📺 VectreC - Vectrex C-Compiler
VectreC is a Visual Studio Code Extension that allows you to do game programming in C for the Vectrex.
Once finished, it will have the following features:
- Compile C projects directly in VS Code — available
- CMOC support — available
- Start programs directly from VS Code in embedded Emulator — available
- Works on macOS (ARM and Intel) and Linux — available
- Installable as VS Code extension
- Vectrex syntax highlighting
- GCC support
While VectreC is still in development, it’s already a powerful tool for game programming in C. It’s compatible with macOS and Linux, allowing you to start coding games immediately.
VectreC running on a Raspberry Pi 400 How to use VectreC? After installation, $HOME/vectrec should look like this:
To test if the installation was successful, you can open sample.code-workspace. by double-clicking it. When open, select main.c in the Visual Studio Code project browser and press Cmd+Shift+B or Ctrl+Shift+B on Linux). This compiles the C file and runs it automatically in the emulator. If the installation was correct, it should look like in the screenshot below:
Additional commands and features will come soon, but first, that’s all you need to start with VectreC.
How to install VectreC? This is the easiest way because you don’t have to install all the developer tools and libraries to build them.
- Download this repository from GitHub
- Execute install-vectrec.sh from the command line
How to build VectreC from the source? If you are either on macOS or Linux, you can install VectreC manually following the scripts below (install first the dependencies if needed):
$ curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rogerboesch/vectrex-dev/master/vectrec/make-vectrec.sh
$ chmod a+x make-vectrec.sh
$ ./make-vectrec.sh $HOME/vectrec
This installs VectreC in your home folder. Currently, $HOME/vectrec is required; you can use any location in the final version.
Dependencies To build VectreC from the source, you must first install the required developer packages.
You can install the required packages as follows:
$ curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rogerboesch/vectrex-dev/master/vectrec/install-dep.sh
$ chmod a+x install-dep.sh
$ ./install-dep.sh
You may already have some packages installed, so what you need to install is highly individual.