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RGBDS

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

  • RGBASM (assembler)
  • RGBLINK (linker)
  • RGBFIX (checksum/header fixer)
  • RGBGFX (PNG‐to‐Game Boy graphics converter)

This is a fork of the original RGBDS which aims to make the programs more like other UNIX tools.

This toolchain is maintained on GitHub.

The documentation of this toolchain can be viewed online. It is generated from the man pages found in this repository. The source code of the website itself is on GitHub as well under the repository rgbds-www.

If you want to contribute or maintain RGBDS, or you have questions regarding the code, its organization, etc. you can find the maintainers on the gbdev community channels or via mail at rgbds at gbdev dot io.

1. Installing RGBDS

The installation procedure is available online for various platforms. Building from source is possible using make or cmake; follow the link for more detailed instructions.

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

Two parameters available when building are a prefix (e.g. to put the executables in a 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

(If you set a SUFFIX, it should include the .exe extension on Windows.)

2. RGBDS Folder Organization

The RGBDS source code file structure is as follows:

.
├── .github/
│   ├── scripts/
│   │   └── ...
│   └── workflows/
│       └── ...
├── contrib/
│   ├── zsh_compl/
│   │   └── ...
│   └── ...
├── include/
│   └── ...
├── man/
│   └── ...
├── src/
│   ├── asm/
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── extern/
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── fix/
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── gfx/
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── link/
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   └── ...
├── test/
│   ├── ...
│   └── run-tests.sh
├── .clang-format
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── Dockerfile
├── Makefile
└── README.md
  • .github/ - files and scripts related to the integration of the RGBDS codebase with GitHub.
    • scripts/ - scripts used by workflow files.
    • workflows/ - CI workflow description files.
  • contrib/ - scripts and other resources which may be useful to users and developers of RGBDS.
    • zsh_compl contains tab completion scripts for use with zsh. Put them somewhere in your fpath, and they should auto-load.
    • bash_compl contains tab completion scripts for use with bash. Run them with source somewhere in your .bashrc, and they should load every time you open a shell.
  • include/ - header files for the respective source files in src.
  • man/ - manual pages.
  • src/ - source code of RGBDS.
    • Note that the code unique to each RGBDS tool is stored in its respective subdirectory (RGBASM's code is in src/asm/, for example). src/extern/ contains code imported from external sources.
  • test/ - testing framework used to verify that changes to the code don't break or modify the behavior of RGBDS.
  • .clang-format - code style for automated C++ formatting with clang-format.
  • Dockerfile - defines how to build RGBDS with Docker.

3. History

  • 1996-10-01: Carsten Sørensen (a.k.a. SurfSmurf) releases xAsm, xLink, and RGBFix, a Game Boy SM83 (GBZ80) assembler/linker system for DOS/Win32.
  • 1997-07-03: Sørensen releases ASMotor, packaging the three programs together and moving towards making them a general-purpose target-independent system.
  • 1999-08-01: Justin Lloyd (a.k.a. Otaku no Zoku) adapts ASMotor to re-focus on SM83 assembly/machine code, and releases this version as RGBDS.
  • 2009-06-11: Vegard Nossum adapts the code to be more UNIX-like and releases this version as rgbds-linux.
  • 2010-01-12: Anthony J. Bentley forks Nossum's repository. The fork becomes the reference implementation of RGBDS.
  • 2015-01-18: stag019 begins implementing RGBGFX, a PNG‐to‐Game Boy graphics converter, for eventual integration into RGBDS.
  • 2016-09-05: RGBGFX is integrated into Bentley's repository.
  • 2017-02-23: Bentley's repository is moved to the rednex organization.
  • 2018-01-26: The codebase is relicensed under the MIT license.
  • 2020-09-15: The repository is moved to the gbdev organization.
  • 2022-05-17: The rgbds.gbdev.io website for RGBDS documentation and downloads is published.

4. Acknowledgements

RGBGFX generates palettes using algorithms found in the paper "Algorithms for the Pagination Problem, a Bin Packing with Overlapping Items" (GitHub, MIT license), by Aristide Grange, Imed Kacem, and Sébastien Martin.

RGBGFX's color palette was taken from SameBoy, with permission and help by LIJI.