GB BASIC

GameBuilder BASIC (GB BASIC) is a retro Fantasy Console that generates ROMs compatible with the popular handheld game console. It has everything ready-to-use for writting code, making assets, compiling projects, running with the built-in emulator, exporting to runnable ROM, etc.

Why GB BASIC?

GB BASIC is programmable in a brand new BASIC dialect. The integrated assets editors are intuitive to use. You can generate real ROMs and play on any GB emulator or hardware.

Programming Paradigms

• Imperative paradigm

  • Non-structured programming
  • Concurrent processing approach

• Declarative paradigm

  • Data driven approach

Features

• Programmable in BASIC, an easy to learn and fun to use programming language
• Easy to use API for graphics, input, audio, and other facilities
• Built-in libraries for scene, actor, controllers, GUI
• Built-in libraries for collision detection, persistence, RTC, etc.
• Extension feature including mouse & touch, shell command, debugging, etc.
• Handy tools for editing tiles, map, scene, actor, font, sound, etc.
• Project can be exported into real ROM
• Dozens of example projects

Specs

• CPU: 4.19MHz/8.38MHz for classic/colored respectively
• Threads: up to 16 concurrent execution contexts
• Display: 160x144px
• Code: BASIC, supports multiple source pages
• Gamepad: 8 buttons (D-Pad + A/B + Select/Start)
• Mouse and touch: supported by extension
• Tiles: up to 256 units per page
• Map: up to 255 tiles in one dimension per page; two layers (graphics, attributes)
• Sprite: supports 8x8 and 8x16 sprites
• Scene: up to 255 tiles in one dimension per page; four layers (map, attributes, properties, actors)
• Actor: up to 8x8 tiles per frame; up to 1024 frames per page
• Font: supports TrueType (.ttf) and bitmap-based (.png .jpg .bmp .tga); up to 16px; 1bpp or 2bpp
• Audio: 4 channels; supports importing from JSON, VGM, WAV, FxHammer
• Palette: 2bit (4 colors) per tile, palette of map and actor is configurable for colored device
• GUI: supports label, progress bar, menu, etc.
• Persistence: supported
• RTC: supported
• Serial port: supported