Building TIC-80

So you want to build TIC-80 yourself

• Clone the TIC-80 repository to your code folder with
  • git clone --recursive https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80.git
• Note: If you forgot to clone recursively, you have to run:
  • git submodule update --init --recursive

The building process

• Building TIC-80, like most software, is a two-part process.
• First, we generate the Makefile: "building instructions" for the hardware we want to build for.
• Then, we build an executable with the generated instructions
  • After making changes to code, only this part has to be done again.

Building on Windows with MinGW

Prerequisites

• Git (See Git setup)
• Cmake
  • Download Windows x64 Installer
• Ruby
  • Install newest version with Devkit
• These can be installed with Winget (you can't choose installation folder that way, though.)
  winget install Git.Git Kitware.CMake RubyInstallerTeam.RubyWithDevKit.2.7
• You also need MinGW, see the two options below.

MinGW Option 1. MinGW bundled with Ruby

• Ruby comes with MinGW, so you might not even need to install anything extra
• <ruby-installation-folder>\msys64\ucrt64\bin
  • For me it was C:\Program Files (x64)\Ruby31-x64\msys64\ucrt64\bin
• If the folder isn't empty, add it to system path environment variables (see instructions here)
• If this method fails, remove the folder from System Path, and follow MinGW option 2 (described below).

MinGW option 2. Msys2

• Sometimes Ruby doesn't install gcc, I don't know why. Ruby is like that
• So give up with Ruby and go to msys2.org and download the MSYS2 installer.
  • Run the installer according to the instructions.
• If you installed MSYS2 to C:\msys64, the installation directory should now have a gcc executable under C:\msys64\mingw64\bin.
  • If not, open the MSYS2 UCRT64 terminal again.
  • Run pacman -Syu, and follow the prompts. The console will close.
  • Run pacman -Syu again.
  • Run pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain. This will install the needed files.
• Add the C:\msys64\mingw64\bin folder to system path environment variables (see instructions here)

Check that MinGW works

• To check that MinGW works for you, open a new command prompt and run gcc --version
  • It should output gcc (Rev6, Built by MSYS2 project) 12.2.0 or some other version
  • If the version is 4.8, building won't be successful and you need to update your MinGW

Running Cmake

• Open the command line in the TIC-80 project folder (see help for Windows here)
• Use cd build to navigate to the build folder
• Run CMake:
  • cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=MinSizeRel -DBUILD_SDLGPU=On -DBUILD_WITH_ALL=On ..
  • Note: To build the pro version, include the handle -DBUILD_PRO=On
• This takes some time!
  • If you see Configuring done and Generating done messages, it was successful.

Building

• Run mingw32-make -j4
  • The built executable should appear under build/bin
• Extra: To utilize all CPUs:

  $numCPUs = [Environment]::ProcessorCount
  mingw32-make "-j$numCPUs"
  

Build errors

• If Cmake fails, see the build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log for clues
• Before trying CMake again, clear the cache: Remove build/CMakeCache.txt and the CMakeFiles folder.

Mruby

[ 17%] Built target mruby_vendor
mingw32-make: *** [Makefile:135: all] Error 2

• If mruby fails, you have most likely cloned your repo before mruby was added to the TIC-80 codebase.
• Detonate the repo and start from scratch.

Note about cmake

• -- Looking for strlcat - not found
• Don't worry about these "not found" messages

Creating a fork of the TIC-80 repository

• So, you want to make TIC-80 better.
• TIC-80 GitHub page: Fork > Create a new fork
• Clone your TIC-80 repo
• Add the original repo as a new remote:
  • git remote add nesbox https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80.git

Reading

• Exporting a game from a custom build