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GB BASIC

GameBuilder BASIC (GB BASIC) is a retro Fantasy Console that generates ROMs compatible with the popular handheld game console.

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Developer
Tony Wang
Publisher
Tony Wang
Release
August 19, 2025
347 days ago
Steam Reviews
Positive14 reviews92.9%

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About the Game

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.

  • GB BASIC compiles fast
  • GB BASIC generates ROMs for various mappers, devices and emulators

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 256 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

Programming Paradigms

  • Imperative paradigm
    • Non-structured programming
    • Concurrent processing approach
  • Declarative paradigm
    • Data driven approach
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