gbdev/pandocs

The single, most comprehensive Game Boy technical reference.

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739 commits

updated Oct 16, 2026

gbdev.io/pandocs

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Message	Score	Date
Mostly these two: https://rgbds.gbdev.io/docs/v0.5.2/gbz80.7 and https://gbdev.io/pandocs/ It's incredibly well documented ! on EmuDevz: A game about developing emulators	0	Jan 22, 2026
List of links and support documents for those interested in Gameboy Development (and example Homebrew ROMs) Gameboy Dev: https://gbdev.io/ PanDocs (tech reference): https://gbdev.io/pandocs/ Gameboy Tech Ref Doc (gekkio): https://gekkio.fi/files/gb-docs/gbctr.pdf Game Boy Development Kit 2020… on Retro Boy: simple Game Boy emulator written in Rust, can be played on the web	0	Mar 21, 2025
A good place to start is with the original Game Boy - you can probably gather from the article that, to build a GBA emulator, you need to support some aspects of the Game Boy anyway (notably the sound chip). That would give you a simpler place to start getting familiar with the general concepts… on Game Boy Advance Architecture – A Practical Analysis	0	Mar 13, 2025
> If I set my alarm for 7:45 am, I need it to ring when the clock says 7:45 am, wherever in the world I happen to be. This property can be surprisingly hard to implement on Unix epoch based systems (just ask Apple), considering time zones, DST and everything! I wonder if this is the reason that… on Storing Times for Human Events	0	Dec 12, 2024
History of Gameboy.txt	1	Mar 15, 2024
I wonder how feasible it would be to get a keyboard hooked up to a Gameboy through the serial port. It looks like it should be possible from a cursory reading of https://gbdev.io/pandocs/Serial_Data_Transfer_(Link_Cable).h... on New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns	0	Mar 9, 2024
Gameboy technical reference for homebrew developers	250	Nov 23, 2023
If you browse a bit on the second link, it will give you a list of common cartridge models. See e.g. https://gbdev.io/pandocs/MBC5.html which gives you 8MB as peak ROM size, but it is all paged via the 2nd half of the cartridges address space, in blocks of 16K. Code used by the whole program… on Extracting the GameBoy ROM from photographs of the die	0	Mar 22, 2023
A quick google turns up this disassembly of the ROM: https://gist.github.com/drhelius/6063288 You can see the comment of the last line is $00fe and the first line is $0000, so assuming the last instruction takes 2 bytes, that's 256 bytes. Besides, it is a 16 bit machine, so it has 64K addressable… on Extracting the GameBoy ROM from photographs of the die	0	Mar 22, 2023
Very cool article! If you want to know more about the hardware side of the Game Boy (Color), have a look at the Pan Docs: https://gbdev.io/pandocs/ It's been revamped in the recent years, in terms of presentation. I do kind of miss the old version which had a refreshing "old-school" UI like the… on Zelda: Link's Awakening game engine documentation (2021)	0	Jan 6, 2023

README

Pan Docs

"Pan Docs" is a document started in early 1995, considered the single most comprehensive technical reference to Game Boy available to the public.

This git repository hosts a renewed version of it, mantained in the Markdown format and enjoying renewed community attention.

Go to gbdev.io/pandocs to read the document.

Contributing

Everyone is welcome to contribute opening issues, expressing feedback, adding and improving content or share new findings. Please, check the contributing guidelines for a complete view on how to contribute to this project or read the deploy instructions to run a local copy of Pan Docs.

License

Pan Docs is released into the public domain.

boy

cheatsheet

datasheet

documentation

game

game-boy

gameboy

gamedev

pandocs

reference

retrodev

Significant stargazers

Hassan Abedi

320 followers · starred May 2026

Sergiu Deitsch

48 followers · starred May 2026

Sreeram Venkitesh

282 followers · starred Jan 2021

Andriy Sultanov

83 followers · starred Apr 2023

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gbdev/pandocs

The single, most comprehensive Game Boy technical reference.

Markdown

796

739 commits

updated Oct 16, 2026

gbdev.io/pandocs

See the code

See what people are saying

Newest first

Most points

Message	Score	Date
Mostly these two: https://rgbds.gbdev.io/docs/v0.5.2/gbz80.7 and https://gbdev.io/pandocs/ It's incredibly well documented ! on EmuDevz: A game about developing emulators	0	Jan 22, 2026
List of links and support documents for those interested in Gameboy Development (and example Homebrew ROMs) Gameboy Dev: https://gbdev.io/ PanDocs (tech reference): https://gbdev.io/pandocs/ Gameboy Tech Ref Doc (gekkio): https://gekkio.fi/files/gb-docs/gbctr.pdf Game Boy Development Kit 2020… on Retro Boy: simple Game Boy emulator written in Rust, can be played on the web	0	Mar 21, 2025
A good place to start is with the original Game Boy - you can probably gather from the article that, to build a GBA emulator, you need to support some aspects of the Game Boy anyway (notably the sound chip). That would give you a simpler place to start getting familiar with the general concepts… on Game Boy Advance Architecture – A Practical Analysis	0	Mar 13, 2025
> If I set my alarm for 7:45 am, I need it to ring when the clock says 7:45 am, wherever in the world I happen to be. This property can be surprisingly hard to implement on Unix epoch based systems (just ask Apple), considering time zones, DST and everything! I wonder if this is the reason that… on Storing Times for Human Events	0	Dec 12, 2024
History of Gameboy.txt	1	Mar 15, 2024
I wonder how feasible it would be to get a keyboard hooked up to a Gameboy through the serial port. It looks like it should be possible from a cursory reading of https://gbdev.io/pandocs/Serial_Data_Transfer_(Link_Cable).h... on New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns	0	Mar 9, 2024
Gameboy technical reference for homebrew developers	250	Nov 23, 2023
If you browse a bit on the second link, it will give you a list of common cartridge models. See e.g. https://gbdev.io/pandocs/MBC5.html which gives you 8MB as peak ROM size, but it is all paged via the 2nd half of the cartridges address space, in blocks of 16K. Code used by the whole program… on Extracting the GameBoy ROM from photographs of the die	0	Mar 22, 2023
A quick google turns up this disassembly of the ROM: https://gist.github.com/drhelius/6063288 You can see the comment of the last line is $00fe and the first line is $0000, so assuming the last instruction takes 2 bytes, that's 256 bytes. Besides, it is a 16 bit machine, so it has 64K addressable… on Extracting the GameBoy ROM from photographs of the die	0	Mar 22, 2023
Very cool article! If you want to know more about the hardware side of the Game Boy (Color), have a look at the Pan Docs: https://gbdev.io/pandocs/ It's been revamped in the recent years, in terms of presentation. I do kind of miss the old version which had a refreshing "old-school" UI like the… on Zelda: Link's Awakening game engine documentation (2021)	0	Jan 6, 2023

README

Pan Docs

"Pan Docs" is a document started in early 1995, considered the single most comprehensive technical reference to Game Boy available to the public.

This git repository hosts a renewed version of it, mantained in the Markdown format and enjoying renewed community attention.

Go to gbdev.io/pandocs to read the document.

Contributing

License

Pan Docs is released into the public domain.

boy

cheatsheet

datasheet

documentation

game

game-boy

gameboy

gamedev

pandocs

reference

retrodev

Significant stargazers

Hassan Abedi

320 followers · starred May 2026

Sergiu Deitsch

48 followers · starred May 2026

Sreeram Venkitesh

282 followers · starred Jan 2021

Andriy Sultanov

83 followers · starred Apr 2023

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same org

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same org

retrio/gb-test-roms

Collection of Game Boy test roms.

652

gbadev-org/awesome-gbadev

A curated list of Game Boy Advance development resources

1,354

elipsitz/gamebub

Open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld

992

flipacholas/Architecture-of-consoles

Technical articles about console architecture

1,113

pret/gb-asm-tools

Tools for working with the Pokémon disassemblies

gamesexplained/gamesexplained

Code-first explanations of how games work: reverse-engineering kits, skills, game info.