HACK*MATCH for the NES

Shortly after we ported SHENZHEN SOLITAIRE to MS-DOS, I started working on a version of HACK*MATCH for the Sega Saturn. (I have one and love it! It’s a fun console with a surprisingly solid and acquirable library of games.) Even though I found a game engine that would have made it easy and convinced Keith to help, we ended up bailing on the project because no one would be able to play it; you’d either need a soft-modded Sega Saturn (so, no one?) or an emulator (none of which seemed to support CD audio).

I never owned an NES but I’d seen a little about the architecture and found it intriguing. (The TEC Redshift in EXAPUNKS is kind of inspired by it, although I guess most game consoles from that era are the same, with sprites and tiles and square waves and stuff.) And, considering that NES emulators are a completely solved problem, and that you can even purchase cheap, flashable NES cartridges that work in unmodded consoles, I figured we could make an NES port and people might pay attention.

This wasn't exactly a money-making project, but we did run an IndieGoGo campaign to make and sell physical cartridges, which came with a ROM file and the source code for the game and its compiler. If you're looking for a physical cartridge you can buy one from the Zachtronics pop-up store. If you're looking for the ROM file and source code you can buy it from our itch.io page. If you just want to see some neat pictures and code snippets, keep scrolling.

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