[danjoredd]

Agreed. Godot, Unity, Unreal, etc. all are better options for beginners. Gamemaker Studio even lets you program for free...you have to pay to make an executable though.

If someone is dead-set on making a game for PS1, there are free tutorials out there also: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAQybJIBW2UtXJITyUTJi...

You won't have as intimate knowledge of PS1 hardware as OP's course, but I think thats a better starting point than paying first and then stopping because you didn't already know programming and it turned out more involved than you thought it would be.

Now I DO think that there is a place for a paid course like this. I can see the appeal of getting hyperfixated on extremely specific hardware such as this, and making some cool stuff for it. For that type of person, the 100$ is worth it.

[filleduchaos]

> Agreed. Godot, Unity, Unreal, etc. all are better options for beginners.

Am I just lost or are a game engine and a game development course not very obviously different things? Paid tutorials exist for everything you've listed, because they are in fact tech and not teachers.

[omoikane]

I have had some experience with Godot and Net Yaroze (PS1). It was significantly easier to make a game with Godot.

Godot comes with an IDE that build/edit/run games all in one integrated experience, and the user manual comes with a tutorial. I was able to make a game in less than a day, and the edit-test iteration cycle was practically instantaneous. I am familiar with Python, but I suspect it would have been possible to make some games without any programming experience.

Net Yaroze came with two printed manuals and a serial cable. There was no tutorial. Memory was limited and I had to lay out all the sprites in the video memory myself. The edit-test iteration cycle was slow since it involves uploading your compiled binary over the serial cable to the console on each run. If I wasn't already familiar with C, I don't think the PlayStation was the best place to start learning it.

Everything definitely got better in the past few decades given all the tools that became available, but ultimately we are comparing a purpose-built tool for making games versus a development kit plus lots of hardware constraints. There is a different type joy to be gained in developing for a console, but for beginners who just want to get some game up and running, a modern game engine is going to be an easier path.

[danjoredd]

Im saying that it is better for beginners to start with a modern engine than try to make something for an older console. Newbies will see a course like this, think "oh I loved the playstation! This course will help me learn how to make a game for it? I will buy." When in reality, they will just waste their money because development is hard, especially for the PS1.

What I was saying is "If you are dead-set on making a game for PS1 for your first game" use a free course instead of buying something like this. Newbs don't realize how complicated learning CPU architecture and assembly is. What they want to know is how to get started making games, so I linked a free course while discouraging new developers from even trying to develop for the PS1, but to go for a more modern engine.