libsimplegba

libsimplegba is a collection of functions and constants that can be used to interface with the GBA hardware hiding some of the complexity and low-level details.

The library focuses on ease of use without sacrificing efficiency: most of the functions are implemented as inline functions, meaning that under most circumstances they are just as efficient as writing to the hardware registers directly.

Modules

The following modules are available:

Category	Module	Description
Misc	Base	basic definitions (types, macros...)
-	Math	various mathematical functions
-	Random	pseudo-random number generator
-	Memory	memory manipulation
Hardware	Display	display interface
-	Background	tiled backgrounds
-	Sprite	sprites
-	Window	display windows (e.g. viewports)
-	Audio	digital audio driver
-	Timer	hardware timers
-	DMA	direct memory access
-	Input	input detection
-	Interrupt	interrupt handling
-	System	system control
Cartridge	Cartridge	game cartridge (e.g. header)
-	Backup	backup memory
-	GPIO	4-bit GPIO port
Debug	Profiler	code profiler
-	mGBA	printing to mGBA output (e.g. mgba_printf)

Most modules are accompanied by a manual: see the doc directory.

Building

First, make sure the arm-none-eabi-gcc compiler and make tool are installed. Then, run make to generate the static library file bin/libsimplegba.a.

Usage

Follow these instructions to use libsimplegba in a project.

Adding the library

To let the build tool know where to find library files:

• Add the include directory to the include path
• Add the bin directory to the library search path
• Add libsimplegba to the list of libraries to link against
• Set lnkscript as the linker script

If using a Makefile to build the program and assuming the library is located at lib/libsimplegba, add these lines:

# linker script
LDFLAGS += -nostartfiles -Tlib/libsimplegba/lnkscript

# libsimplegba
CPPFLAGS += -Ilib/libsimplegba/include
LDFLAGS  += -Llib/libsimplegba/bin
LDLIBS   += -lsimplegba

Using the library

Use #include <libsimplegba.h> to retrieve the library's single header. All library functions, types, constants... will be available.

The library expects the void AgbMain(void) function to be defined, which will be used as the entry point of the program. This function should first perform initialization, then enter an infinite loop. For example:

void AgbMain(void) {
    interrupt_toggle(IRQ_VBLANK, true);

    input_init(30, 2);
    audio_init(AUDIO_MIXER);
    backup_init(BACKUP_SRAM);

    // init...
    while(true) {
        audio_update();
        input_update();

        // tick...
        interrupt_wait(IRQ_VBLANK);
        // draw...
    }
}

License

libsimplegba is released under the GNU General Public License, either version 3 of the License or any later version. Any work that uses this library must be released under a GPL-Compatible Free Software license.