README.html


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	<h1>ax</h1>
	<p>The goal of this project is to provide a modern C library for developing games and other types of software for the Game Boy Advance series.</p>
	<p>This project is still (relatively) early in development, so don't expect too much from it.</p>
	<p>Whilst this project may not be as feature complete as others (such as <a href="https://www.coranac.com/tonc/text/toc.htm">TONC</a>), I still hope for it to someday get to the same level of quality and usefulness.</p>
	<p>I understand that the market for Game Boy games is nowhere near what it was twenty years ago during it's height, but I still hope for this software to someday prove useful for developers wanting to appeal to the retro market or for other hobbyist programmers.</p>
	<h2>Demo</h2>
	<p>Provided is a simple demo program that functions as a graphics editor &ndash; akin to that of Paintbrush.</p>
	<h3>Controls</h3>
	<ul>
		<li>
			<p>A: Colour the selected pixel;</p>
		</li>
		<li>
			<p>+CONTROL PAD: Move one pixel in the specified direction on the canvas;</p>
		</li>
		<li>
			<p>R: Rotate the palette counterclockwise;</p>
		</li>
		<li>
			<p>L: Rotate the palette clockwise;</p>
		</li>
		<li>
			<p>START: Exit the demo;</p>
		</li>
		<li>
			<p>SELECT: Exit the demo (by indicating error);</p>
		</li>
	</ul>
	<h2>Building</h2>
	<p>The project (including the demo) is written in Standard C (ISO/IEC 9899:2023, N3054).</p>
	<p>As the Game Boy Advance uses an ARM (ARM7TDMI) processor, ax requires an ARM (cross-)compiler. For GCC, the appropriate package is <i>arm-none-eabi-gcc</i> on Arch Linux and <i>gcc-arm-none-eabi</i> on Debian. Clang supports cross-compilation by default, and this platform can be set via the <i>--target=arm-none-eabi</i> option.</p>
	<p>The used compiler can be configured in the makefiles, however, it must be GCC-compatible unless you're willing to make major adjustments.</p>
	<br />
	<p>The provided makefiles are for GNU Make (hence the filename of <i>GNUmakefile</i>) and depend on it's extensions.</p>
	<h3>Demo</h3>
	<p>The demo uses <a href="https://mandelbrot.dk/agbsum">agbsum</a> (<a href="https://mandelbrot.dk/pkgbuild_agbsum">pkgbuild</a>) for patching the demo image header checksum so that it isn't rejected by the bootloader. This patch isn't always required (some emulators ignore it), and the makefile (at <i>demo/GNUmakefile</i>) may be modified to skip it.</p>
	<h2>Copyright and License</h2>
	<p>Copyright 2022 Gabriel Jensen.</p>
	<p>All source files (with exceptions, see the individual files) &ndash; including the makefiles &ndash; are licensed under the <a href="https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0">Mozilla Public License 2.0</a>.</p>
	<p>The contents of this readme document are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
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