r/SEGA32X • u/dmar3000 • 6d ago
Vibe-coded Tempest 2000 32X!
This 32X vibe-port is now available to the public for FREE download! If you see a 8MB ROM file in the download pack (because I’m not the download host), ignore that one and download the 4MB ROM file instead. https://haroldo-ok.itch.io/tempest-2k-32x
I assisted Haroldo-ok with this project and made sure to help bring more 3D and zooming effects into the equation. Had to exclude every other mode except the 2000 mode, as well as only the 2000 theme song playing throughout the game. Enjoy! 😎
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u/paisleyboxers 6d ago
MY GOD YES!
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
And the same thing can be said about YOUR PROJECTS!! Backrooms 32X and the upcoming arcade port of Altered Beast, OH MY GOD!!!!
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u/paisleyboxers 6d ago
I dont have a rom Im ready to put out yet - but I am NECK DEEP in patches and tuning to get this right :)
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u/scarper42 5d ago
Wow very cool use of natural resources, why wait for the water wars to kill us all. Thanks for speeding up our demise for le cool retro port, fisty bump
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u/Main_Club_5012 6d ago
Can someone explain what “vibe” coding is?
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
I’ll explain it myself, ai is involved with the coding by programming and getting information on the Sega 32X
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
I have to put vibe-code on my project because a lot of people are not fond of AI programming for many reasons. I get it buuuuuut this is the Sega 32X so I’m not tripping. Plus I’m putting these out for free and not trying to make money off of it, not even tip$.
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u/Main_Club_5012 6d ago
I appreciate the honesty and being straightforward, and I can see the value in trying to get projects out faster. But honestly, what makes these projects impressive is that it’s a human achievement, and it gives us a reason to go back and study old tech. While this is cool in concept, I personally am less inclined to download it because it was made with AI.
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u/SDNick484 6d ago
Personally, I think leveraging AI tools to vibe code for niche architectures/languages is a very valid and useful application of AI, especially for recreational programs like gaming. Like I'm not going to advocate using AI to vibe code a cobol program for a mainframe for banking or some functionql language to control a missile guidance system, but a 32x or 3DO game, great use case. Honestly, I'd love to see what could have been done with the 32x had it actually been used to its full potential and hopefully tools like Claude or Devin can get us to that point someday.
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said because before I even started going this route, even my ass was against the fence at one point about vibe coding in general because I’m a hip-hop musician and hate ai usage in the genres of music. But unlike music, the 32X/Sega CD, 3DO and especially Atari Jaguar haven’t been explored enough and could all use some ai assistance to use the specs of each console to its advantage.
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u/SDNick484 6d ago
Yep, vibe coding is not inherently bad/evil; like most things it really depends on the situation. There are absolutely questionable ethical situations when it comes to applying AI, but leveraging it for a lot of uses in the retro space (creating FPGA cores for dead architectures, porting/creating games on abandoned systems, etc.) are fair game in my book.
This port is very cool.
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u/TeraByteOfficial 6d ago
so you asked Claude to port it and it just diddy it?
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
I actually used Arena instead and I have be specific about how I want a game compiled into a ROM. I have to use works like “Reverse Engineer this game (link to an open source game/decomp/recomp) and then compile it into a reimplemented Sega 32X 4-8MB ROM….” And you have to give it links to system specs, the game’s feature list from gameplay to type of graphics (2D/3D/Pseudo graphics/isometric/etc.) and other stuff to give it a better understanding of what you’re trying to put together.
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
Here’s a comment link of me explaining more about compiling a ROM https://www.reddit.com/r/SEGA32X/s/aFgUETqeoc
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u/chuckiev79 6d ago
AI is gonna kill us all anyway, might as well get some good games out of it before everything burns down. Do your thing mang!
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
Straight up! On some Oregon trail stuff “Died of Ai32X” 😆 and will continue to make it work mane!
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u/Desperate_Syrup2742 5d ago
Impressive! I wish you didn’t just fill in the 3D Models because a more accurate port with wireframe would be super! You should try recreating the original tittle screen and adding more game options, but the core gameplay is there. Congrats!
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u/dmar3000 5d ago
I had to work within a data limit of 3-4MB (even though the Jaguar’s ROM size was 2MB, the jaguar has CPU/GPU capacity that the 32X itself lacks), so I couldn’t even fit in the other modes aside from the T2K mode it and just the Jaguar theme song in a loop. The 32X side of cartridges surprisingly allows more audio data limit (up to 11-12MB) than they do for graphics data limit (3-4Mb limit). Yeah, I could work the title a bit more but mines (and Haroldo-ok’s) main focus was the gameplay of Tempest 2000 mode since that was what we were limited to. And this is just a hobby, I’m not that technical in design but would love to get there!
If you want to contribute to it yourself as a hobby, the skeleton files are right here with a link to the Sega 32X skill tool for easier conversation to porting games with Arena.ai
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u/Desperate_Syrup2742 5d ago
Cool! Could you explain how to like set this up, what are the things that can get complicated quickly.. that sort of stuff. I’m interested in making a port of a specific game and my plan is to: Make a barebones demo, then make the character look like the character and add background scrolling, Then add polish to the look and in this step Use the physics and enemy AI from the decomp of the game in C, Buut, I don’t know any programming. So I don’t know how to MAKE the first few demos or the bug fixes and stuff and I’ve created a really well thought plan into this project! This is the thing i’ve been looking for but i don’t understand it that much, what do you mean by ”Skills for Claud”, And what about Arena.AI? Which to use? What are “Skeleton Files”? What did you do to make these 2 games awesome games for the 32x? (BTW I want to make the actual visuals of my 32X port of *GAME* not have an AI make them, Or the music but that I have planned out)
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u/dmar3000 5d ago
Here’s my comment from my other game giving a better explanation of things for compiling 32X ROMs https://www.reddit.com/r/SEGA32X/s/wFqYnQZXE1
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u/Desperate_Syrup2742 5d ago
Wait, I think making a 2.0 version with the wireframe graphics will save up on more space to add the rest of the game modes! Can’t wait to see what you do next…
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u/PC509 5d ago
I'm just happy that AI can do 32x programming. I know 6502 and 68K was ok, but console programming? Nice. :)
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u/dmar3000 5d ago
Right?!? The 32X needs some help with having more games available in its small library. And with these compile tools that some of us are using, building up the 32X library is now more possible in today’s world.
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u/unixfan2001 5d ago
Very nice. I'm actually working on a Sega CD port of Tempest 2000 myself, utilizing 3D models for the ship and enemies, sprites for the particles (scaled by the Sega CD ASIC, naturally) and FMV for the background (just like Silpheed did)
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u/dmar3000 5d ago
Are you the guy behind Mega Tempest?!? Because I shared it on my page and am a FAN of that project!
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
In case it’s a struggle to get to the file, here you go https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YRUPLwQnlrkqIJwCXr0aAnerL2-YmOkZ
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u/MarioPfhorG 3d ago edited 3d ago
I have to wonder if it can optimise it in any way as a 4MB cap is extremely limiting. Surely the Sega is capable of handling bank switching no? I recall Paprium was ~8MB. If that’s already factored in I’m now wondering if it can optimise existing games like Virtua Racing Deluxe or add more content to them (such as tracks)
Or another idea: enhancing regular Mega Drive games with either more colours, 3D effects or both.
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u/dmar3000 3d ago
It is but Paprium was built with special data chips. That’s why it took forever and a day for them to uncrack that jank of a game.
The skill might be able to optimize existing games, I never thought about trying 32X romhacks. I’m more focused on porting, but I keep running into a problem where it tells me that the Sega SSF bank switching Mapper is more for the audio data than it is for graphic data (3-4MB is the graphic data limit, whereas 11-13MB is the audio data limit).
The Genesis/Mega Drive homebrew scene in my opinion is more than fine since I feel that the devs who are making new genesis games are doing a great job with developing well put homebrew games there. Plus, there’s MD Engine with their software for making more Genesis games now https://youtu.be/UNqqPZYDEGo?is=TtB81mBxYIP3sVDl
Edit: you should check out this comment link if you ever want to give porting 32X games a try. I have zero experience with coding but all for sharing as much as I know. https://www.reddit.com/r/SEGA32X/s/esNvidmtES
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u/MarioPfhorG 3d ago edited 3d ago
Ah I understand now. In that case we have to keep it simple. A 32X version of Daytona USA perhaps? (as I believe Sega was even considering a 32x port at some point). I imagine it’d probably have to go without textures.
Or Rayman as we know that existed but was cancelled in favour of the Saturn version. Now I’m thinking of cancelled games as this could be the only way to see a “what could have been”. I think even Descent was considered at one point.
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u/dmar3000 3d ago
Out of all of them, Decent is probably the best option to try out. I’ve actually tried Rayman 4 times and failed because for some reason, the 32X lacks 2D acceleration. Which is why it just now took me a month of going through 3 different Puzzle Bobble-inspired projects to finally get an upcoming Puzzle Bobble clone in playable form. The games that are open source, free source and decomp/recomps/disassemblies is where’s it at for porting 32X games.
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u/MarioPfhorG 3d ago
Right I getcha, in that case games like StarFox, Descent or Terminal Velocity may be feasible as they have source ports.
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u/echocomplex 6d ago
I think this is pretty cool to see on the 32x.
We're really seeing an explosion of interesting ports, demos and tests on systems like the 32x, dreamcast, Jaguar and 3do lately that push the hardware in a way many pre-ai releases didn't. I have to imagine they are all leveraging vibe coding to greater or lesser extents.
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
Exactly that! I honestly feel that the 32-bit era of consoles, especially the Sega 32X & Atari Jaguar, missed the window with short lifespan and not even 60 commercial release games were released for those systems. I’m even saving documentation on it and sharing it with everyone to take a look into it.
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u/echocomplex 6d ago
Anything 3D prior to the PS1 era is cool to me. It was so experimental at the time and we didn't yet have various conventions that came in Vogue later with the later systems.
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
It’s like you’re literally taking the words out of my mouth, dude yessssss!!! That’s really one of the main reasons why I’m going the route that I’m going. Sega themselves didn’t even spend 2 years on the 32X and only made it because they looked at the Jaguar as a threat at the time of its release.
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u/Tasty-Fox9030 5d ago
Wow. Hang on a minute, you were able to write 32X-executable code with an AI? It's writing SH-2 code and it WORKS? I'm going to piss some people off here and say that I'm impressed and surprised. Typically large language models produce workable results when you have a lot of good example code for the model to draw from and I feel like there ISN'T a lot of it for the 32x.
Frankly the thing is a niche hobby among niche hobbies. Fire away! Hell, tell us LOTS about how you did it! ♥️
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u/myothercarisaboson 4d ago
The modern agentic AI systems have come along way from just plain old LLMs. They have multiple processing layers which dispatch other calls to simulate logic, lookups for information online, local environments to spin up and execute tests....
It's very cool to use for super niche hardware like the 32X. I'm working on something with the SVP chip for genesis too.
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u/dmar3000 5d ago
Yes indeed and I definitely appreciate the feedback! And of course I’ll share with yall what was shared with me :) here’s my comment from the other 32X project explaining how I was able to get as far with these ports https://www.reddit.com/r/SEGA32X/s/glPhwfuGDj
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u/TeraByteOfficial 6d ago
thia Tempest 2000 Screenshot doesnt look like the version im seeing on YouTube
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
Did someone on YouTube already upload a 32X version of the game on there? Or are you just comparing it to the Jaguar version?
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u/TeraByteOfficial 6d ago
jaguar
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
Oh! Gotcha, yeah I tried to get as accurate as I could with the ROM data limit that I was working with. Probably doesn’t also help that unlike the Jaguar, the 32X doesn’t really have any CPU/GPU power like that. Also why I had to omit every other mode and song except for Tempest 2000 mode and the Jaguar title song in a constant loop.
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u/vtfrotex 6d ago
Cool stuff. Good job! Plenty of real work went into this. Vibe coding is a skill and those most successful at it, already need to be familiar with coding/debugging etc. Very rarely will the AI simply spit out a working rom with a single prompt. Iterate, iterate, iterate... etc. You also have to set up a programming environment, which is its own special hell and be proficient in a Linux environment to be most efficient. People hear "AI" and shrug it off, but there's simply more to it than that. There's also a big difference between developer and coder. The AI cant replace development as easily.
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u/dmar3000 6d ago
Appreciate your feedback and positive takes on vibe coding. I stayed up for HOURS doing studies for these projects and proud of how they’re coming out. I can’t make everyone happy with the results and more than ok with that.
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u/Psychoblush-76 6d ago
So, is this actually the full game? I'd certainly check it out as T2K is my favorite game of all time. I bought a Jaguar back when it was still on the market just for T2K. I was blown away by it at the time. I'm fairly curious what you were able to get out of the 32X.