GameBoy Development?

Discussion of programming and development for the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
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Petruza
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GameBoy Development?

Post by Petruza »

Hi, it seems there isn't much of a dev community for GB as there is for NES.
Do you know any forum or site about Gameboy development, similiar to this one?
Celius
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Post by Celius »

I don't think there are any remaining active sites for GBDev. There are people here though who are into GBDev (I'm one of them, but I don't know that much about it). Perhaps it'd be nice if a GBDev forum was opened up like the SNESDev forum here. If you have any questions regarding it, I'm sure you could for now place them in the "General Discussion" area.

There's decent documentation though. If you google it, you can find some info. If you want GBC info, either google "Pan Docs" or go into the "Gameboy Color Info Wanted" thread. I have a link there that has pretty much the best info around about GBC technical aspects.
strat
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Post by strat »

http://gameboygenius.8bitcollective.com/gbdev/index.php

It's a forum, alright. Nitro2k will probably answer you, but that place is so deserted I have the last post there from a month ago!
tomaitheous
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Post by tomaitheous »

Adding a GB/C forum like the SNES would sounds cool. I mean, since this forum is pretty active.
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Petruza
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Post by Petruza »

Yeah, after all, it's still nintendo, it's still retro. :D
1 vote for the GB sub-forum :!:
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MottZilla
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Post by MottZilla »

I agree, it would make sense for GB/GBC to have a sub-forum here.
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Banshaku
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Post by Banshaku »

tomaitheous wrote:Adding a GB/C forum like the SNES would sounds cool. I mean, since this forum is pretty active.
I do agree. Let's ask for it then.
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MottZilla
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Post by MottZilla »

Who do we ask?
Celius
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Post by Celius »

Wouldn't Memblers be the right one to ask? I thought he was in charge of that kind of stuff.

I guess we could open up a pole of some sort. Though I don't think many people who go to the thread would vote "no" for opening up a new sub forum for GB dev (and why would you?).
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Banshaku
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Post by Banshaku »

Celius wrote:Wouldn't Memblers be the right one to ask? I thought he was in charge of that kind of stuff.

I guess we could open up a pole of some sort. Though I don't think many people who go to the thread would vote "no" for opening up a new sub forum for GB dev (and why would you?).
Just sent a PM to Memblers. I don't think we need to vote for this. Either we make a new forum or not. Instead of posting in the general forum people will post in that one. And nobody is forcing anybody to post there so I don't see any issue. Can't wait to see the posts there since I like that platform too.
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Bregalad
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Post by Bregalad »

Yeah there is that other GBdev forum that seems.... half active. There *is* people arround to answer, but not that many. If anyone of use wants serious GBdev we could just as well goes there and since the guys that are already over here will figure out that there is people coming they will check the forum more often and that'll be a good thing.

I'm interested in GBdev too, but the surface-mounted technology used inside cartridges was a bit discouraging to me. I don't know how you're supposed to remove the mask ROMs on it and replace them by your own :cry:
Useless, lumbering half-wits don't scare us.
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blargg
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Post by blargg »

Banshaku wrote:Can't wait to see the posts there since I like that platform too.
Me too! (I did lots of testing and wrote a reference for, what else, its sound hardware)
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Memblers
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Post by Memblers »

There seems to not be any objections, I would open a poll but I agree that it does seem pointless.

I still have my original Gameboy (and Super GB), but I always liked the NES more. And it seems like when I was working on this site, there were a lot more Gameboy development sites than NES. What happened, everyone move on to GBA?
I'm interested in GBdev too, but the surface-mounted technology used inside cartridges was a bit discouraging to me. I don't know how you're supposed to remove the mask ROMs on it and replace them by your own
There are some shortcuts, one that comes to mind is a product called Chip Quik, an alloy that melts at a lower temperature and stays molten long enough to pull off the chip. It cleans up with solder wick/braid.
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Post by tepples »

Memblers wrote:And it seems like when I was working on this site, there were a lot more Gameboy development sites than NES. What happened, everyone move on to GBA?
As far as I can tell, the GBA scene overwhelmed all. Bung collapsed, stopped selling GBC flash equipment, and appeared to have reformed into Visoly, the company behind the first commercially successful GBA flash card.
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blargg
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Post by blargg »

The GBA's processor is well-suited to the C language and ROM space is expansive, so reusable libraries are very practical. This allows abstraction from the hardware, making the learning curve shallower. There is still plenty of room for assembly optimizations, and the processor's architecture is elegant like the 6502, so you don't lose the low-level tinkering ability.
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