RGBDS (Rednex Game Boy Development System) is a free assembler/linker package for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. It consists of:
- rgbasm (assembler)
- rgblink (linker)
- rgbfix (checksum/header fixer)
- rgbgfx (PNG‐to‐Game Boy graphics converter)
rgbds-linux is a fork of the original RGBDS which aims to make the programs more like other UNIX tools.
RGBDS requires libpng and pkg-config to be installed.
On Mac OS X, install them with Homebrew. On other Unixes, use the built-in package manager.
You can test if they're installed by running pkg-config --cflags libpng
:
if the output is a path, then you're good, and if it outputs an error then
you need to install them via a package manager.
To build the programs on a UNIX or UNIX-like system, just run in your terminal:
make
Then to install the compiled programs and manual pages, run (with appropriate privileges):
make install
After installation, you can read the manuals with the man(1) command. E.g.,
man 1 rgbasm
Note: the variables described below can affect installation behavior when given on the make command line. For example, to install rgbds in your home directory instead of systemwide, run the following:
mkdir -p $HOME/{bin,man/man1,man/man7}
make install PREFIX=$HOME
PREFIX
: Location where RGBDS will be installed. Defaults to /usr/local.
BINPREFIX
: Location where the RGBDS programs will be installed. Defaults
to ${PREFIX}/bin.
MANPREFIX
: Location where the RGBDS man pages will be installed. Defaults
to ${PREFIX}/man.
Q
: Whether to quiet the build or not. To make the build more verbose, clear
this variable. Defaults to @.
Windows builds are available here: https://github.com/bentley/rgbds/releases
Copy the .exe files to C:\Windows\ or similar.