Getting Setup on Windows

This document briefly describes how to get your Microsoft Windows computer set up to create your own Gameboy Advance (GBA) and Nintendo DS (NDS) programs using Spritely and devkitPro.

Spritely is a Windows application that can be used to draw sprites and other graphics for the GBA/NDS game that you're creating. It can also generate working sample code based on the graphics that you created.

But Spritely requires a few additional tools to be installed:

devkitPro is a toolchain (compiler, linker, libraries and other tools) that takes the source code from Spritely and builds a working "ROM file" that can then be run in an emulator or on real hardware.
VisualBoyAdvance is GBA emulator that allows you to run your newly created ROM file on your computer.

General System Requirements

Windows XP (SP2) or Vista with .NET Framework 2.0

First of all, make sure you have the latest security patches from http://www.update.microsoft.com/.

If you don't already have the .Net Framework 2.0 installed on your computer, it can also be installed from update.microsoft.com. Unlike the security and high-priority patches that are selected automatically, the .Net Framework is an optional install that you will need to select manually before starting the installation. If you don't see it in the list of updates, then you may already have it installed.

Alternately, you can download the Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86) onto your computer and install from this file. After downloading, you will have a 22MB file called dotnetfx.exe on your computer. Run this .exe to install the .Net Framework.

devkitPro

This is the development toolchain that is used to compile your source code into an executable binary. Without this package installed, you will not be able to build complete GBA/NDS programs (although you can still draw sprites and backgrounds).

Homepage: http://www.devkitpro.org/

For Windows, there is an installer which will do all of the setup work for you:

To use this installer follow these instructions:

Download the latest version of the "devkitPro Updater".
Double-click the "devkitProUpdater-1.5.0.exe" application to start the installation. It will first look for updates. Click "Next >" to begin.
Select "Download and install/install from downloaded files" and click "Next >".
Select "Remove downloaded files" and click "Next >". It's OK to keep the downloaded files if you wish, but there's no need for them.
Do a "Full" install by leaving all the checkboxes checked. Click "Next >".
The default destination folder is "c:\devkitpro" which is fine. Click "Next >".
"Choose Start Menu Folder". Whatever. Click "Next >".
Wait... It will now spend some time installing all of the files.
Click "Next >" one last time and finally "Finish".

When the installation is complete, verify that you have a bunch of new files and directories installed in your c:\devkitpro directory.

Optional:

Now you should verify that your environment variables were set up properly (otherwise you won't be able to build). If the installation worked properly, then you will only need to verify that these variables were created. But there's a chance they weren't created (depending on your system's security settings), so it's a good idea to double-check.

Open the "Start" menu and select the "Control Panel".
Double-click the "System" icon. A "System Properties" dialog will appear.
Select the "Advanced" tab. Near the bottom of this tab will be an "Environment Variables" button. Click it.
You should see the following variables/values (either in the top "User variables" or bottom "System variables" box):

DEVKITARM = /c/devkitPro/devkitARM
DEVKITPRO = /c/devkitPro

If you don't see those variables, then add them to the "User variables" (at the top) by clicking the "New" button and adding them one at a time. Note that there are a few other DEVKIT variables as well, but the 2 listed above are the only ones that matter.

Finally, make sure that your "Path" environment variable contains c:\devkitPro\msys\bin.

If you don't have a "Path" variable, then add a new one to the "User variables" that contains this string.
If you already have a "Path" variable but it's missing this string, then add the following string at the beginning c:\devkitPro\msys\bin; - note the semicolon at the end to separate your new string from the old Path contents.

VisualBoy Advance

VBA is the most popular GBA emulator. An emulator is a program that runs on a computer and pretends to be another device. This will allow us to test out our GBA/NDS programs on our development computer.

Homepage: http://vba.ngemu.com/

Download page: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=63889 (Direct link (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/vba/VisualBoyAdvance-1.7.2.zip Win32])

Installing VisualBoy Advance:

Create a c:\gamedev folder on your drive.
Go to the download page listed above and download the "VisualBoyAdvance-1.7.2.zip" file to your computer. Save the file in the c:\gamedev folder you created.
Extract the contents of the zip file by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Extract all..."
You will now have a "VisualBoyAdvance-1.7.2" folder in your c:\gamedev folder.

You can run VBA by launching c:\gamedev\VisualBoyAdvance-1.7.2\VisualBoyAdvance.exe

Spritely

Spritely is a program that allows you to create your own basic sprite and background graphics. It was designed to make it easy to create graphics for the GBA and DS and was created especially for this programming class.

Download the latest version of Spritely:

Create a c:\gamedev folder on your drive if you don't already have one.
If you already have an earlier version of Spritely, remove it now by deleting the c:\gamedev\Spritely folder and all its contents.
Download the latest version of from the download list. Save the file in the c:\gamedev folder you created.
Extract the contents of the zip file by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Extract all..."
You will now have a "Spritely" folder in your c:\gamedev folder.

You can run Spritely by launching c:\gamedev\Spritely\Spritely.exe