gbdev/rgbds

Rednex Game Boy Development System - An assembly toolchain for the Nintendo Game Boy and Game Boy Color

C++

1,659

3,611 commits

updated Oct 11, 2026

See the code

README

RGBDS

RGBDS (Rednex Game Boy Development System) is a free assembler/linker package for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

It consists of four tools:

  • RGBASM: assembler
  • RGBLINK: linker
  • RGBFIX: ROM checksum/header fixer
  • RGBGFX: PNG-to-Game Boy graphics converter

Documentation

The full documentation is available online, including the development history and version history, generated from the man pages in this repository.

The documentation website's own source code is available in the rgbds-www repository.

Community

If you have questions about the RGBDS code or its organization, you can contact the maintainers on the GBDev Discord server or other community channels, or via email at rgbds at gbdev dot io.

If you want to help maintain RGBDS, please read the contribution guide.

Installing

The platform-specific installation instructions are available online. To build from source using make or cmake, briefly:

make
sudo make install
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

Both build systems support a prefix (e.g. to install into a specific directory) and a suffix (e.g. to append the version number or commit ID):

make
sudo make install PREFIX=install_dir/ SUFFIX=-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSUFFIX=-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
cmake --build build
cmake --install build --prefix install_dir

On Windows, any SUFFIX should include the .exe extension.

asm
assembly
assembly-language
assembly-sm83
cplusplus
game-boy
gameboy
gamedev
game-development
gbdev
gbz80
sm83

gbdev/rgbds

Rednex Game Boy Development System - An assembly toolchain for the Nintendo Game Boy and Game Boy Color

C++

1,659

3,611 commits

updated Oct 11, 2026

See the code

README

RGBDS

RGBDS (Rednex Game Boy Development System) is a free assembler/linker package for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

It consists of four tools:

  • RGBASM: assembler
  • RGBLINK: linker
  • RGBFIX: ROM checksum/header fixer
  • RGBGFX: PNG-to-Game Boy graphics converter

Documentation

The full documentation is available online, including the development history and version history, generated from the man pages in this repository.

The documentation website's own source code is available in the rgbds-www repository.

Community

If you have questions about the RGBDS code or its organization, you can contact the maintainers on the GBDev Discord server or other community channels, or via email at rgbds at gbdev dot io.

If you want to help maintain RGBDS, please read the contribution guide.

Installing

The platform-specific installation instructions are available online. To build from source using make or cmake, briefly:

make
sudo make install
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

Both build systems support a prefix (e.g. to install into a specific directory) and a suffix (e.g. to append the version number or commit ID):

make
sudo make install PREFIX=install_dir/ SUFFIX=-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSUFFIX=-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
cmake --build build
cmake --install build --prefix install_dir

On Windows, any SUFFIX should include the .exe extension.

asm
assembly
assembly-language
assembly-sm83
cplusplus
game-boy
gameboy
gamedev
game-development
gbdev
gbz80
sm83

Project health

Overall

4.2/10

Maintained

10/10

Code review

3/10
OpenSSF Scorecard

Significant stargazers

Marek Kubica

286 followers · starred Sep 2019

Joel Stanley

199 followers · starred Jul 2025

Lucas Kent

101 followers · starred Mar 2016

Kohki Miki

664 followers · starred Apr 2019