Snazzy - A low-level language for SNES development

snazzy is an attempt to create a language slightly above the 65816 assembly language used for SNES development. The goal is to still provide assembly-level control (each statement is approximately one instruction), but with a less obtuse syntax and basic structural programming.

What does it look like?

VAR inidisp := 0x2100;
VAR cgdata := 0x2122;

FUN main {
  # force-blanking is on from init, so we can set our registers

  # Load a nice dark blue into the palette.
  # cgaddr is already at address 0 from init
  A := 0x1C;
  cgdata:= 0;
  cgdata := A;

  # Disable force blank
  A := 0x0F;
  inidisp := A;

  # We're done - wait forever
  DO {}
}

This excerpt compiles to the following 65816 assembly:

main:
  LDA #$1C
  STZ $2122
  STA $2122
  LDA #$0F
  STA $2100
loop:
  BRA loop

For a full, runnable version of the above example, see the test program

In addition, there are example programs available in the examples directory. These can be compiled to ROM images with cargo run -- example/<example_name>.snz.

Supported Features

• Automatic adustment of mode flags on function calls and block entry/exit
• SEI/CLI instructions
• Some types of assignments
• Some types of conditionals
• Do-while loops
• Some conditionals
• Function calls
• Nice names for registers/globals

Missing Features

This is a bareones proof-of-concept at the moment, so most features you'd want are missing, including but not limited to:

• More assignments
• More conditionals
• Function locals
• Math
• Multiple banks
• Adding data to the ROM image
• Many more

Installation

Since snazzy is still under early development, it must be install from git:

cargo install --git https://github.com/branan/snazzy

What's with the name?

It's a compiler for the SNES, and "snazzy" sounds like "SNES-C"