Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗GB BASIC
Tony Wang · Published by Tony Wang · Official site ↗
Positive — 93% positive (14 reviews)
Last updated 27 Sept 2026
GameBuilder BASIC (GB BASIC) is a retro Fantasy Console that generates ROMs compatible with the popular handheld game console.
Free
Indie, RPG, Simulation, Early Access · 2025 · More free games
Dive into the world of retro gaming creation as you craft your unique ROMs using GB BASIC. Developed by Tony Wang in 2025, this indie RPG allows you to build and experience your very own Fantasy Console adventure.
About this 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.
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.
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
- Non-structured programming
- Declarative paradigm
- Data driven approach
- Data driven approach
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
Minimum:
- OS *: Windows 7/8/10/11 or later (32/64bit)
- Processor: 1.5GHz
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: Intel HD
- Storage: 200 MB available space
Supported Languages
English
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
v1.13 Is Available Now
This version expands the limit to over 4,000 arbitrary elements per single font asset (The previous version supported a maximum of 256 elements). Accompanying this change, a new arb(...) statement has been added to get the arbitrary index of a specific font asset of a Unicode character. Additionally, the font editor now supports editing arbitrary ranges and exporting the full UTF-8-to-arbitrary-index mapping. This makes it easier for wide range dynamic character drawing, for purposes such as multilingual, user input characters, etc. The IME example added in this version fully utilizes recent new features, including arbitrary filling, assembly blocks. The assembler received important improvements. This update also includes various bug fixes and performance improvements. Tutorials: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/learn/index.html See full changelog: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/documents/changelogs/Changelog_v1.13.txtRead full article on Community Announcements (Tony Wang)AnnouncementsOfficial
v1.12.1 Is Available Now
This patch update includes a bunch of bug fixes. It also introduces new features such as importing tiles, map, actor, and font assets, or project icon, and icon of desktop builds from .psd files, and generating font and i18n reference code. Tutorials: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/learn/index.html See full changelog: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/documents/changelogs/Changelog_v1.12.1.txtRead full article on Community Announcements (Tony Wang)AnnouncementsOfficial
v1.12 Is Available Now
This update introduces support for overriding Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs) in BASIC code using named assembly blocks. It also adds a comprehensive internationalization (i18n) pipeline featuring compile-time dictionary lookups and dedicated asset management, alongside a new LSTR(...) statement for retrieving text from the i18n dictionary. Additionally, with a new official kernel "Scene Transfer", a new blit_scene function has been added to facilitate scene data transfer, alongside another scrolling transitions via a similar sub-region transfer method transition_scene. This version also includes various other improvements and bug fixes for the assembler, serial port communication, project validation, and text/Unicode handling, etc. Tutorials: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/learn/index.html See full changelog: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/documents/changelogs/Changelog_v1.12.txtRead full article on Community Announcements (Tony Wang)AnnouncementsOfficial
v1.11 Is Available Now
This update introduces direct calls to user-defined assembly instructions. Updated the RAM symbols. Improved the VRAM debugger and graphical editors. Optimized the wobble effect. This version also includes other improvements and bug fixes. Tutorials: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/learn/index.html See full changelog: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/documents/changelogs/Changelog_v1.11.txtRead full article on Community Announcements (Tony Wang)AnnouncementsOfficial
v1.10 Is Available Now
This release includes significant improvements to the kernels, adding support for using the SFC/SNES mouse as a click/touch backend via SGB features, along with a very simple yet fun speech synthesis feature. Both features are present in the official kernel source code. Please note that the kernels bundled with the application do not enable these new features. If needed, you can follow the links to the kernel download page to install them yourself. The kernel management, macro and native function features have also been updated. A new "Text Input" example was added to demonstrate how to implement simple text input via a virtual keyboard. This version also includes many other enhancement and bugfix. Tutorials: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/learn/index.html See full changelog: https://paladin-t.github.io/kits/gbb/documents/changelogs/Changelog_v1.10.txtRead full article on Community Announcements (Tony Wang)
