“Larold’s Jubilant Junkyard” has become “Larold’s Retro Gameyard“. I’ve been working on this re-branding and migration for a while. All old tutorials should redirect you to this new site. If you see any errors, please let me know! See here for more information: What happened to Larold’s Jubilant Junkyard?

Larold's Retro Gameyard

Helpful Resources

The internet is a vast place. There are a lot of resources online that can help you accomplish whatever you need to get done. On this page, i’ll list valuable resources i’ve found online that can help you. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Game Boy Game Development

There are 3 common paths for Game Boy Game Development, each of with it’s own level of difficulty and capabilities. These paths are:

  • RGBDS
  • GBDK 2020
  • GB Studio

I’ll list various resources for each path. My introduction to Game Boy Development was with GBDK. I later experimented wtih RGBDS as well. I’ve found RGBDS to be the most difficult, but also the most powerful. GB Studio will be the most user-friendly, but you’ll lack some of the freedom the other two options provide. I’ve included description of each from their source.

GBDK-2020

GBDK is a cross-platform development kit for sm83, z80 and 6502 based gaming consoles. It includes libraries, toolchain utilities and the SDCC C compiler suite.
Supported Consoles: (see docs)

  • Nintendo Game Boy / Game Boy Color
  • Analogue Pocket
  • Sega Master System & Game Gear
  • Mega Duck / Cougar Boy
  • NES

Experimental consoles (not yet fully functional)

  • MSXDOS

Below are some helpful GBDK-related links.

Note: The gaming Monsters YouTube videos are out of date, but generally work mostly. It was the first tutorial series i watched, that got me into Game Boy game development, so i’ll always give credit.

ZGB

ZGB is a Game Boy / Game Boy Color engine that lets you write your own games in C or asm. It uses GBDK 2020 but expands it to give you some common functionallity for writing games such as: a main loop, sprites spawning, sprites life cycle, sprites animations, collison management, easily getting assets into the game, music, fx…

Here are some helpful ZGB-related links:

RGBDS

A free assembler/linker package for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Gain complete control over the console; with no middle-man, debugging is made simpler. Push the Game Boy’s limited capabilities to the limits writing native assembly code.
Here are some helpful RGBDS-related links:

GB Studio

GB Studio is A quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favourite handheld video game system. GB Studio is Available on Windows, Mac and Linux

Here are some helpful GB Studio-related links:

Other Game Boy Links

Here are some extra links. They either cover general topics, or apply to multiple Game Boy development paths.