Devlog 1 - Setup and basic input

I took a while to find a toolchain that I liked, but I’ve settled on using Emscripten, and it’s built in version of SDL2. Emscripten is a library and compiler for CXX that allows direct compilation to web assembly and JavaScript, also allowing graphics and input with SDL. This makes it a lot easier for me to write the program, as I don’t really need to know as much JS or find multiple different libraries to use.

Originally I wanted to use SDL3, but I couldn’t get the input to work automatically with Emscripten, and with this being my first major C and web project, I decided to take the easier path and simply use the fully supported SDL2.

I also spent some time setting up a simple CMake system and some scripts for building and running, which took me a while to figure out, especially as I was also learning Emscripten for the first time, however it will hopefully save me time in the long run.

Just to test my implementation, I set up some keybinds for the eventual emulator to come. I just used SDL scancodes to check for the key press, and they printed the corresponding Gameboy button to the output. You can see this in the video below. For simplicity, I decided to just set keys in code, with WASD being the dpad, J being A, K being B, Return being Start and Backspace being select.