my work stuff exactly as I left the house.

Recently, I put together a XP VM with Visual Studio 2003, 2005, and 2008 for
supporting and upgrading an old .NET 1.1 project for a client. There's no way
I was going to try and get that crap running on my 64-bit computer.

Last thing I want is FL Studio (and all my related audio tools), Photoshop
(and all related graphics tools), and Visual Studio (across over a decade of
versions) all on the same machine destroying each other. You can't even get
multiple versions of Java to run on the same machine these days.. Ugh.

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xena
Does this run on ReactOS?

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deadcast
Just Windows XP/NT sadly. :/

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lcfcjs2
This is so cool. Would love to see some screenshots of the UI.

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deadcast
Good idea! I'll take some today and add them to the github repo. Maybe that
will be helpful. :)

