A curated list of Game Boy development resources such as tools, docs, emulators, related projects and open-source ROMs.
See the code
Awesome Game Boy DevelopmentA curated list of awesome Game Boy (Color) Development resources, tools, docs, related projects and open-source ROMs. Inspired by the awesome list thing.
You can find a (way cooler) web version of this list here.
Disambiguation
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance development is covered by another project, the awesome-gbadev list. GBA, however, can run GB/GBC games. It does so in a slightly different way compared to native hardware: this is covered in the Emulator Development section of this list.
Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy
This list is focused on the original Game Boy (GB or DMG, 1989), the Game Boy Color (GBC or CGB) and the Super Game Boy (SGB) are very similar systems, with a few important distinctions, such as:
- Different hardware specifications;
- Specific hardware and software features;
- Specific registers;
- Specific bugs, quirks and exploitable behaviours.
If you aim to develop your software for SGB or GBC, or you want to know how it runs on the other systems, you may want to take advantage and adapt to these differences, check the Game Boy Color category and look for specific references to GBC/CGB and SGB.
The Choosing tools for Game Boy development essay provides an overview of the available development tools for Game Boy.
BGB - Powerful emulator and debugger. Provides an accurate hardware emulation.
SameBoy - Accurate emulator with a wide range of powerful debugging features.
Mooneye GB - Research project and emulator in Rust.
mGBA - Modern cross platform GBA emulator which also runs GB/GBC games.
Binjgb - 5Kloc emulator that passes most of the tests. *Rewind- feature. Runs in the browser using WebAssembly.
Gambatte - Cross-platform and accurate emulator.
MetroBoy - A playable, circuit-level simulation of an entire Game Boy.
gbe-plus - A recently rewritten emulator that has a large effort in preserving the functions of obscure accessories (such as IR link, Mobile Network GB, Barcode Boy, GB Printer, local and online GB Serial Link Cable, ... )
Emulicious - Provides accurate emulation and includes powerful tools such as a profiler and source-level debugging for ASM and C via a VS Code debug adapter.
Complete list of open source emulators
Guides, tutorials and tools to develop software for Game Boy using the development toolchains described in the Software Development chapter.
Fragments of code, effects, proof of concepts and generally non complete games.
Complete and open source games.
10 PRINT Game BoyGame Boy Printer emulation (e.g. to retrieve images from the camera):
Methods to improve and/or manipulate the camera's quality and behavior:
Take a look at Contribution Guidelines.
Licensed under GPLv3. See LICENSE for more information.
Thanks to every contributor of this project, Jeff Frohwein, Pascal Felber, KOOPa, Pan of Anthrox, GABY, Marat Fayzullin, Paul Robson, BOWSER, neviksti, Martin "nocash" Korth, Nitro2k01, Duo, Chris Antonellis, Michael Hope, Beware, Jonathan “Lord Nightmare” Gevaryahu, Carsten Sorense, Sindre Aamås, Otaku No Zoku, GeeBee.
Special thanks to our friends at DigitalOcean and Incube8 Games, sponsoring the open source activites of our Game Boy Development community.
(top 24 of 55)
324 followers · starred Apr 2021
223 followers · starred Nov 2017
417 followers · starred Feb 2023
329 followers · starred May 2016
A curated list of Game Boy development resources such as tools, docs, emulators, related projects and open-source ROMs.
See the code
Awesome Game Boy DevelopmentA curated list of awesome Game Boy (Color) Development resources, tools, docs, related projects and open-source ROMs. Inspired by the awesome list thing.
You can find a (way cooler) web version of this list here.
Disambiguation
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance development is covered by another project, the awesome-gbadev list. GBA, however, can run GB/GBC games. It does so in a slightly different way compared to native hardware: this is covered in the Emulator Development section of this list.
Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy
This list is focused on the original Game Boy (GB or DMG, 1989), the Game Boy Color (GBC or CGB) and the Super Game Boy (SGB) are very similar systems, with a few important distinctions, such as:
- Different hardware specifications;
- Specific hardware and software features;
- Specific registers;
- Specific bugs, quirks and exploitable behaviours.
If you aim to develop your software for SGB or GBC, or you want to know how it runs on the other systems, you may want to take advantage and adapt to these differences, check the Game Boy Color category and look for specific references to GBC/CGB and SGB.
The Choosing tools for Game Boy development essay provides an overview of the available development tools for Game Boy.
BGB - Powerful emulator and debugger. Provides an accurate hardware emulation.
SameBoy - Accurate emulator with a wide range of powerful debugging features.
Mooneye GB - Research project and emulator in Rust.
mGBA - Modern cross platform GBA emulator which also runs GB/GBC games.
Binjgb - 5Kloc emulator that passes most of the tests. *Rewind- feature. Runs in the browser using WebAssembly.
Gambatte - Cross-platform and accurate emulator.
MetroBoy - A playable, circuit-level simulation of an entire Game Boy.
gbe-plus - A recently rewritten emulator that has a large effort in preserving the functions of obscure accessories (such as IR link, Mobile Network GB, Barcode Boy, GB Printer, local and online GB Serial Link Cable, ... )
Emulicious - Provides accurate emulation and includes powerful tools such as a profiler and source-level debugging for ASM and C via a VS Code debug adapter.
Complete list of open source emulators
Guides, tutorials and tools to develop software for Game Boy using the development toolchains described in the Software Development chapter.
Fragments of code, effects, proof of concepts and generally non complete games.
Complete and open source games.
10 PRINT Game BoyGame Boy Printer emulation (e.g. to retrieve images from the camera):
Methods to improve and/or manipulate the camera's quality and behavior:
Take a look at Contribution Guidelines.
Licensed under GPLv3. See LICENSE for more information.
Thanks to every contributor of this project, Jeff Frohwein, Pascal Felber, KOOPa, Pan of Anthrox, GABY, Marat Fayzullin, Paul Robson, BOWSER, neviksti, Martin "nocash" Korth, Nitro2k01, Duo, Chris Antonellis, Michael Hope, Beware, Jonathan “Lord Nightmare” Gevaryahu, Carsten Sorense, Sindre Aamås, Otaku No Zoku, GeeBee.
Special thanks to our friends at DigitalOcean and Incube8 Games, sponsoring the open source activites of our Game Boy Development community.
(top 24 of 55)
324 followers · starred Apr 2021
223 followers · starred Nov 2017
417 followers · starred Feb 2023
329 followers · starred May 2016