I highly recommend Godot for a new developer. I made the switch from Unity and it's just been a pleasure to work with. I'm actually unlearned a bunch of patterns I had to use with Unity because Godot makes things even easier to access .
I don't know if it's got any kind of support for retro systems though
Try this - https://develop.games/. It's ran by a streamer/developer called piratesoftware aka Thor. Lots of helpful info
I wouldn't start with retro hardware, those systems have a lot of quirks and limitations that will make development much harder than it needs to be for your first projects. Instead I'd suggest using a modern toolkit like Gamemaker if you want to avoid programming, or an engine like Godot. Lots of good tutorials available for either.
Maybe ask in !gamedev@programming.dev?
I taught myself some 2D game design and coding with Phaser. My idea was to recreate 80s arcade games like frogger and asteroids. It's great for that and my games run in the browser, pure Javascript.
Just remember that making a game includes making artwork and sound and intro screens and more. It's a lot of work.
many retro systems have implementations of a language called BASIC, which is about as easy as it sounds. it has some quirks that aren't transferable to newer languages and you won't be able to make anything nearly as sophisticated as retail games for the same hardware but if you find modern engines intimidating, it can be a good place to start
that said, +1 for godot if you want to learn a more modern tool. it's way simpler than it may seem at first and there is a huge wealth of beginner-friendly tutorials available online
This article might help you: https://farawaytimes.blogspot.com/2023/02/how-to-make-good-small-games.html?m=1
all 17 comments