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