935: CJ Made A Sega Game In 2025
08 September 2025

935: CJ Made A Sega Game In 2025

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

About
CJ takes us behind the scenes of Hackweek to share how he built a custom Sega Genesis game from scratch, complete with assembly code, level loading, and retro hardware tricks. From SGDK to parallax faking, this episode is a deep dive into old-school game dev with a modern twist.


Show Notes



00:00 Welcome to Syntax!


00:44 Why a Sega game?


Sega Genesis.


Sega Master System.


MKBHD Retro Tech: Sega.





06:55 What is it running on?


07:49 Working with assembly code.


10:11 Sega Genesis Development Kit.


Stephane-D GitHub.





10:54 Awesome Megadrive.


12:02 Booting on an emulator.


13:07 Gens and KMod.


15:54 Compiling stage.


17:44 Genesis Code VS Code Extension.


18:22 Images and Assets.


19:46 Loading images with bitmap.


23:50 Megacat Studios.


25:21 Z index?


Faking Parallax.





27:34 Specific code examples.


27:51 Platformer Engine.


30:01 Platformer Sample Game.


30:44 LDTK (Level Designer Toolkit).


33:13 Tiled Collision mapping.


37:42 What about debugging?


39:37 Loading in levels.


RetroGameMechanicsExplained.


Sega Mega-CD Development Unit.





43:56 Challenges with graphics.


49:56 Adding music.


Super Cartridge.


Flahskit Programmer MD.


Flashkit Cart MD.






Hit us up on Socials!

Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads

Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads