NES Puzzle Maker rom sources

This is the source for a puzzle NES game you can customize to make your own games!

The main site is: https://puzzle.nes.science

You can do most things with the game there, without ever touching this source code!

It is loosely based off of nes-starter-kit, however it makes many adjustments.

It uses the following tools:

• create-nes-game
• neslib
• Famitracker
• Early 80's Arcade Pixel Art
• Multiple songs by Wolfgang on OpenGameArt (Note: Music is silence if built from source)

Building

This game uses create-nes-game for game building. Download and optionally install that.

Next, copy the code for this repository to your pc somehow, either using git or the "Download Zip" feature under the code button at the top-right of the github ui. From that directory, run the following command to set up the repository (you only have to do this once per pc):

create-nes-game download-dependencies

After that, you can build at any time with create-nes-game build. You can also use create-nes-game run to run the game in mesen.

Using custom rom data

So, you made a game with puzzle.nes.science and now you wanna tweak it. Awesome! The majority of game data is stored in source/assembly/library/patchable_data.asm You can generate a new version of this file from the tool.

Go to the tool and load the game you want to export.

Now go to the homepage of the tool. On the right side you'll see a section called "Developer tools". Under it there should be an option: Download patachable_data.asm. Click that, then replace the file in this repository. That's most of it!

If you're using custom music, put the .bin file you used in the tool in as sound/music.bin.

If you're using custom graphics, put the .chr file you used in the tool as graphics/tiles_mod.chr.

That's about it!

Smaller rom version

A version of the rom that should be compatible with the nesdev compo is now available as well. It reduces the rom size from 128kb down to 64kb. Some features in the UI will also be restricted or disabled. Enable this feature in the UI on the "Other Settings" page. This will make the editor work with the smaller rom.

If you want to compile it yourself, you won't be able to do this as simply as you can above. When you run create-nes-game build it will work, but build a 128kb rom. That's not quite what you want!

You can make it work though - in the config folder, there are two files: ca65.cfg and ca65-compressed.cfg. Rename ca65.cfg to something else, then rename ca65-compressed.cfg to ca65.cfg. Now you can run create-nes-game again and it should build the 64kb version. Have fun!

Note: If you haven't replaced patchable_data.asm with one downloaded from the site, you will get errors about something called SMALL_ROM not being defined. I suggest downloading a version from the site, however you can also run it as-is using the command directly under build-compressed: in the makefile.

License and copyright

The tool is copyrighted to Indie GameWeb, as of 2022. The rom sources are available under an MIT license, however art from the online tool may have other licenses that need to be followed. The source code cannot help you with that, so please be aware of required licenses for any art and music you may use! (The sound effects were created by me, and are available under the same MIT license.)