The GCW is open to SDL2, which has been my “low-level” library of choice for quite some time, so I decided to use these tools while tinkering with the GCW. To get my feet wet, I knocked out a retro Sudoku game with about 1k lines of code. It gives me an idea of what developing for the GCW is like, which unsurprisingly isn’t that different from using SDL2 on a personal computer. I’ve always been a PC developer with the occasional  homebrew NES rom but developing for the GCW, so for, has been very positive. One big difference, I’m still getting use to of course, is the way games are developed for a handheld consoles in general. This isn’t unique to handhelds, it’s mostly a statement that I’ve never developed for controller inputs 😀 .

The SDL2 support for the GCW is still very experimental. As such, my original prototyping attempts failed due to a bug in the SDL2 implementation discussed here. Basically, the fix requires a firmware update which should be released in the near future. Luckily a community member provided me with early access to a firmware version with the patch in place. It works like a charm and I was able to complete my Sudoku game. Whenever the new firmware is ready I’ll post it to the Dingoonity forums, and if I remember I’ll update this post!