Integration with ngdevkit

[sasja-san]

Just found this project. Looking really cool.

I'm just in the starting phase of setting up my Neo Geo devkit system. But I haven't figured out all the kinks yet.

Is there some example project you have set up which could show me the commands that does a compilation and then starts up e9k and loads it (together with the BIOS & whatnot).

[alpine9000]

If you look at https://github.com/alpine9000/engine9000-public/blob/main/e9k-debugger/tests/neogeo/stepping this is a very basic example project for source level debugging. This uses neosdconv which is not part of the debugger release.

If you don't want to (or can't) create a .neo file - you can alternatively use --rom-folder which should load a MAME style rom folder. Because however the debugger doesn't consume MAME style XML definitions, the naming of roms must be such that the debugger can guess each rom type correctly.

./e9k-debugger --neogeo --source-dir=./tests/neogeo/stepping --elf=./tests/neogeo/stepping/build/rom.elf --rom=./tests/neogeo/stepping/build/stepping.neo

See if this is any help, otherwise I can assist with a more complex example.

[sasja-san]

I've managed to start up e9k with a ROM I compiled but not with the source debugger attached.

Could you maybe show how it's done? Could you perhaps hook up 03-sprite-animation from ngdevkit-examples with e9k?

One thing I encountered when trying to set this up was the line
--rom-folder PATH ROM folder (generates a .neo)
from e9k-debugger --help. Was this a later addition, because the Makefile you linked has a call to neosdconv.

edit:

Here's what I added to build.mk, basically just copying $(CART) lines. And this seems to work. But then

NEOSDCART?=$(ROM)/$(GAMEROM).neo
$(NEOSDCART): $(PROM1) $(PROM2)
$(NEOSDCART): $(MROM1)
$(NEOSDCART): $(CROM1) $(CROM2) $(CROM3) $(CROM4) $(CROM5) $(CROM6) $(CROM7) $(CROM8)
$(NEOSDCART): $(SROM1)
$(NEOSDCART): $(VROM1) $(VROM2) $(VROM3) $(VROM4)

neosd_cart:
	$(MAKE) --no-print-directory $(NEOSDCART)

NEOSDCONV=/usr/local/bin/neosdconv

$(NEOSDCART):
	$(NEOSDCONV) \
		--game-name "Neo Bub Contest" \
		--genre "Puzzle" \
		--year "2026" \
		--ngh "B0B" \
		--input $(BUILDDIR)"/rom/" \
		--dest $(ROM)/neobub.neo

.PHONY: neosd_cart

In emu.mk I started writing the launching code, but it seems I'm too stupid to get it right...

e9k:
	$(E9K_DEBUGGER) \
		--neogeo --uni \
		--rom-folder $(ROM) \
		--source-dir "./"

[alpine9000]

So all I needed to do to debug 03-sprite-animation was issue the following from the 03-sprite-animation folder (no changes to the example).

e9k-debugger --neogeo --rom-folder ./build/rom --aes --system-dir /Users/alex/project/engine9000/e9k-debugger/system --save-dir /Users/alex/project/engine9000/e9k-debugger/saves --elf ./build/rom.elf --source-dir .

[sasja-san]

Thank you! That's amazing!

I've been stuck trying to figure all the tools out. Will put this to good use right away 👍