tinygba

Tools and helpers for developing GBA programs using TinyGo.

Still highly experimental and subject to sudden changes.

Emulator

You can run your TinyGo programs using the mGBA emulator:

https://mgba.io/

You will probably need to create a symlink to whichever executable you choose to install. For example, if you install the Qt based emulator:

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/mgba-qt /usr/bin/mgba

How to use

package main

import (
	"machine"

	"image/color"

	"tinygo.org/x/tinygba"
)

var (
	// Colors
	black = color.RGBA{}
	white = color.RGBA{255, 255, 255, 255}
	green = color.RGBA{0, 255, 0, 255}
	red   = color.RGBA{255, 0, 0, 255}

	// Google colors
	gBlue   = color.RGBA{66, 163, 244, 255}
	gRed    = color.RGBA{219, 68, 55, 255}
	gYellow = color.RGBA{244, 160, 0, 255}
	gGreen  = color.RGBA{15, 157, 88, 255}
)

func main() {
	machine.Display.Configure()

	tinygba.FillScreen(black)

	for {
		tinygba.WaitForVBlank()

		update()
	}
}

func update() {
	key := tinygba.ReadButtons()

	switch {
	case tinygba.ButtonStart.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(black)

	case tinygba.ButtonSelect.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(white)

	case tinygba.ButtonRight.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(green)

	case tinygba.ButtonLeft.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(red)

	case tinygba.ButtonDown.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(gBlue)

	case tinygba.ButtonUp.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(gRed)

	case tinygba.ButtonA.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(gYellow)

	case tinygba.ButtonB.IsPushed(key):
		tinygba.FillScreen(gGreen)

	}
}

Run the code:

tinygo run -target gameboy-advance ./examples/snake

Roadmap

• Display Control (https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#lcdvramoverview)

  • BG Mode 0
  • BG Mode 1
  • BG Mode 2
  • BG Mode 3
  • BG Mode 4
  • BG Mode 5

• OBJ (https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#lcdobjoverview)

• Pallettes (https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#lcdcolorpalettes)

• Sound (https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#gbasoundcontroller)

  • Sound Channel 1
  • Sound Channel 2
  • Sound Channel 3
  • Sound Channel 4
  • Sound Channel DMA

• Interrupts (https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#gbainterruptcontrol)