libSFX is a Super Nintendo assembler development framework. It aims to add as little magic and abstraction to the programming as possible while removing the tedium of boilerplate and mandatory micro management of configuration files.
By leveraging the ca65 assembler and several macro packs it can create object code for∶
Using (and optionally extending) the included makefiles and configurations it’s a relative breeze to get SNES code up and running!
Anatomy libSFX consists of a small runtime that mainly initializes the system and handles hardware interrupts (which can be redirected in software). The real rice of the library are the macros included and documented here.
Packages There are also opt-in packages, adding a bit more to the object code size, for non-core features like input peripherals and data decompression. These are documented in the “Packages” section.
Tools The ca65 toolchain and a couple of support tools are included as submodules in the libSFX/tools directory. These are the only tools used by the libSFX.make makefile, making libSFX pretty much self contained. Running make from the repository root will sync the submodules and build the tools.
SFX 🤷️ Why is it called libSFX? That sounds like a library of sound effects. Well, yes it does. However, “SFX” was also how Nintendo refered to the SNES/SFC in the very early developer documentation. It was through photocopied binders of those documents – with severe generation loss! – I first learned about the innards of the Super Nintendo, and I have lovingly cultivated a habit of using SFX to prefix and suffix my SNES code over the years.
Get started Clone, fork or download the repository at github.com/Optiroc/libSFX and dive into the Make documentation.
libSFX is developed by David Lindecrantz and distributed under the terms of the MIT license.