Programming The Nintendo Game Boy Advance: The Unofficial Guide EBOOK

Author(s) : Jonathan S. Harbour
ISBN : 1-59200-009-6
Publication Date : 2003

Terms and Conditions:

Jonathan S. Harbour wrote:

This unique and highly-anticipated book was not released in book stores due to legal problems with Nintendo. As a result, the "e-book" edition is available here, exclusively, for free as a downloadable PDF e-book (see below). You may freely download and read the book on your PC (or mobile device) using Adobe Acrobat Reader, or you may print it out, complete with the original front and back cover (I recommend double-sided printing for best results).

Book excerpts:

The Game Boy Advance is a sophisticated handheld video game machine, with a powerful 32-bit microprocessor, 16-bit graphics, stereo digital sound, and yet small enough to fit in your pocket. Over 140 million units sold in all, making GBA the highest selling video game system in history. The affordable price of the Game Boys, large library of games, relatively low price of games and accessories, plus portability make this a very compelling video game system. Game publishing companies and development studios like the Game Boy for its relatively low cost of entry and high potential margins.

Even so, until recently, it was nearly impossible for a hobby or student programmer to get involved in the console market. Its hardware interface and special development tools are very expensive, and require a special license with the video game manufacturer (Nintendo, in this case), which also requires a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Now there is a solution as the Game Boy Advance uses a popular microprocessor (the ARM7 CPU) for which there are software tools available, because this chip is used in hundreds of consumer electronics products. Public domain assemblers and compilers have been written for ARM processors, and the ARM Corporation itself has released tools into the public domain for use with these products. These tools were quickly adapted for Game Boy Advance, and talented programmers were creating emulators and writing Game Boy Advance programs before the handheld was even officially released by Nintendo. This book shows the reader how to get the most of these development tools.

The goal of this book is to get you a job as a Game Boy Advance programmer. Although you may be a hobby programmer, or perhaps a professional video game developer already, the basis and assumption for this book is that you are an aspiring game programmer. The result is a very focused book that stays close to the subject matter, and as a result it is not as large as some books. However, those are books about writing PC games, while this is a console programming book.

Intended Audience:

You will need to be proficient in the C language in order to follow along in this book. Because if you want to be a game programmer, you must know C already. If you don't know C at all, you will definitely need a primer before getting into the later chapters of this book. This book doesn't cover C++ because it is overkill for Game Boy Advance development. Most of the important aspects of programming the Game Boy Advance (such as sprites) are handled by the built-in hardware routines, and don't require extensive programmer intervention. This book does not cover C++, but you may still use of C++ for writing Game Boy programs if you like. since the development tools includes a C++ compiler.

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