Snake Plus (Nintendo DS)

Snake with a twist — A homebrew Snake game for the Nintendo DS developed in modern C++ with libnds and devkitPro.

Features

Classic Gameplay with a Twist:
- Classic grid-based snake action wrapped on a 32×24 playfield with edge-wrapping.
- Normal Apples: Boost length and score (+10), with flashing animation and pickup sounds.
- Rotten Apples: Shrink snake length by 1; shrinking below length 2 results in Game Over! Despawn after 80 ticks with a flashing warning animation.
- Cursed Apples: Invert steering controls (Up ↔ Down, Left ↔ Right) for 40 ticks, requiring quick reflexes and adapted steering. Despawn after 90 ticks if avoided, allowing new curses to spawn later.
Dual-Screen Layout:
- Top Screen: Real-time scoreboard, status alerts ("CONTROLS INVERTED!"), pause overlay, and optional debug stats.
- Bottom Screen: Smooth 2D hardware sprite rendering using DS Sub-engine OAM.
- LCD Swap: Switch top and bottom screens on the fly with the R shoulder button.
Audio & Sound Effects:
- Background tracker music (0rigin.xm) powered by MaxMod 9.
- Sound effects for movement, pickups, rotten/cursed explosions, pause, and game over.
- On-the-fly music toggle from the menu or pause screen.
Game Modes:
- Normal Mode: Relaxed tick rate (TIMER_FREQ_1024(5)), starting length 4.
- Hard Mode: High-speed tick rate (TIMER_FREQ_1024(9)), starting length 2, and periodic rotten apple hazards.
Main Menu & Pause Screen:
- Integrated start menu to toggle Hard Mode and Music.
- In-game pause menu with instant restarts and mode toggles.

Controls

Screen / Context	Button	Action
Main Menu	D-Pad Up / Down	Navigate menu options
Main Menu	A or START	Select option / Start game
In-Game	D-Pad	Steer snake (inverted while cursed)
In-Game	START	Pause / Resume
In-Game	R Trigger	Swap top and bottom screens (`lcdSwap`)
In-Game	SELECT	Toggle debug HUD (coordinates, ticks, raw keys)
In-Game	START + L	Exit game
Paused	B	Return to Main Menu
Paused	X	Toggle background music ON/OFF
Paused	Y	Toggle Normal / Hard mode and restart
Game Over	START	Restart game
Game Over	B	Return to Main Menu

Building from Source

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed:

devkitPro with the nds-dev payload:
- devkitARM toolchain
- libnds, calico, maxmod9
- Utilities: ndstool, grit, mmutil, bin2s
CMake (>= 3.13)
Ninja build system
melonDS (optional, for emulation and testing)

Ensure the DEVKITPRO environment variable is set:

export DEVKITPRO=/opt/devkitpro

Build Instructions

# Clone the repository
git clone <repo-url> snakePlus
cd snakePlus

# Configure build with Ninja
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON

# Compile the .nds ROM and .elf binary
cmake --build build

This generates:

snakePlus.nds — Ready to run on an emulator or flashcard.
snakePlus.elf — ELF binary for GDB debugging.

Running & Emulation

Using melonDS via CMake target

cmake --build build --target run

Direct launch

melonDS snakePlus.nds

Installing to Flashcard / SD Card

A convenience target is included in CMake to copy the .nds ROM to an SD card path:

cmake --build build --target install_sd

(Configure OUTPUT_DIRECTORY in CMakeLists.txt as desired).

Development & Code Quality

VS Code Tasks: Built-in tasks in .vscode/tasks.json support one-key build, run in melonDS, and debug with GDB.
Clang-Tidy: Run run-clang-tidy or launch the watch script:
```
bash tools/clang_tidy_watch.sh
```
Language Standards: C11 / C++14 targeting ARM9 (armv5te).

Architecture & Developer Documentation

For an in-depth architectural breakdown, hardware register mapping, OAM details, and guidelines for AI agents or contributors, refer to AGENTS.md.

Credits & Author

Game Design & Code: Phillip Kuehne
Music: 0rigin.xm
Sound Effects: Freesound.org contributors (treasuresounds, pacomav, crisstanza, timbre, benboncan)
Platform Libraries: libnds, maxmod by devkitPro team

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