Part 2: GBA Software Development Kits

Option 1: HAM:

Recommended Platform: Windows | Level: Basic

The Ham Development Kit (HamDK) is one of the friendliest development tools available for the GBA. The HamDK includes a C++ compiler which will allow you to write custom games and applications for the GBA on your PC. It also includes an emulator (VisualBoy Advance) that may be used to test your programs even if you don't have a GBA. Finally, the kit also contains a copy of the Krawall library that you can use to control the GBA's sound system. Once you have downloaded the HamDK, you should complete Aaron Roger's tutorial which will take you through an overview of the basics of GBA development with Ham.

Option 2: devkitPro + the Apex Audio System:

Recommended Platform: Linux | Level: Advanced

devkitPro contains the most popular homebrew game development toolchains for GBA, PSP, GameCube and others. For GBA development you will need the devkitARM and the libgba library. The kit also contains examples that you can use to get started. Make sure you take a look at the related documentation

The Apex Audio System (AAS) is an extremely efficient GBA audio mixer and MOD player with sound effect support. Its main features are a low memory footprint and very high performance. It is designed to allow developers to easily make full use of the GBA's sound hardware with little overhead. It is many times faster than other mixers and was used in the development of the GBA version of Payback. The AAS may be used free-of-charge for non commercial purposes. To get a copy, e-mail Apex Designs directly.

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