Lameguy's PlayStation Programming Series

Welcome to Lameguy64's PlayStation Programming Series! This is a series of tutorials I (Lameguy64) put together in my spare time that covers the basics and eventually, more advanced topics of programming for the original PlayStation.

Keep in mind that this tutorial series assumes you already have prior experience in C programming as PlayStation specific programming topics are only covered here. If you're completely new to programming in general it is recommended to learn C first from a different tutorial series.

Tutorial Index

• System Overview
• Setting up an SDK (needs revising)
• Chapter 1: Basic Homebrew Programming
• 1.1. Setting up Graphics and Hello World
• 1.2. Drawing Graphics Primitives
• 1.3. Textures, TPages and CLUTs
• 1.4. Controllers
• 1.5. Fixed Point Math
• 1.6. Using the CD-ROM
• Chapter 2: Moderately Advanced Graphics Programming
• 2.1. The Principles of PlayStation 3D
• 2.2. The Geometry Transformation Engine
• 2.3. Drawing a Spinning Cube with the GTE
• 2.4. The Rotation Matrix and Implementing a First-Person Camera
• Chapter 3: Intro to Assembly Language Programming
• 3.1. Writing for the Processor Directly
• 3.2. Performing a Hello World in Assembly (GAS)
• 3.3. Argument Passing and Calling Conventions
• Chapter 2: CD-ROM Basics (old)
• 2.1. About the CD-ROM
• 2.2. Reading a file from CD-ROM
• 2.3. CD-ROM Optimizations

About this tutorial series

I decided to work on this tutorial project to help make PlayStation homebrew programming a little more accessible even though this is likely not going to change much on the state of the PS1 homebrew scene and that nobody has bothered to write good programming tutorials that I'm aware of that don't just use libgs right at the start, usually with very little explanation to how the hardware works which in my opinion is not the right way to teach how to program for the target platform.

The pages are written in plain HTML with minimal CSS styling for compatibility with older browsers so you can conveniently view the pages on your Windows 98 PC that has a DTL-H2000 or similar development hardware equipped.

Why is this a SVN repo and not a wiki or blog series?

Because it is easier for me to update, easier to run, accessible on very old web browsers and I rather self-host my stuff whenever possible. Wikis and things like wordpress can get bent.

Changelog

June 28, 2021:

• Added missing tutorial indexes in chapters 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5.
• Forgot to reference Chapters 2.2 and 2.3 in the tutorial index, going to be replaced with a better, more consolidated chapter however to conclude Chapter 1 with.
• Added better CD-ROM chapter to conclude Chapter 1 with.

March 10, 2021:

• Improved controllers chapter.
• Fixed incorrect cell count in framebuffer illustrations.
• Added fixed point math chapter.

December 1, 2020:

• Added Controllers chapter.
• Made some corrections to Chapter 1.3.
• Made some corrections in the System Overview page.

November 12, 2020:

• Significantly revised Chapter 1.3, added new illustrations and corrected mistakes in example code.

June 4, 2020:

• Started changelog (should have started sooner).
• Rewrote Chapter 1.1, now includes hello world with some new graphics.