Getting started on SEGA Saturn development – Part 1

A hello world on libyaul.

Nothing better than a simple hello world to get the feet wet on a new hardware.

My goal, as of April 2021, is to get a simple demo (as in demoscene demo) done by October, for Inercia Demoparty , for the sega saturn.

I’ve already had a USB dev cart for the sega saturn that I’ve brought from cafe-alpha, but had been gathering dust for several years.

Toolchains

As toolchains for the sega saturn I’ve found :

• Libyaul : available for windows and linux. Tools such as emulators to test the code are already included.
• Saturn SDK : SDK, libs and documentation.
• Jo Engine : an open source 2d and 3d engine.

The list is not complete.
I´ve decided to stick to libyaul. On windows it was simple to setup, examples could be easy compiled out of the box, and it has a helpful and active community on discord , where the author of libyaul is also part of.

Hello World

Makefile

The make file was just a modified makefile already available from the exemples provided with libyaul.

Code

#include <yaul.h>

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void main(void)
{
    //init the subsystem to print debug text to the screen
    dbgio_dev_default_init(DBGIO_DEV_VDP2_SIMPLE);
    dbgio_dev_font_load();
    dbgio_dev_font_load_wait();

    //enable vdp2
    vdp2_tvmd_display_set();
  
    while(1)
    {
        dbgio_printf("\x1b[H\x1b[2J");  // clears the screen
        dbgio_printf("Hello World\n");  // actual text
        dbgio_flush();                  // flush 
        vdp_sync();                     // required at the end of each frame
    }
}