Neon Nexus

What You’re Building

Navigate the neon grid. Avoid enemies. Collect items. Survive.

Neon Nexus is a fixed-screen action game where you move around a single screen, dodging enemies and grabbing pickups. Over 64 units across 4 phases, you’ll build this game from first principles to release quality.

Why This Game?

The PPU is the heart of NES development. This single-screen game teaches all the fundamentals without scrolling complexity:

• Pattern tables for tile graphics
• Nametables for the background
• Sprites for the player and enemies
• Palettes for colour
• Controller input for movement
• APU for sound effects

Four Phases

Each phase builds on the previous. By Phase 4, you’ll have a polished game worthy of a real cartridge.

What You’ll Learn

Phase 1 (Available Now):

• PPU setup and configuration
• Pattern tables and CHR-ROM
• Sprites and OAM
• Palettes and colours
• Controller input
• Collision detection
• Game state management
• APU sound effects

Phases 2-4 (Coming Soon):

• Background tile graphics
• Attribute tables for colour regions
• Level design and progression
• Difficulty scaling
• High scores
• Music and advanced audio
• Optimisation techniques
• Release polish

Prerequisites

This is Game 1. No prerequisites — just enthusiasm and a willingness to learn 6502 assembly.

You’ll need an emulator (FCEUX) and the cc65 toolchain (ca65 assembler, ld65 linker).

Time Investment

Each unit takes 60-90 minutes. The full game is 64 units across 4 phases:

• Phase 1: ~16-24 hours
• Full game: ~64-96 hours

Every unit produces something that works. By the end of Unit 1, you’ll have a NES ROM running on screen.

Ready?

The grid awaits. The neon glows. Time to build.