felixjones / gba-plusplus

C++ library for writing Game Boy Advance apps and games

gba-plusplus has been replaced by gba-hpp!

Go to gba-hpp (github.com/felixjones/gba-hpp)

gba-plusplus

Code samples and tutorials available on the project Wiki.

Modern drop-in C++ library for the Game Boy Advance. Zlib license.

Feel free to ask for help on the gbadev Discord.

For a CMake GBA development toolchain see our sister project: gba-toolchain.

Example

#include <gba/gba.hpp>

using namespace gba;

using video_memory_type = std::array<std::array<uint16, 240>, 160>;

static auto& video_memory = *reinterpret_cast<video_memory_type *>( 0x06000000 );

struct bgr555_type {
    uint16 red : 5;
    uint16 green : 5;
    uint16 blue : 5;
};

int main() {
    reg::dispcnt::write( { .mode = 3, .layer_background_2 = true } );
    
    video_memory[80][120] = uint_cast( bgr555_type { .red = 31 } );
    video_memory[80][136] = uint_cast( bgr555_type { .green = 31 } );
    video_memory[96][120] = uint_cast( bgr555_type { .blue = 31 } );
    
    while ( true ) {}
    __builtin_unreachable();
}

About

gba-plusplus is a light-weight C++ abstraction of the Game Boy Advance hardware.

• Hardware tested
• Assembler inspected
• Optimized for -Og and -O3
• C++17
• Both GCC and Clang compatible
• Compatible with Tonclib and libgba

NOT a game engine

We make close-to-zero assumptions about the type of GBA game you are making.

Zero tools

We do not restrict you to use any particular file formats or force you to use any additional tools.

Explicit

The API is verbose and hides as little as possible.

Register names match the familiar documentation.

We respect the programmer, the code you write to shoot yourself in the foot will read like code that is shooting you in the foot.

Extensions

The gba/ext/ headers provide features outside of the core GBA hardware.

Some of these may depend on external libraries, such as agbabi.

In-development

We welcome all forms of feedback in the form of GitHub issues. The API will change when necessary, but don't worry all releases will be archived.