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By Brian Benchoff
A few years ago, Mike’s friend gave him an old Sega Genesis with the very cool and somewhat rare SegaCD drive attached. The SegaCD gave him an idea – while it’s not easy to burn a cartridge and play homebrew games on a real Genesis console, everyone has a CD burner somewhere. Mike began writing his demo and then realized adding Java would be easy on the 68000. The result is Java on three billion devices and a Sega Genesis.
This project is built around Java Grinder, a Java byte code compiler that will compile classes, factories, and all the horrible Java design.design.pattern.pattern.patterns() into assembly language.
Already, there are a lot of platforms supported by Java Grinder, including the Commodore 64, the TI99, and thanks to some work from Joe Davisson, the Apple IIgs
With a byte code compiler, an assembler, and an API for the Sega-specific hardware, Mike set about building his demo. Since this was a Sega, it needed the ‘SEGA’ sound at the start. Mike ended up recording his voice saying ‘JAVA!’ This plays through the Z80 on the Genesis.
The complete demo – viewable in its emulated format below – has everything you would expect from a proper demo. Starfields, dancing sprites, and even a Mandelbrot pattern make it into the 3 minute long demo.
A few years ago, Mike’s friend gave him an old Sega Genesis with the very cool and somewhat rare SegaCD drive attached. The SegaCD gave him an idea – while it’s not easy to burn a cartridge and play homebrew games on a real Genesis console, everyone has a CD burner somewhere. Mike began writing his demo and then realized adding Java would be easy on the 68000. The result is Java on three billion devices and a Sega Genesis.
This project is built around Java Grinder, a Java byte code compiler that will compile classes, factories, and all the horrible Java design.design.pattern.pattern.patterns() into assembly language.
Already, there are a lot of platforms supported by Java Grinder, including the Commodore 64, the TI99, and thanks to some work from Joe Davisson, the Apple IIgs
With a byte code compiler, an assembler, and an API for the Sega-specific hardware, Mike set about building his demo. Since this was a Sega, it needed the ‘SEGA’ sound at the start. Mike ended up recording his voice saying ‘JAVA!’ This plays through the Z80 on the Genesis.
The complete demo – viewable in its emulated format below – has everything you would expect from a proper demo. Starfields, dancing sprites, and even a Mandelbrot pattern make it into the 3 minute long demo.
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