# Awesome Game Boy Development [](#awesome-gbdev)
A curated list of awesome Game Boy (Color) Development resources, tools, docs, related projects and open-source ROMs. Inspired by the [awesome](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome) list thing.
- [Emulation of Nintendo Game Boy](https://github.com/Baekalfen/PyBoy/blob/master/PyBoy.pdf) - Overview of the Game Boy hardware with the perspective of building an emulator.
Although this documentation is focused on the original (1989) Game Boy (DMG), the *Game Boy Color* (GBC) and *Super Game Boy* (SGB) are very similar systems, with few important distinctions, such as:
If you aim to develop your software for SGB or GBC, or you want to know how it runs on the others system, you may want to take advantage and adapt to these differences, check for specific references to GBC/CGB and SGB in the documentation section.
- [gbdev.gg8.se](http://gbdev.gg8.se) - This is basically the home of the gbdev scene. The [wiki](http://gbdev.gg8.se/wiki/articles/Main_Page) has a lot of articles from previous sites, tutorials and other documents about a lot of topics.
- [devrs.com/gb](http://devrs.com/gb) - Jeff Frohwein’s page, this the main reference for everything. Almost everything is archived here: code examples and working programs(ASM and C), complete documentation and various tools.
- [Game Boy Programming Manual](http://www.chrisantonellis.com/files/gameboy/gb-programming-manual.pdf) - **Official Game Boy** programming & hardware manual by Nintendo. Pretty much everything in the console is covered and explained in this manual. This should be your first and main resource to start understanding what game boy is.
- [The Cycle-Accurate Game Boy Docs](https://github.com/AntonioND/giibiiadvance/blob/master/docs/TCAGBD.pdf) - A precise documentation by AntonioND to make a cycle-accurate Game Boy emulator.
- [Assembly Language Programming Course](http://cratel.wichita.edu/cratel/ECE238Spr08) - Machine and assembly language programming concepts that illustrate basic principles and techniques. Application through study of the Z80 chip and Game Boy programming assignments (Center for Research in Arts, Technology, Education, and Learning CRATEL at Withicha State University).
- [Differences between the Z80 and the gameboy's processor](http://www.z80.info/z80gboy.txt)
- [Archive of related files](http://gbdev.gg8.se/files/)
- [fruttenboel](http://verhoeven272.nl/fruttenboel/Gameboy/index.html) - Page with loads of information on the actual hardware, custom boards to interface with the console and other related projects.
- [Gameboy 2BPP Graphics Format](http://www.huderlem.com/demos/gameboy2bpp.html) - Information on how the Gameboy interprets VRAM tile data to color pixels.
- [Game Boy Camera RE](https://github.com/AntonioND/gbcam-rev-engineer) - Documentation about GB Camera and tools used to reverse engineer it by using Arduino UNO.
- [Creating photorealistic images with neural networks and a Gameboy Camera](http://www.pinchofintelligence.com/photorealistic-neural-network-gameboy/)
- [The Game Boy Printer](https://shonumi.github.io/articles/art2.html) - An in-depth technical document about the printer hardware, the communication protocol and the usual routine that games used for implementing the print feature.
- [Ben Heck Reverse Engineers Game Boy Printer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43FfJvd-YP4)
- [Gekkio's Game Boy cartridge types](http://gekkio.fi/blog/2015-02-14-mooneye-gb-gameboy-cartridge-types.html) - An overview on existing cartridge types.
- [Reiner Ziegler's Game Boy page](http://www.reinerziegler.de/readplus.htm) - Commercial and homemade programmable cartridges and programming systems. Tutorials, wiring and schematics provided.
- [MBC1 and MBC2 cartridges circuits](http://fms.komkon.org/GameBoy/Tech/Carts.html) and explanation on how these MBC actually bank switch and control RAM.
- [GB Rom List](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cOS__xEj8bBT7cqEDgJcYStKuFAS8mMA4uErx9kA40M/edit?usp=sharing) - Navigable table of every GB game released with details on their cartridges.
- [Game Boy cartridge PCB photos](http://gekkio.fi/blog/2016-03-19-game-boy-cartridge-pcb-photos.html)
- [Emulating a GameBoy Cartridge](https://dhole.github.io/post/gameboy_cartridge_emu_1/) - Emulating the functionality of a Game Boy cartridge with the development board STM32F4.
- [The Game Boy Developer's Kit (GBDK)](http://gbdk.sourceforge.net/) - A set of tools that enable to develop programs for the Nintendo Game Boy system in **C**. Includes a set of libraries for the most common requirements and generates image files for use with a real Game Boy.
- [ZGB](https://github.com/Zal0/ZGB) - A little engine for creating games for the original Game Boy (expands gbdk, more info [here](http://zalods.blogspot.com/2017/01/zgb-little-engine-for-game-boy.html)).
- [DevSound](https://github.com/DevEd2/DevSound) - Sound driver embeddable in homebrews which supports pulse width manipulation, arpeggios, and multiple waveforms.
- [Game Boy Tile Data Generator](http://www.chrisantonellis.com/gameboy/gbtdg/) - HTML5 / JS web application that will convert bitmap images to hexadecimal data appropriate for use in tile based graphical applications, specifically GB.
- [rgbds_textmate](https://github.com/Bananattack/rgbds_textmate) - Some syntax highlighting rules for coding in Z80 assembly as a Textmate language plugin. Works in Sublime Text 2 and 3\. The syntax is particularly designed for rgbds and Game Boy-specific Z80 instructions.
- [Harry Mulder's GB Development](http://www.devrs.com/gb/hmgd/intro.html) - Some sources and home of Game Boy Tile Designer and Game Boy Map Builder tools.
- [GBZ80 to items](http://issotm.github.io/gbz80toitems3/) - An online converter, translates gameboy assembly into Pokémon R/B/Y items ([Source](https://github.com/ISSOtm/gbz80-to-items)).
- [Vim syntax file for the Game Boy assembler RGBASM](http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=819) - Vim syntax highlighting for RGBDS assembly.
- [Vim syntax file for RGBDS](https://github.com/Leandros/dotfiles/blob/master/.vim/syntax/rgbds.vim) - Another Vim syntax highlighting file for RGBDS assembly.
- [gbdk-lib-extension](https://github.com/ProGM/gbdk-lib-extension) - A small set of sources and tools for the Gameboy Development Kit by Michael Hope.
- [Assembly tutorial by David Pello](http://wiki.ladecadence.net/doku.php?do=show&id=tutorial_de_ensamblador) - Good document to actually learn to produce working asm code for gb. Brief explanations of many important topics. Many examples with commented source code. An english version is available [here](https://avivace.com/apps/gbdev/salvage/tutorial_de_ensamblador%20[La%20decadence].html).
- [Beginner's Guide to Reverse Engineering GB](http://web.archive.org/web/20150511145100/http://www.bennvenn.com/Beginners_Guide_To_Reverse_Engineering.htm) - Some starting tips on disassembling and reverse engineering.
- [gb-template](https://github.com/exezin/gb-template) - A template with basic functions pre-made such as joypad input, DMA transfers, and map/tile data loading.
- [assemblydigest](https://github.com/assemblydigest/gameboy) - Exploring Game Boy programming techniques.
- [DMA hijacking](https://github.com/avivace/awesome-gbdev/blob/master/articles/dma_hijacking.md) - A simple technique that allows you to run custom code in most GB/SGB/CGB games, provided you have an ACE exploit. [Demo video](http://gbdev.gg8.se/forums/viewtopic.php?id=430).
- [8-Bit Wonderland](http://belial.blarzwurst.de/gbpaper/paper.pdf) - Well-written introductory document about how the Game Boy works and how to start developing working code for it.
- [Grooves Game Boy Programming](https://github.com/gbdk-salvage/grooves-game-boy-programming) - A complete set of lessons about implementing various game mechanics in a Game Boy game.
- [GBDK Sprite](http://gbdev.gg8.se/wiki/articles/GBDK_Sprite_Tutorial) - Presents a workflow for getting multiple sprites to display and animate.
- [GBDK Color](http://gbdev.gg8.se/wiki/articles/GBDK_Color_Tutorial) - Extends your knowledge of basic spriting on the Game Boy by adding colors to sprites, backgrounds and the window layer.
- [GBDK Joypad](http://gbdev.gg8.se/wiki/articles/GBDK_Joypad_Tutorial) - Details the use of the joypad with GBDK.
- [GBDK Configuring and Programming Tutorial](https://videlais.com/2016/07/03/programming-game-boy-games-using-gbdk-part-1-configuring-programming-and-compiling/) - Configuring GBDK, Using Tiles, Colliding Sprites, GBTD, GBMB, Memory Management and ROM Banking.
[This](https://github.com/avivace/awesome-gbdev/tree/master/articles/salvage) folder is an historical archive of old articles, FAQs and in general text documents about Game Boy development. These may be wrong or obsolete - they are archived for historical reasons.
- [pokemontools](https://github.com/pret/pokemon-reverse-engineering-tools) - a python module that provides various reverse engineering components for various Pokémon games.
- [Reverse Engineering a Gameboy ROM with radare2](https://www.megabeets.net/reverse-engineering-a-gameboy-rom-with-radare2) - A walkthrough to reverse engineer a Gameboy ROM challenge using radare2.
- [Disassembling Link's Awakening](http://kemenaran.winosx.com/posts/category-disassembling-links-awakening/) - A series of blog posts about disassembling Link's Awakening DX.
- [ArduinoBoy](https://github.com/trash80/Arduinoboy) - Serial communication (MIDI) from an Arduino to the Game Boy for music applications such as LittleSoundDJ, Nanoloop, and mGB.
- [Piglet](https://github.com/danShumway/Piglet) - A LUA-driven AI that plays classic Game Boy color games using experimentation. In active development.
- [The Game Boy Project](http://marc.rawer.de/Gameboy/Docs/GBProject.pdf) - Provides a study on the hardware and detailed constructional information for the realisation of three 8-bit bidirectional parallel ports.
- [gbdk-n](https://github.com/rotmoset/gbdk-n) - Aims to update the gbdk libraries to be compatible with new versions of SDCC and provide helpers for building roms.
- [Wiz](https://github.com/wiz-lang/wiz) - A high-level assembly language for writing homebrew on retro console platforms (Game Boy, NES, Atari 2600, and more).
- [Nintendo's fake logos](http://fuji.drillspirits.net/?post=87) - Every cartridge has to show the authentic logo to be considered valid and be run, but obviously some companies managed to exploit the check system.
- [Ostrich](https://github.com/PumpMagic/ostrich) - A Game Boy Sound System player written in Swift.
- [mGB](https://github.com/trash80/mGB) - A Gameboy cartridge program that enables the Gameboy to act as a full MIDI supported sound module.
- [GBVisualizer](https://github.com/LIJI32/GBVisualizer) - Demonstrating the use of two undocumented Gameboy Color registers, nicknamed PCM12 (FF76) and PCM34 (FF77), which can be used to read the current PCM amplitude of the 4 APU channels.
- [GBVideoPlayer](https://github.com/LIJI32/GBVideoPlayer) - A technical demo demonstrating how the Gameboy LCD controller can be hacked to make a Gameboy Color play a full motion video in color, together with music.
- [gb-save-states](https://github.com/mattcurrie/gb-save-states) - Patches to add save state support to Game Boy games when playing on the original hardware.
[Every](https://github.com/avivace/awesome-gbdev/graphs/contributors) contributor of this project, Jeff Frohwein, Pascal Felber, KOOPa, Pan of Anthrox, GABY, Marat Fayzullin, Paul Robson, Martin Korth, BOWSER, neviksti, Martin “nocash" Korth, Nitro2k01, Duo, Chris Antonellis, Michael Hope, Beware, Jonathan “Lord Nightmare” Gevaryahu, Marat Fayzullin, Paul Robson, Carsten Sorense, Sindre Aamås, Otaku No Zoku, GeeBee.
