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