============================================================================ Everything You Always Wanted To Know About GAMEBOY * ============================================================================ * but were afraid to ask Pan of -ATX- Document Updated by contributions from: Marat Fayzullin, Pascal Felber, Paul Robson, Martin Korth Last update 7-Mar-08 by John Harrison Forward: The following was typed up for informational purposes regarding the inner workings on the hand-held game machine known as GameBoy, manufactured and designed by Nintendo Co., LTD. This info is presented to inform a user on how their Game Boy works and what makes it "tick". GameBoy is copyrighted by Nintendo Co., LTD. Any reference to copyrighted material is not presented for monetary gain, but for educational purposes and higher learning. Terms ----- GB = Original GameBoy GBP = GameBoy Pocket/GameBoy Light GBC = GameBoy Colo(u)r SGB = Super GameBoy Game Boy Specs -------------- CPU: 8-bit (Similar to the Z80 processor.) Main RAM: 8K Byte Video RAM: 8K Byte Screen Size 2.6" Resolution: 160x144 (20x18 tiles) Max # of sprites: 40 Max # sprites/line: 10 Max sprite size: 8x16 Min sprite size: 8x8 Clock Speed: 4.194304 MHz (4.295454 SGB, 4.194/8.388MHz GBC) Horiz Sync: 9198 KHz (9420 KHz for SGB) Vert Sync: 59.73 Hz (61.17 Hz for SGB) Sound: 4 channels with stereo sound Power: DC6V 0.7W (DC3V 0.7W for GB Pocket) Processor --------- The GameBoy uses a computer chip similar to an Intel 8080. It contains all of the instructions of an 8080 except there are no exchange instructions. In many ways the processor is more similar to the Zilog Z80 processor. Compared to the Z80, some instructions have been added and some have been taken away. The following are added instructions: ADD SP,nn ;nn = signed byte LD (HLI),A ;Write A to (HL) and increment HL LD (HLD),A ;Write A to (HL) and decrement HL LD A,(HLI) ;Write (HL) to A and increment HL LD A,(HLD) ;Write (HL) to A and decrement HL LD A,($FF00+nn) LD A,($FF00+C) LD ($FF00+nn),A LD ($FF00+C),A LD (nnnn),SP LD HL,SP+nn ;nn = signed byte STOP ;Stop processor & screen until button press SWAP r ;Swap high & low nibbles of r The following instructions have been removed: Any command that uses the IX or IY registers. All IN/OUT instructions. All exchange instructions. All commands prefixed by ED (except remapped RETI). All conditional jumps/calls/rets on parity/overflow and sign flag. The following instructions have different opcodes: LD A,[nnnn] LD [nnnn],A RETI GB General Memory Map* --------------------- Interrupt Enable Register --------------------------- FFFF Internal RAM --------------------------- FF80 Empty but unusable for I/O --------------------------- FF4C I/O ports --------------------------- FF00 Empty but unusable for I/O --------------------------- FEA0 Sprite Attrib Memory (OAM) --------------------------- FE00 Echo of 8kB Internal RAM --------------------------- E000 8kB Internal RAM --------------------------- C000 8kB switchable RAM bank --------------------------- A000 8kB Video RAM --------------------------- 8000 32kB Cartridge --------------------------- 0000 * NOTE: b = bit, B = byte Echo of 8kB Internal RAM ------------------------ The addresses E000-FE00 appear to access the internal RAM the same as C000-DE00. (i.e. If you write a byte to address E000 it will appear at C000 and E000. Similarly, writing a byte to C000 will appear at C000 and E000.) User I/O -------- There are no empty spaces in the memory map for implementing input ports except the switchable RAM bank area (not an option on the Super Smart Card since it's RAM bank is always enabled). An output only port may be implemented anywhere between A000-FDFF. If implemented in a RAM area care should be taken to use an area of RAM not used for anything else. (FE00 and above can't be used because the CPU doesn't generate an external /WR for these locations.) If you have a cart with an MBC1, a ROM 4Mbit or smaller, and a RAM 8Kbyte or smaller (or no RAM) then you can use pins 6 & 7 of the MBC1 for 2 digital output pins for whatever purpose you wish. To use them you must first put the MBC1 into 4MbitROM/32KbyteRAM mode by writing 01 to 6000. The two least significant bits you write to 4000 will then be output to these pins. Reserved Memory Locations ------------------------- 0000 Restart $00 Address (RST $00 calls this address.) 0008 Restart $08 Address (RST $08 calls this address.) 0010 Restart $10 Address (RST $10 calls this address.) 0018 Restart $18 Address (RST $18 calls this address.) 0020 Restart $20 Address (RST $20 calls this address.) 0028 Restart $28 Address (RST $28 calls this address.) 0030 Restart $30 Address (RST $30 calls this address.) 0038 Restart $38 Address (RST $38 calls this address.) 0040 Vertical Blank Interrupt Start Address 0048 LCDC Status Interrupt Start Address 0050 Timer Overflow Interrupt Start Address 0058 Serial Transfer Completion Interrupt Start Address 0060 High-to-Low of P10-P13 Interrupt Start Address An internal information area is located at 0100-014F in each cartridge. It contains the following values: 0100-0103 This is the begin code execution point in a cart. Usually there is a NOP and a JP instruction here but not always. 0104-0133 Scrolling Nintendo graphic: CE ED 66 66 CC 0D 00 0B 03 73 00 83 00 0C 00 0D 00 08 11 1F 88 89 00 0E DC CC 6E E6 DD DD D9 99 BB BB 67 63 6E 0E EC CC DD DC 99 9F BB B9 33 3E ( PROGRAM WON'T RUN IF CHANGED!!!) 0134-0142 Title of the game in UPPER CASE ASCII. If it is less than 16 characters then the remaining bytes are filled with 00's. 0143 $80 = Color GB, $00 or other = not Color GB 0144 Ascii hex digit, high nibble of licensee code (new). 0145 Ascii hex digit, low nibble of licensee code (new). (These are normally $00 if [$014B] <> $33.) 0146 GB/SGB Indicator (00 = GameBoy, 03 = Super GameBoy functions) (Super GameBoy functions won't work if <> $03.) 0147 Cartridge type: 0 - ROM ONLY 12 - ROM+MBC3+RAM 1 - ROM+MBC1 13 - ROM+MBC3+RAM+BATT 2 - ROM+MBC1+RAM 19 - ROM+MBC5 3 - ROM+MBC1+RAM+BATT 1A - ROM+MBC5+RAM 5 - ROM+MBC2 1B - ROM+MBC5+RAM+BATT 6 - ROM+MBC2+BATTERY 1C - ROM+MBC5+RUMBLE 8 - ROM+RAM 1D - ROM+MBC5+RUMBLE+SRAM 9 - ROM+RAM+BATTERY 1E - ROM+MBC5+RUMBLE+SRAM+BATT B - ROM+MMM01 1F - Pocket Camera C - ROM+MMM01+SRAM FD - Bandai TAMA5 D - ROM+MMM01+SRAM+BATT FE - Hudson HuC-3 F - ROM+MBC3+TIMER+BATT FF - Hudson HuC-1 10 - ROM+MBC3+TIMER+RAM+BATT 11 - ROM+MBC3 0148 ROM size: 0 - 256Kbit = 32KByte = 2 banks 1 - 512Kbit = 64KByte = 4 banks 2 - 1Mbit = 128KByte = 8 banks 3 - 2Mbit = 256KByte = 16 banks 4 - 4Mbit = 512KByte = 32 banks 5 - 8Mbit = 1MByte = 64 banks 6 - 16Mbit = 2MByte = 128 banks $52 - 9Mbit = 1.1MByte = 72 banks $53 - 10Mbit = 1.2MByte = 80 banks $54 - 12Mbit = 1.5MByte = 96 banks 0149 RAM size: 0 - None 1 - 16kBit = 2kB = 1 bank 2 - 64kBit = 8kB = 1 bank 3 - 256kBit = 32kB = 4 banks 4 - 1MBit =128kB =16 banks 014A Destination code: 0 - Japanese 1 - Non-Japanese 014B Licensee code (old): 33 - Check 0144/0145 for Licensee code. 79 - Accolade A4 - Konami (Super GameBoy function won't work if <> $33.) 014C Mask ROM Version number (Usually $00) 014D Complement check (PROGRAM WON'T RUN ON GB IF NOT CORRECT!!!) (It will run on Super GB, however, if incorrect.) 014E-014F Checksum (higher byte first) produced by adding all bytes of a cartridge except for two checksum bytes and taking two lower bytes of the result. (GameBoy ignores this value.) Cartridge Types --------------- The following define the byte at cart location 0147: ROM ONLY This is a 32kB (256kb) ROM and occupies 0000-7FFF. MBC1 (Memory Bank Controller 1) MBC1 has two different maximum memory modes: 16Mbit ROM/8KByte RAM or 4Mbit ROM/32KByte RAM. The MBC1 defaults to 16Mbit ROM/8KByte RAM mode on power up. Writing a value (XXXXXXXS - X = Don't care, S = Memory model select) into 6000-7FFF area will select the memory model to use. S = 0 selects 16/8 mode. S = 1 selects 4/32 mode. Writing a value (XXXBBBBB - X = Don't cares, B = bank select bits) into 2000-3FFF area will select an appropriate ROM bank at 4000-7FFF. Values of 0 and 1 do the same thing and point to ROM bank 1. Rom bank 0 is not accessible from 4000-7FFF and can only be read from 0000-3FFF. If memory model is set to 4/32: Writing a value (XXXXXXBB - X = Don't care, B = bank select bits) into 4000-5FFF area will select an appropriate RAM bank at A000-C000. Before you can read or write to a RAM bank you have to enable it by writing a XXXX1010 into 0000-1FFF area*. To disable RAM bank operations write any value but XXXX1010 into 0000-1FFF area. Disabling a RAM bank probably protects that bank from false writes during power down of the GameBoy. (NOTE: Nintendo suggests values $0A to enable and $00 to disable RAM bank!!) If memory model is set to 16/8 mode: Writing a value (XXXXXXBB - X = Don't care, B = bank select bits) into 4000-5FFF area will set the two most significant ROM address lines. * NOTE: The Super Smart Card doesn't require this operation because it's RAM bank is ALWAYS enabled. Include this operation anyway to allow your code to work with both. MBC2 (Memory Bank Controller 2): This memory controller works much like the MBC1 controller with the following exceptions: MBC2 will work with ROM sizes up to 2Mbit. Writing a value (XXXXBBBB - X = Don't cares, B = bank select bits) into 2100-21FF area will select an appropriate ROM bank at 4000-7FFF. RAM switching is not provided. Unlike the MBC1 which uses external RAM, MBC2 has 512 x 4 bits of RAM which is in the controller itself. It still requires an external battery to save data during power-off though. The least significant bit of the upper address byte must be zero to enable/disable cart RAM. For example the following addresses can be used to enable/disable cart RAM: 0000-00FF, 0200-02FF, 0400-04FF, ..., 1E00-1EFF. The suggested address range to use for MBC2 ram enable/disable is 0000-00FF. The least significant bit of the upper address byte must be one to select a ROM bank. For example the following addresses can be used to select a ROM bank: 2100-21FF, 2300-23FF, 2500-25FF, ..., 3F00-3FFF. The suggested address range to use for MBC2 rom bank selection is 2100-21FF. MBC3 (Memory Bank Controller 3): This controller is similar to MBC1 except it accesses all 16mbits of ROM without requiring any writes to the 4000-5FFF area. Writing a value (XBBBBBBB - X = Don't care, B = bank select bits) into 2000-3FFF area will select an appropriate ROM bank at 4000-7FFF. Also, this MBC has a built-in battery-backed Real Time Clock (RTC) not found in any other MBC. Some MBC3 carts do not support it (WarioLand II non-color version) but some do (Harvest Moon/Japanese version.) MBC5 (Memory Bank Controller 5): This controller is the first MBC that is guaranteed to run in GameBoy Color double-speed mode but it appears the other MBC's run fine in GBC double-speed mode as well. It is similar to the MBC3 (but no RTC) but can access up to 64mbits of ROM and up to 1mbit of RAM. The lower 8 bits of the 9-bit rom bank select is written to the 2000-2FFF area while the upper bit is written to the least significant bit of the 3000-3FFF area. Writing a value (XXXXBBBB - X = Don't care, B = bank select bits) into 4000-5FFF area will select an appropriate RAM bank at A000-BFFF if the cart contains RAM. Ram sizes are 64kbit,256kbit, & 1mbit. Also, this is the first MBC that allows rom bank 0 to appear in the 4000-7FFF range by writing $000 to the rom bank select. Rumble Carts: Rumble carts use an MBC5 memory bank controller. Rumble carts can only have up to 256kbits of RAM. The highest RAM address line that allows 1mbit of RAM on MBC5 non-rumble carts is used as the motor on/off for the rumble cart. Writing a value (XXXXMBBB - X = Don't care, M = motor, B = bank select bits) into 4000-5FFF area will select an appropriate RAM bank at A000-BFFF if the cart contains RAM. RAM sizes are 64kbit or 256kbits. To turn the rumble motor on set M = 1, M = 0 turns it off. HuC1 (Memory Bank / Infrared Controller): This controller made by Hudson Soft appears to be very similar to an MBC1 with the main difference being that it supports infrared LED input / output. The Japanese cart "Fighting Phoenix" (internal cart name: SUPER B DAMAN) is known to contain this chip. Bung Carts: The flash carts sold by Bung (http://www.bung.com.hk) on power up appear like an MBC5 cart except that writing $00 to the bank select register selects rom bank 1 instead of rom bank 0. Writing values to 3000-3FFF area does nothing. Writing values (XXXXXXXS - X = Don't care, S = Select) to 6000-7FFF area selects MBC1 16/8 mode if S=0 except that writes to 3000-3FFF area still do nothing. If S=1 then MBC5 mode is selected. (S=1 by default on power up.) Cart locations A000 & A100 act as special write only hardware control registers if a value of $c0 is written to 0000-1FFF area. These hardware control registers are used for setting up cart hardware for different games when the Bung cart is used as a Multicart for holding several different games. Power Up Sequence ----------------- When the GameBoy is powered up, a 256 byte program starting at memory location 0 is executed. This program is located in a ROM inside the GameBoy. The first thing the program does is read the cartridge locations from $104 to $133 and place this graphic of a Nintendo logo on the screen at the top. This image is then scrolled until it is in the middle of the screen. Two musical notes are then played on the internal speaker. Again, the cartridge locations $104 to $133 are read but this time they are compared with a table in the internal rom. If any byte fails to compare, then the GameBoy stops comparing bytes and simply halts all operations. GB & GB Pocket: Next, the GameBoy starts adding all of the bytes in the cartridge from $134 to $14d. A value of 25 decimal is added to this total. If the least significant byte of the result is a not a zero, then the GameBoy will stop doing anything. Super GB: Even though the GB & GBP check the memory locations from $134 to $14d, the SGB doesn't. If the above checks pass then the internal ROM is disabled and cartridge program execution begins at location $100 with the following register values: AF=$01-GB/SGB, $FF-GBP, $11-GBC F =$B0 B =$00-GB/SGB/GBP/GBC, $01-GBA C =$13 DE=$00D8 HL=$014D Stack Pointer=$FFFE [$FF05] = $00 ; TIMA [$FF06] = $00 ; TMA [$FF07] = $00 ; TAC [$FF10] = $80 ; NR10 a.k.a. rAUD1SWEEP [$FF11] = $BF ; NR11 a.k.a. rAUD1LEN [$FF12] = $F3 ; NR12 a.k.a. rAUD1ENV [$FF14] = $BF ; NR14 a.k.a. rAUD1HIGH [$FF16] = $3F ; NR21 a.k.a. rAUD2LEN [$FF17] = $00 ; NR22 a.k.a. rAUD2ENV [$FF19] = $BF ; NR24 a.k.a. rAUD2HIGH [$FF1A] = $7F ; NR30 a.k.a. rAUD3ENA [$FF1B] = $FF ; NR31 a.k.a. rAUD3LEN [$FF1C] = $9F ; NR32 a.k.a. rAUD3LEVEL [$FF1E] = $BF ; NR33 a.k.a. rAUD3LOW [$FF20] = $FF ; NR41 a.k.a. rAUD4LEN [$FF21] = $00 ; NR42 a.k.a. rAUD4ENV [$FF22] = $00 ; NR43 a.k.a. rAUD4POLY [$FF23] = $BF ; NR44 a.k.a. rAUD4GO [$FF24] = $77 ; NR50 a.k.a. rAUDVOL [$FF25] = $F3 ; NR51 a.k.a. rAUDTERM [$FF26] = $F1-GB, $F0-SGB ; NR52 [$FF40] = $91 ; LCDC [$FF42] = $00 ; SCY [$FF43] = $00 ; SCX [$FF45] = $00 ; LYC [$FF47] = $FC ; BGP [$FF48] = $FF ; OBP0 [$FF49] = $FF ; OBP1 [$FF4A] = $00 ; WY [$FF4B] = $00 ; WX [$FFFF] = $00 ; IE It is not a good idea to assume the above values will always exist. A later version GameBoy could contain different values than these at reset. Always set these registers on reset rather than assume they are as above. Please note that GameBoy internal RAM on power up contains random data. All of the GameBoy emulators tend to set all RAM to value $00 on entry. Cart RAM the first time it is accessed on a real GameBoy contains random data. It will only contain known data if the GameBoy code initializes it to some value. Stop Mode --------- The STOP command halts the GameBoy processor and screen until any button is pressed. The GB and GBP screen goes white with a single dark horizontal line. The GBC screen goes black. Low-Power Mode -------------- It is recommended that the HALT instruction be used whenever possible to reduce power consumption & extend the life of the batteries. This command stops the system clock reducing the power consumption of both the CPU and ROM. The CPU will remain suspended until an interrupt occurs at which point the interrupt is serviced and then the instruction immediately following the HALT is executed. If interrupts are disabled (DI) then halt doesn't suspend operation but it does cause the program counter to stop counting for one instruction on the GB,GBP, and SGB as mentioned below. Depending on how much CPU time is required by a game, the HALT instruction can extend battery life anywhere from 5 to 50% or possibly more. WARNING: The instruction immediately following the HALT instruction is "skipped" when interrupts are disabled (DI) on the GB,GBP, and SGB. As a result, always put a NOP after the HALT instruction. This instruction skipping doesn't occur when interrupts are enabled (EI). This "skipping" does not seem to occur on the GameBoy Color even in regular GB mode. ($143=$00) EXAMPLES from Martin Korth who documented this problem: (assuming interrupts disabled for all examples) 1) This code causes the 'a' register to be incremented TWICE. 76 halt 3C inc a 2) The next example is a bit more difficult. The following code 76 halt FA 34 12 ld a,(1234) is effectively executed as 76 halt FA FA 34 ld a,(34FA) 12 ld (de),a 3) Finally an interesting side effect 76 halt 76 halt This combination hangs the cpu. The first HALT causes the second HALT to be repeated, which therefore causes the following command (=itself) to be repeated - again and again. Placing a NOP between the two halts would cause the NOP to be repeated once, the second HALT wouldn't lock the cpu. Below is suggested code for GameBoy programs: ; **** Main Game Loop **** Main: halt ; stop system clock ; return from halt when interrupted nop ; (See WARNING above.) ld a,(VblnkFlag) or a ; V-Blank interrupt ? jr z,Main ; No, some other interrupt xor a ld (VblnkFlag),a ; Clear V-Blank flag call Controls ; button inputs call Game ; game operation jr Main ; **** V-Blank Interrupt Routine **** Vblnk: push af push bc push de push hl call SpriteDma ; Do sprite updates ld a,1 ld (VblnkFlag),a pop hl pop de pop bc pop af reti Video ----- The main GameBoy screen buffer (background) consists of 256x256 pixels or 32x32 tiles (8x8 pixels each). Only 160x144 pixels can be displayed on the screen. Registers SCROLLX and SCROLLY hold the coordinates of background to be displayed in the left upper corner of the screen. Background wraps around the screen (i.e. when part of it goes off the screen, it appears on the opposite side.) An area of VRAM known as Background Tile Map contains the numbers of tiles to be displayed. It is organized as 32 rows of 32 bytes each. Each byte contains a number of a tile to be displayed. Tile patterns are taken from the Tile Data Table located either at $8000-8FFF or $8800-97FF. In the first case, patterns are numbered with unsigned numbers from 0 to 255 (i.e. pattern #0 lies at address $8000). In the second case, patterns have signed numbers from -128 to 127 (i.e. pattern #0 lies at address $9000). The Tile Data Table address for the background can be selected by setting the LCDC register. There are two different Background Tile Maps. One is located from $9800-9Bff. The other from $9C00-9FFF. Only one of these can be viewed at any one time. The currently displayed background can be selected by setting the LCDC register. Besides background, there is also a "window" overlaying the background. The window is not scrollable i.e. it is always displayed starting from its left upper corner. The location of a window on the screen can be adjusted via WNDPOSX and WNDPOSY registers. Screen coordinates of the top left corner of a window are WNDPOSX-7,WNDPOSY. The tile numbers for the window are stored in the Tile Data Table. None of the windows tiles are ever transparent. Both the Background and the window share the same Tile Data Table. Both background and window can be disabled or enabled separately via bits in the LCDC register. If the window is used and a scan line interrupt disables it (either by writing to LCDC or by setting WX > 166) and a scan line interrupt a little later on enables it then the window will resume appearing on the screen at the exact position of the window where it left off earlier. This way, even if there are only 16 lines of useful graphics in the window, you could display the first 8 lines at the top of the screen and the next 8 lines at the bottom if you wanted to do so. WX may be changed during a scan line interrupt (to either cause a graphic distortion effect or to disable the window (WX>166) ) but changes to WY are not dynamic and won't be noticed until the next screen redraw. The tile images are stored in the Tile Pattern Tables. Each 8x8 image occupies 16 bytes, where each 2 bytes represent a line: Tile: Image: .33333.. .33333.. -> 01111100 -> $7C 22...22. 01111100 -> $7C 11...11. 22...22. -> 00000000 -> $00 2222222. <-- digits 11000110 -> $C6 33...33. represent 11...11. -> 11000110 -> $C6 22...22. color 00000000 -> $00 11...11. numbers 2222222. -> 00000000 -> $00 ........ 11111110 -> $FE 33...33. -> 11000110 -> $C6 11000110 -> $C6 22...22. -> 00000000 -> $00 11000110 -> $C6 11...11. -> 11000110 -> $C6 00000000 -> $00 ........ -> 00000000 -> $00 00000000 -> $00 As it was said before, there are two Tile Pattern Tables at $8000-8FFF and at $8800-97FF. The first one can be used for sprites, the background, and the window display. Its tiles are numbered from 0 to 255. The second table can be used for the background and the window display and its tiles are numbered from -128 to 127. Sprites ------ GameBoy video controller can display up to 40 sprites either in 8x8 or in 8x16 pixels. Because of a limitation of hardware, only ten sprites can be displayed per scan line. Sprite patterns have the same format as tiles, but they are taken from the Sprite Pattern Table located at $8000-8FFF and have unsigned numbering. Sprite attributes reside in the Sprite Attribute Table (OAM - Object Attribute Memory) at $FE00-FE9F. OAM is divided into 40 4-byte blocks each of which corresponds to a sprite. In 8x16 sprite mode, the least significant bit of the sprite pattern number is ignored and treated as 0. When sprites with different x coordinate values overlap, the one with the smaller x coordinate (closer to the left) will have priority and appear above any others. When sprites with the same x coordinate values overlap, they have priority according to table ordering. (i.e. $FE00 - highest, $FE04 - next highest, etc.) Please note that Sprite X=0, Y=0 hides a sprite. To display a sprite use the following formulas: SpriteScreenPositionX(Upper left corner of sprite) = SpriteX - 8 SpriteScreenPositionY(Upper left corner of sprite) = SpriteY - 16 To display a sprite in the upper left corner of the screen set sprite X=8, Y=16. Only 10 sprites can be displayed on any one line. When this limit is exceeded, the lower priority sprites (priorities listed above) won't be displayed. To keep unused sprites from affecting onscreen sprites set their Y coordinate to Y=0 or Y=>144+16. Just setting the X coordinate to X=0 or X=>160+8 on a sprite will hide it but it will still affect other sprites sharing the same lines. Blocks have the following format: Byte0 Y position on the screen Byte1 X position on the screen Byte2 Pattern number 0-255 (Unlike some tile numbers, sprite pattern numbers are unsigned. LSB is ignored (treated as 0) in 8x16 mode.) Byte3 Flags: Bit7 Priority If this bit is set to 0, sprite is displayed on top of background & window. If this bit is set to 1, then sprite will be hidden behind colors 1, 2, and 3 of the background & window. (Sprite only prevails over color 0 of BG & win.) Bit6 Y flip Sprite pattern is flipped vertically if this bit is set to 1. Bit5 X flip Sprite pattern is flipped horizontally if this bit is set to 1. Bit4 Palette number Sprite colors are taken from OBJ1PAL if this bit is set to 1 and from OBJ0PAL otherwise. Sprite RAM Bug -------------- There is a flaw in the GameBoy hardware that causes trash to be written to OAM RAM if the following commands are used while their 16-bit content is in the range of $FE00 to $FEFF: inc xx (xx = bc,de, or hl) dec xx ldi a,(hl) ldd a,(hl) ldi (hl),a ldd (hl),a Only sprites 1 & 2 ($FE00 & $FE04) are not affected by these instructions. Sound ----- There are two sound channels connected to the output terminals SO1 and SO2. There is also a input terminal Vin connected to the cartridge. It can be routed to either of both output terminals. GameBoy circuitry allows producing sound in four different ways: Quadrangular wave patterns with sweep and envelope functions. Quadrangular wave patterns with envelope functions. Voluntary wave patterns from wave RAM. White noise with an envelope function. These four sounds can be controlled independantly and then mixed separately for each of the output terminals. Sound registers may be set at all times while producing sound. When setting the initial value of the envelope and restarting the length counter, set the initial flag to 1 and initialize the data. Under the following situations the Sound ON flag is reset and the sound output stops: 1. When the sound output is stopped by the length counter. 2. When overflow occurs at the addition mode while sweep is operating at sound 1. When the Sound OFF flag for sound 3 (bit 7 of NR30) is set at 0, the cancellation of the OFF mode must be done by setting the sound OFF flag to 1. By initializing sound 3, it starts it's function. When the All Sound OFF flag (bit 7 of NR52) is set to 0, the mode registers for sounds 1,2,3, and 4 are reset and the sound output stops. (NOTE: The setting of each sounds mode register must be done after the All Sound OFF mode is cancelled. During the All Sound OFF mode, each sound mode register cannot be set.) NOTE: DURING THE ALL SOUND OFF MODE, GB POWER CONSUMPTION DROPS BY 16% OR MORE! WHILE YOUR PROGRAMS AREN'T USING SOUND THEN SET THE ALL SOUND OFF FLAG TO 0. IT DEFAULTS TO 1 ON RESET. These tend to be the two most important equations in converting between Hertz and GB frequency registers: (Sounds will have a 2.4% higher frequency on Super GB.) gb = 2048 - (131072 / Hz) Hz = 131072 / (2048 - gb) Timer ----- Sometimes it's useful to have a timer that interrupts at regular intervals for routines that require periodic or percise updates. The timer in the GameBoy has a selectable frequency of 4096, 16384, 65536, or 262144 Hertz. This frequency increments the Timer Counter (TIMA). When it overflows, it generates an interrupt. It is then loaded with the contents of Timer Modulo (TMA). The following are examples: ;This interval timer interrupts 4096 times per second ld a,-1 ld ($FF06),a ;Set TMA to divide clock by 1 ld a,4 ld ($FF07),a ;Set clock to 4096 Hertz ;This interval timer interrupts 65536 times per second ld a,-4 ld ($FF06),a ;Set TMA to divide clock by 4 ld a,5 ld ($FF07),a ;Set clock to 262144 Hertz Serial I/O ---------- The serial I/O port on the Gameboy is a very simple setup and is crude compared to standard RS-232 (IBM-PC) or RS-485 (Macintosh) serial ports. There are no start or stop bits so the programmer must be more creative when using this port. During a transfer, a byte is shifted in at the same time that a byte is shifted out. The rate of the shift is deter- mined by whether the clock source is internal or external. If internal, the bits are shifted out at a rate of 8192Hz (122 microseconds) per bit. The most significant bit is shifted in and out first. When the internal clock is selected, it drives the clock pin on the game link port and it stays high when not used. During a transfer it will go low eight times to clock in/out each bit. A programmer initates a serial transfer by setting bit 7 of $FF02. This bit may be read and is automatically set to 0 at the completion of transfer. After this bit is set, an interrupt will then occur eight bit clocks later if the serial interrupt is enabled. If internal clock is selected and serial interrupt is enabled, this interrupt occurs 122*8 microseconds later. If external clock is selected and serial interrupt is enabled, an interrupt will occur eight bit clocks later. Initiating a serial transfer with external clock will wait forever if no external clock is present. This allows a certain amount of synchronization with each serial port. The state of the last bit shifted out determines the state of the output line until another transfer takes place. If a serial transfer with internal clock is performed and no external GameBoy is present, a value of $FF will be received in the transfer. The following code causes $75 to be shifted out the serial port and a byte to be shifted into $FF01: ld a,$75 ld ($FF01),a ld a,$81 ld ($FF02),a Interrupt Procedure ------------------- The IME (interrupt master enable) flag is reset by DI and prohibits all interrupts. It is set by EI and acknowledges the interrupt setting by the IE register. 1. When an interrupt is generated, the IF flag will be set. 2. If the IME flag is set & the corresponding IE flag is set, the following 3 steps are performed. 3. Reset the IME flag and prevent all interrupts. 4. The PC (program counter) is pushed onto the stack. 5. Jump to the starting address of the interrupt. Resetting of the IF register, which was the cause of the interrupt, is done by hardware. During the interrupt, pushing of registers to be used should be performed by the interrupt routine. Once the interrupt service is in progress, all the interrupts will be prohibited. However, if the IME flag and the IE flag are controlled, a number of interrupt services can be made possible by nesting. Return from an interrupt routine can be performed by either RETI or RET instruction. The RETI instruction enables interrupts after doing a return operation. If a RET is used as the final instruction in an interrupt routine, interrupts will remain disabled unless a EI was used in the interrupt routine or is used at a later time. The interrupt will be acknowledged during opcode fetch period of each instruction. Interrupt Descriptions ---------------------- The following interrupts only occur if they have been enabled in the Interrupt Enable register ($FFFF) and if the interrupts have actually been enabled using the EI instruction. V-Blank - The V-Blank interrupt occurs ~59.7 times a second on a regular GB and ~61.1 times a second on a Super GB (SGB). This interrupt occurs at the beginning of the V-Blank period. During this period video hardware is not using video ram so it may be freely accessed. This period lasts approximately 1.1 milliseconds. LCDC Status - There are various reasons for this interrupt to occur as described by the STAT register ($FF40). One very popular reason is to indicate to the user when the video hardware is about to redraw a given LCD line. This can be useful for dynamically controlling the SCX/ SCY registers ($FF43/$FF42) to perform special video effects. Timer Overflow - This interrupt occurs when the TIMA register ($FF05) changes from $FF to $00. Serial Transfer Completion - This interrupt occurs when a serial transfer has completed on the game link port. High-to-Low of P10-P13 - This interrupt occurs on a transition of any of the keypad input lines from high to low. Due to the fact that keypad "bounce"* is virtually always present, software should expect this interrupt to occur one or more times for every button press and one or more times for every button release. * - Bounce tends to be a side effect of any button making or breaking a connection. During these periods, it is very common for a small amount of oscillation between high & low states to take place. I/O Registers ------------- FF00 Name - P1 Contents - Register for reading joy pad info and determining system type. (R/W) Bit 7 - Not used Bit 6 - Not used Bit 5 - P15 out port Bit 4 - P14 out port Bit 3 - P13 in port Bit 2 - P12 in port Bit 1 - P11 in port Bit 0 - P10 in port This is the matrix layout for register $FF00: P14 P15 | | P10-------O-Right----O-A | | P11-------O-Left-----O-B | | P12-------O-Up-------O-Select | | P13-------O-Down-----O-Start | | Example code: Game: Ms. Pacman Address: $3b1 LD A,$20 <- bit 5 = $20 LD ($FF00),A <- select P14 by setting it low LD A,($FF00) LD A,($FF00) <- wait a few cycles CPL <- complement A AND $0F <- get only first 4 bits SWAP A <- swap it LD B,A <- store A in B LD A,$10 LD ($FF00),A <- select P15 by setting it low LD A,($FF00) LD A,($FF00) LD A,($FF00) LD A,($FF00) LD A,($FF00) LD A,($FF00) <- Wait a few MORE cycles CPL <- complement (invert) AND $0F <- get first 4 bits OR B <- put A and B together LD B,A <- store A in D LD A,($FF8B) <- read old joy data from ram XOR B <- toggle w/current button bit AND B <- get current button bit back LD ($FF8C),A <- save in new Joydata storage LD A,B <- put original value in A LD ($FF8B),A <- store it as old joy data LD A,$30 <- deselect P14 and P15 LD ($FF00),A <- RESET Joypad RET <- Return from Subroutine The button values using the above method are such: $80 - Start $8 - Down $40 - Select $4 - Up $20 - B $2 - Left $10 - A $1 - Right Let's say we held down A, Start, and Up. The value returned in accumulator A would be $94 FF01 Name - SB Contents - Serial transfer data (R/W) 8 Bits of data to be read/written FF02 Name - SC Contents - SIO control (R/W) Bit 7 - Transfer Start Flag 0: Non transfer 1: Start transfer Bit 0 - Shift Clock 0: External Clock (500KHz Max.) 1: Internal Clock (8192Hz) Transfer is initiated by setting the Transfer Start Flag. This bit may be read and is automatically set to 0 at the end of Transfer. Transmitting and receiving serial data is done simultaneously. The received data is automatically stored in SB. FF04 Name - DIV Contents - Divider Register (R/W) This register is incremented 16384 (~16779 on SGB) times a second. Writing any value sets it to $00. FF05 Name - TIMA Contents - Timer counter (R/W) This timer is incremented by a clock frequency specified by the TAC register ($FF07). The timer generates an interrupt when it overflows. FF06 Name - TMA Contents - Timer Modulo (R/W) When the TIMA overflows, this data will be loaded. FF07 Name - TAC Contents - Timer Control (R/W) Bit 2 - Timer Stop 0: Stop Timer 1: Start Timer Bits 1+0 - Input Clock Select 00: 4.096 KHz (~4.194 KHz SGB) 01: 262.144 KHz (~268.4 KHz SGB) 10: 65.536 KHz (~67.11 KHz SGB) 11: 16.384 KHz (~16.78 KHz SGB) FF0F Name - IF Contents - Interrupt Flag (R/W) Bit 4: Transition from High to Low of Pin number P10-P13 Bit 3: Serial I/O transfer complete Bit 2: Timer Overflow Bit 1: LCDC (see STAT) Bit 0: V-Blank The priority and jump address for the above 5 interrupts are: Interrupt Priority Start Address V-Blank 1 $0040 LCDC Status 2 $0048 - Modes 0, 1, 2 LYC=LY coincide (selectable) Timer Overflow 3 $0050 Serial Transfer 4 $0058 - when transfer is complete Hi-Lo of P10-P13 5 $0060 * When more than 1 interrupts occur at the same time only the interrupt with the highest priority can be acknowledged. When an interrupt is used a '0' should be stored in the IF register before the IE register is set. FF10 Name - NR 10 --- AUD1SWEEP Contents - Sound Mode 1 register, Sweep register (R/W) Bit 6-4 - Sweep Time Bit 3 - Sweep Increase/Decrease 0: Addition (frequency increases) 1: Subtraction (frequency decreases) Bit 2-0 - Number of sweep shift (n: 0-7) Sweep Time: 000: sweep off - no freq change 001: 7.8 ms (1/128Hz) 010: 15.6 ms (2/128Hz) 011: 23.4 ms (3/128Hz) 100: 31.3 ms (4/128Hz) 101: 39.1 ms (5/128Hz) 110: 46.9 ms (6/128Hz) 111: 54.7 ms (7/128Hz) The change of frequency (NR13,NR14) at each shift is calculated by the following formula where X(0) is initial freq & X(t-1) is last freq: X(t) = X(t-1) +/- X(t-1)/2^n FF11 Name - NR 11 --- AUD1LEN Contents - Sound Mode 1 register, Sound length/Wave pattern duty (R/W) Only Bits 7-6 can be read. Bit 7-6 - Wave Pattern Duty Bit 5-0 - Sound length data (t1: 0-63) Wave Duty: 00: 12.5% ( _--------_--------_-------- ) 01: 25% ( __-------__-------__------- ) 10: 50% ( ____-----____-----____----- ) (default) 11: 75% ( ______---______---______--- ) Sound Length = (64-t1)*(1/256) seconds FF12 Name - NR 12 --- AUD1ENV Contents - Sound Mode 1 register, Envelope (R/W) Bit 7-4 - Initial volume of envelope Bit 3 - Envelope UP/DOWN 0: Attenuate 1: Amplify Bit 2-0 - Number of envelope sweep (n: 0-7) (If zero, stop envelope operation.) Initial volume of envelope is from 0 to $F. Zero being no sound. Length of 1 step = n*(1/64) seconds FF13 Name - NR 13 --- AUD1LOW Contents - Sound Mode 1 register, Frequency lo (W) Lower 8 bits of 11 bit frequency (x). Next 3 bit are in NR 14 ($FF14) FF14 Name - NR 14 --- AUD1HIGH Contents - Sound Mode 1 register, Frequency hi (R/W) Only Bit 6 can be read. Bit 7 - Initial (when set, sound restarts) Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive selection Bit 2-0 - Frequency's higher 3 bits (x) Frequency = 4194304/(32*(2048-x)) Hz = 131072/(2048-x) Hz Counter/consecutive Selection 0 = Regardless of the length data in NR11 sound can be produced consecutively. 1 = Sound is generated during the time period set by the length data in NR11. After this period the sound 1 ON flag (bit 0 of NR52) is reset. FF16 Name - NR 21 --- AUD2LEN Contents - Sound Mode 2 register, Sound Length; Wave Pattern Duty (R/W) Only bits 7-6 can be read. Bit 7-6 - Wave pattern duty Bit 5-0 - Sound length data (t1: 0-63) Wave Duty: 00: 12.5% ( _--------_--------_-------- ) 01: 25% ( __-------__-------__------- ) 10: 50% ( ____-----____-----____----- ) (default) 11: 75% ( ______---______---______--- ) Sound Length = (64-t1)*(1/256) seconds FF17 Name - NR 22 --- AUD2ENV Contents - Sound Mode 2 register, envelope (R/W) Bit 7-4 - Initial volume of envelope Bit 3 - Envelope UP/DOWN 0: Attenuate 1: Amplify Bit 2-0 - Number of envelope sweep (n: 0-7) (If zero, stop envelope operation.) Initial volume of envelope is from 0 to $F. Zero being no sound. Length of 1 step = n*(1/64) seconds FF18 Name - NR 23 --- AUD2LOW Contents - Sound Mode 2 register, frequency lo data (W) Frequency's lower 8 bits of 11 bit data (x). Next 3 bits are in NR 14 ($FF19). FF19 Name - NR 24 --- AUD2HIGH Contents - Sound Mode 2 register, frequency hi data (R/W) Only bit 6 can be read. Bit 7 - Initial (when set, sound restarts) Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive selection Bit 2-0 - Frequency's higher 3 bits (x) Frequency = 4194304/(32*(2048-x)) Hz = 131072/(2048-x) Hz Counter/consecutive Selection 0 = Regardless of the length data in NR21 sound can be produced consecutively. 1 = Sound is generated during the time period set by the length data in NR21. After this period the sound 2 ON flag (bit 1 of NR52) is reset. FF1A Name - NR 30 --- AUD3ENA Contents - Sound Mode 3 register, Sound on/off (R/W) Only bit 7 can be read Bit 7 - Sound OFF 0: Sound 3 output stop 1: Sound 3 output OK FF1B Name - NR 31 --- AUD3LEN Contents - Sound Mode 3 register, sound length (R/W) Bit 7-0 - Sound length (t1: 0 - 255) Sound Length = (256-t1)*(1/2) seconds FF1C Name - NR 32 --- AUD3LEVEL Contents - Sound Mode 3 register, Select output level (R/W) Only bits 6-5 can be read Bit 6-5 - Select output level 00: Mute 01: Produce Wave Pattern RAM Data as it is (4 bit length) 10: Produce Wave Pattern RAM data shifted once to the RIGHT (1/2) (4 bit length) 11: Produce Wave Pattern RAM data shifted twice to the RIGHT (1/4) (4 bit length) * - Wave Pattern RAM is located from $FF30-$FF3f. FF1D Name - NR 33 --- AUD3LOW Contents - Sound Mode 3 register, frequency's lower data (W) Lower 8 bits of an 11 bit frequency (x). FF1E Name - NR 34 --- AUD3HIGH Contents - Sound Mode 3 register, frequency's higher data (R/W) Only bit 6 can be read. Bit 7 - Initial (when set, sound restarts) Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive flag Bit 2-0 - Frequency's higher 3 bits (x). Frequency = 4194304/(64*(2048-x)) Hz = 65536/(2048-x) Hz Counter/consecutive Selection 0 = Regardless of the length data in NR31 sound can be produced consecutively. 1 = Sound is generated during the time period set by the length data in NR31. After this period the sound 3 ON flag (bit 2 of NR52) is reset. FF20 Name - NR 41 --- AUD4LEN Contents - Sound Mode 4 register, sound length (R/W) Bit 5-0 - Sound length data (t1: 0-63) Sound Length = (64-t1)*(1/256) seconds FF21 Name - NR 42 --- AUD4ENV Contents - Sound Mode 4 register, envelope (R/W) Bit 7-4 - Initial volume of envelope Bit 3 - Envelope UP/DOWN 0: Attenuate 1: Amplify Bit 2-0 - Number of envelope sweep (n: 0-7) (If zero, stop envelope operation.) Initial volume of envelope is from 0 to $F. Zero being no sound. Length of 1 step = n*(1/64) seconds FF22 Name - NR 43 --- AUD4POLY Contents - Sound Mode 4 register, polynomial counter (R/W) Bit 7-4 - Selection of the shift clock frequency of the polynomial counter Bit 3 - Selection of the polynomial counter's step Bit 2-0 - Selection of the dividing ratio of frequencies Selection of the dividing ratio of frequencies: 000: f * 1/2^3 * 2 001: f * 1/2^3 * 1 010: f * 1/2^3 * 1/2 011: f * 1/2^3 * 1/3 100: f * 1/2^3 * 1/4 101: f * 1/2^3 * 1/5 110: f * 1/2^3 * 1/6 111: f * 1/2^3 * 1/7 f = 4.194304 Mhz Selection of the polynomial counter step: 0: 15 steps 1: 7 steps Selection of the shift clock frequency of the polynomial counter: 0000: dividing ratio of frequencies * 1/2 0001: dividing ratio of frequencies * 1/2^2 0010: dividing ratio of frequencies * 1/2^3 0011: dividing ratio of frequencies * 1/2^4 : : : : : : 0101: dividing ratio of frequencies * 1/2^14 1110: prohibited code 1111: prohibited code FF23 Name - NR 44 --- AUD4GO Contents - Sound Mode 4 register, counter/consecutive; inital (R/W) Only bit 6 can be read. Bit 7 - Initial (when set, sound restarts) Bit 6 - Counter/consecutive selection Counter/consecutive Selection 0 = Regardless of the length data in NR41 sound can be produced consecutively. 1 = Sound is generated during the time period set by the length data in NR41. After this period the sound 4 ON flag (bit 3 of NR52) is reset. FF24 Name - NR 50 --- AUDVOL Contents - Channel control / ON-OFF / Volume (R/W) Bit 7 - Vin->SO2 ON/OFF Bit 6-4 - SO2 output level (volume) (# 0-7) Bit 3 - Vin->SO1 ON/OFF Bit 2-0 - SO1 output level (volume) (# 0-7) Vin->SO1 (Vin->SO2) By synthesizing the sound from sound 1 through 4, the voice input from Vin terminal is put out. 0: no output 1: output OK FF25 Name - NR 51 --- AUDTERM Contents - Selection of Sound output terminal (R/W) Bit 7 - Output sound 4 to SO2 terminal Bit 6 - Output sound 3 to SO2 terminal Bit 5 - Output sound 2 to SO2 terminal Bit 4 - Output sound 1 to SO2 terminal Bit 3 - Output sound 4 to SO1 terminal Bit 2 - Output sound 3 to SO1 terminal Bit 1 - Output sound 2 to SO1 terminal Bit 0 - Output sound 1 to SO1 terminal FF26 Name - NR 52 --- AUDENA (Value at reset: $F1-GB, $F0-SGB) Contents - Sound on/off (R/W) Bit 7 - All sound on/off 0: stop all sound circuits 1: operate all sound circuits Bit 3 - Sound 4 ON flag Bit 2 - Sound 3 ON flag Bit 1 - Sound 2 ON flag Bit 0 - Sound 1 ON flag Bits 0 - 3 of this register are meant to be status bits to be read. Writing to these bits does NOT enable/disable sound. If your GB programs don't use sound then write $00 to this register to save 16% or more on GB power consumption. FF30 - FF3F Name - Wave Pattern RAM Contents - Waveform storage for arbitrary sound data This storage area holds 32 4-bit samples that are played back upper 4 bits first. FF40 Name - LCDC (value $91 at reset) Contents - LCD Control (R/W) Bit 7 - LCD Control Operation * 0: Stop completely (no picture on screen) 1: operation Bit 6 - Window Tile Map Display Select 0: $9800-$9BFF 1: $9C00-$9FFF Bit 5 - Window Display 0: off 1: on Bit 4 - BG & Window Tile Data Select 0: $8800-$97FF 1: $8000-$8FFF <- Same area as OBJ Bit 3 - BG Tile Map Display Select 0: $9800-$9BFF 1: $9C00-$9FFF Bit 2 - OBJ (Sprite) Size 0: 8*8 1: 8*16 (width*height) Bit 1 - OBJ (Sprite) Display 0: off 1: on Bit 0 - BG & Window Display 0: off 1: on * - Stopping LCD operation (bit 7 from 1 to 0) must be performed during V-blank to work properly. V-blank can be confirmed when the value of LY is greater than or equal to 144. FF41 Name - STAT Contents - LCDC Status (R/W) Bits 6-3 - Interrupt Selection By LCDC Status Bit 6 - LYC=LY Coincidence (Selectable) Bit 5 - Mode 10 Bit 4 - Mode 01 Bit 3 - Mode 00 0: Non Selection 1: Selection Bit 2 - Coincidence Flag 0: LYC not equal to LCDC LY 1: LYC = LCDC LY Bit 1-0 - Mode Flag 00: During H-Blank 01: During V-Blank 10: During Searching OAM-RAM 11: During Transfering Data to LCD Driver STAT shows the current status of the LCD controller. Mode 00: When the flag is 00 it is the H-Blank period and the CPU can access the display RAM ($8000-$9FFF). Mode 01: When the flag is 01 it is the V-Blank period and the CPU can access the display RAM ($8000-$9FFF). Mode 10: When the flag is 10 then the OAM is being used ($FE00-$FE9F). The CPU cannot access the OAM during this period Mode 11: When the flag is 11 both the OAM and display RAM are being used. The CPU cannot access either during this period. The following are typical when the display is enabled: Mode 0 000___000___000___000___000___000___000________________ Mode 1 _______________________________________11111111111111__ Mode 2 ___2_____2_____2_____2_____2_____2___________________2_ Mode 3 ____33____33____33____33____33____33__________________3 The Mode Flag goes through the values 0, 2, and 3 at a cycle of about 109uS. 0 is present about 48.6uS, 2 about 19uS, and 3 about 41uS. This is interrupted every 16.6ms by the VBlank (1). The mode flag stays set at 1 for about 1.08 ms. (Mode 0 is present between 201-207 clks, 2 about 77-83 clks, and 3 about 169-175 clks. A complete cycle through these states takes 456 clks. VBlank lasts 4560 clks. A complete screen refresh occurs every 70224 clks.) FF42 Name - SCY Contents - Scroll Y (R/W) 8 Bit value $00-$FF to scroll BG Y screen position. FF43 Name - SCX Contents - Scroll X (R/W) 8 Bit value $00-$FF to scroll BG X screen position. FF44 Name - LY Contents - LCDC Y-Coordinate (R) The LY indicates the vertical line to which the present data is transferred to the LCD Driver. The LY can take on any value between 0 through 153. The values between 144 and 153 indicate the V-Blank period. Writing will reset the counter. FF45 Name - LYC Contents - LY Compare (R/W) The LYC compares itself with the LY. If the values are the same it causes the STAT to set the coincident flag. FF46 Name - DMA Contents - DMA Transfer and Start Address (W) The DMA Transfer (40*28 bit) from internal ROM or RAM ($0000-$F19F) to the OAM (address $FE00-$FE9F) can be performed. It takes 160 microseconds for the transfer. 40*28 bit = #140 or #$8C. As you can see, it only transfers $8C bytes of data. OAM data is $A0 bytes long, from $0-$9F. But if you examine the OAM data you see that 4 bits are not in use. 40*32 bit = #$A0, but since 4 bits for each OAM is not used it's 40*28 bit. It transfers all the OAM data to OAM RAM. The DMA transfer start address can be designated every $100 from address $0000-$F100. That means $0000, $0100, $0200, $0300.... As can be seen by looking at register $FF41 Sprite RAM ($FE00 - $FE9F) is not always available. A simple routine that many games use to write data to Sprite memory is shown below. Since it copies data to the sprite RAM at the appro- priate times it removes that responsibility from the main program. All of the memory space, except high ram ($FF80-$FFFE), is not accessible during DMA. Because of this, the routine below must be copied & executed in high ram. It is usually called from a V-blank Interrupt. Example program: org $40 jp VBlank org $ff80 VBlank: push af <- Save A reg & flags ld a,BASE_ADRS <- transfer data from BASE_ADRS ld ($ff46),a <- put A into DMA registers ld a,28h <- loop length Wait: <- We need to wait 160 microseconds. dec a <- 4 cycles - decrease A by 1 jr nz,Wait <- 12 cycles - branch if Not Zero to Wait pop af <- Restore A reg & flags reti <- Return from interrupt FF47 Name - BGP Contents - BG & Window Palette Data (R/W) Bit 7-6 - Data for Dot Data 11 (Normally darkest color) Bit 5-4 - Data for Dot Data 10 Bit 3-2 - Data for Dot Data 01 Bit 1-0 - Data for Dot Data 00 (Normally lightest color) This selects the shade of grays to use for the background (BG) & window pixels. Since each pixel uses 2 bits, the corresponding shade will be selected from here. FF48 Name - OBP0 Contents - Object Palette 0 Data (R/W) This selects the colors for sprite palette 0. It works exactly as BGP ($FF47) except each each value of 0 is transparent. FF49 Name - OBP1 Contents - Object Palette 1 Data (R/W) This Selects the colors for sprite palette 1. It works exactly as OBP0 ($FF48). See BGP for details. FF4A Name - WY Contents - Window Y Position (R/W) 0 <= WY <= 143 WY must be greater than or equal to 0 and must be less than or equal to 143 for window to be visible. FF4B Name - WX Contents - Window X Position (R/W) 0 <= WX <= 166 WX must be greater than or equal to 0 and must be less than or equal to 166 for window to be visible. WX is offset from absolute screen coordinates by 7. Setting the window to WX=7, WY=0 will put the upper left corner of the window at absolute screen coordinates 0,0. Lets say WY = 70 and WX = 87. The window would be positioned as so: 0 80 159 ______________________________________ 0 | | | | | | | | Background Display | | Here | | | | | 70 | - +------------------| | | 80,70 | | | | | | Window Display | | | Here | | | | | | | 143 |___________________|__________________| OBJ Characters (Sprites) can still enter the window. None of the window colors are transparent so any background tiles under the window are hidden. FFFF Name - IE Contents - Interrupt Enable (R/W) Bit 4: Transition from High to Low of Pin number P10-P13. Bit 3: Serial I/O transfer complete Bit 2: Timer Overflow Bit 1: LCDC (see STAT) Bit 0: V-Blank 0: disable 1: enable