RGBASM(5)

📦

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🌸 NAME 🌸

Okay bestie, this is RGBASM(5) from the File Formats Manual, and it's literally the rgbasm — language documentation page. 💅

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so this is the full description of the assembly language used by rgbasm(1). For the full description of instructions in the machine language supported by the Game Boy CPU, see gbz80(7). ✨

It's advisable to have some familiarity with the Game Boy hardware before reading this document. RGBDS is specifically targeted at the Game Boy, and thus a lot of its features tie directly to its concepts. This document is not intended to be a Game Boy hardware reference. No cap.

Generally, “the linker” will refer to rgblink(1), but any program that processes RGBDS object files (described in rgbds(5)) can be used in its place. 🫶

🦋 SYNTAX 🦋

The syntax is line-based, just as in any other assembler. Each line may have components in either of these orders:

[label:] [directive] [; comment]
[label:] [instruction [:: instruction ...]] [; comment]

Directives are commands to the assembler itself, such as PRINTLN, SECTION, or OPT. 💅

Labels tie a name to a specific location within a section (see “Labels” below). Labels are allowed before most directives, but not before IF, ELIF, ELSE, ENDC, REPT, FOR, ENDR, MACRO, or ENDM. Periodt.

Instructions are assembled into Game Boy opcodes. Multiple instructions on one line, as well as data directives (see “Defining constant data in ROM” below), can be separated by double colons ::. ✨

The available instructions are documented in gbz80(7).

Note that where an instruction requires an 8-bit register r8, rgbasm can interpret HIGH(r16) as the top 8-bit register of the given r16, for example, HIGH(HL) for H; and LOW(r16) as the bottom one, for example, LOW(HL) for L (except for LOW(AF), since F is not a valid register). 🧚

Note also that where an instruction requires a condition code cc, rgbasm can interpret !cc as the opposite condition code; for example, !nz for z.

All reserved keywords (directives, instructions, registers, built-in functions, etc.) are case-insensitive; all identifiers (labels, variables, etc) are case-sensitive. Important vibe check, bestie.

Comments are used to give humans information about the code, such as explanations. The assembler always ignores comments and their contents. 💀

There are two kinds of comments, inline and block. Inline comments are anything that follows a semicolon ; not inside a string, until the end of the line. Block comments, beginning with /* and ending with */, can be split across multiple lines, or occur in the middle of an expression.

An example demonstrating these syntax features:

             SECTION "My Code", ROM0  ; a directive
             MyFunction:              ; a label
                 push hl              ; an instruction
                 /* ...and multiple instructions,
                    with mixed case */
                 ld a, [hli] :: LD H, [HL] :: Ld l, a
                 pop /*wait for it*/ hl
                 ret

Sometimes lines can be too long and it may be necessary to split them. To do so, put a backslash at the end of the line:

                 DB 1, 2, 3, \
                    4, 5, 6, \ ; Put it before any comments
                    7, 8, 9
                 DB "Hello, \  ; Space before the \ is included
             world!"           ; Any leading space is included

🧚 Symbol interpolation 🧚

Symbols with string or numeric values can be “interpolated” by writing them inside {braces}. This will paste the symbol's contents as if they were part of the source file. If it is a string symbol, its characters are simply inserted as-is. If it is a numeric symbol, its value is converted to hexadecimal notation with a dollar sign $ prepended. ✨

Symbol interpolations can be nested, too. Obsessed.

             DEF topic EQUS "life, the universe, and \"everything\""
             DEF meaning EQUS "answer"
             ; Defines answer = 42
             DEF {meaning} = 42
             ; Prints "The answer to life, the universe, and "everything" is $2A"
             PRINTLN "The {meaning} to {topic} is {{meaning}}"
             PURGE topic, meaning, {meaning}

Symbols can be interpolated even in contexts that disable automatic expansion of string constants: that is, name will be expanded in all of DEF({name}), DEF {name} EQU/=/EQUS/etc ..., REDEF {name} EQU/=/EQUS/etc ..., FOR {name}, ..., PURGE {name}, and MACRO {name}, even though it won't be in DEF(name), PURGE {name}, etc. iykyk.

It's possible to change the way symbols are printed by specifying a print format like so: {fmt:symbol}. The fmt specifier consists of parts, which must be in the following order: <sign><exact><align><pad><width><frac><prec><type>. All the parts are optional except the required <type>. These parts are:

<sign> — may be + or . If specified, prints this character in front of non-negative numbers.
<exact> — may be # (only allowed for non-decimal types). If specified, prints the value in an "exact" format: with a base prefix ($, &, or %) for non-decimal integer types (x / X, o, or b); with a q precision suffix for fixed-point numbers; or with \ escape characters (but no enclosing quotes) for strings.
<align> — may be -. If specified, aligns left instead of right.
<pad> — may be 0. If specified, pads right-aligned numbers with zeros instead of spaces.
<width> — may be one or more 0 – 9. If specified, pads the value to this width, right-aligned with spaces by default.
<frac> — may be . followed by zero or more 0 – 9. If specified, prints this many fractional digits of a fixed-point number. Defaults to 5 digits, maximum 255 digits. (A . followed by zero 0 – 9 prints zero fractional digits and no decimal point.)
<prec> — may be q followed by one or more 0 – 9. If specified, prints a fixed-point number at this precision. Defaults to the current -Q option.
<type> — specifies the type of value.

Valid types are:

d — Signed decimal — example: -42
u — Unsigned decimal — example: 4294967254
x — Lowercase hexadecimal — example: 2a
X — Uppercase hexadecimal — example: 2A
b — Binary — example: 101010
o — Octal — example: 52
f — Fixed-point — example: 1234.56789
s — String — example: string contents

Examples:

             SECTION "Test", ROM0[2]
             X:                 ; This works with labels **whose address is known**
             DEF Y = 3          ; This also works with variables
             DEF SUM EQU X + Y  ; And likewise with numeric constants
             ; Prints "%0010 + $3 == 5"
             PRINTLN "{#05b:X} + {#x:Y} == {d:SUM}"

             rsset 32
             DEF PERCENT rb 1   ; Same with offset constants
             DEF VALUE = 20
             DEF RESULT = MUL(20.0, 0.32)
             ; Prints "32% of 20 = 6.40"
             PRINTLN "{d:PERCENT}% of {d:VALUE} = {f:RESULT}"

             DEF WHO EQUS STRLWR("WORLD")
             ; Prints "Hello world!"
             PRINTLN "Hello {s:WHO}!"

Although, for these examples, STRFMT would be more appropriate; see “String expressions” below. 🎀

🌈 EXPRESSIONS 🌈

There are two types of expressions: numeric and string. Slay.

Numeric expressions are always evaluated using signed 32-bit math. In Boolean logic contexts, zero is considered to be the only "false" number, and all non-zero numbers (including negative) are "true".

An expression is said to be "constant" if rgbasm knows its value. This is generally always the case, unless a label is involved, as explained in the “SYMBOLS” section. However, some operators can be constant even with non-constant operands, as explained in “Operators” below. 🧚

Directives generally require constant expressions: for example, REPT requires the number of repetitions to be known at assembly time.

🔢 Numeric literals 🔢

rgbasm supports a variety of numeric literals.

Decimal — prefixes: none — accepted characters: 0123456789
Hexadecimal — prefixes: $, 0x, 0X — accepted characters: 0123456789ABCDEF
Octal — prefixes: &, 0o, 0O — accepted characters: 01234567
Binary — prefixes: %, 0b, 0B — accepted characters: 01
Fixed-point — prefixes: none — accepted characters: 01234.56789
Precise fixed-point — prefixes: none — accepted characters: 12.34q8
Character constant — prefixes: none — accepted characters: 'A'
Game Boy graphics — prefix: ` — accepted characters: 0123

Underscores are also accepted in numbers, except at the beginning of one. This can be useful for grouping digits, like 123_456 or %1100_1001. ✨

The "character constant" form yields the value the character maps to in the current charmap. For example, by default (refer to ascii(7)) 'A' yields 65. A character constant must represent a single value, so it cannot include multiple characters, or characters which map to multiple values. See “Character maps” for information on charmaps, and “String expressions” for information on escape characters allowed in character constants. 💅

The last one, Game Boy graphics, expects up to eight digits between 0 and 3, corresponding to pixels' two-bit shade values. The resulting numeric value is the two bytes of tile data which would produce that row of pixels. For example, `01012323 is equivalent to $0F55. 🔥

In place of a numeric literal, you can also use a numeric symbol's name, which is implicitly replaced with its value.

🧮 Operators 🧮

You can use these operators in numeric expressions (listed from highest to lowest precedence):

( ) — Grouping
FUNC() — Built-in function call
** — Exponentiation
+ - ~ ! — Unary plus, unary minus (negation), complement (bitwise negation), and Boolean negation
* / % — Multiplication, division (rounding down), and modulo (remainder)
<< >> >>> — Bit shifts (left, sign-extended right, zero-extended right)
& | ^ — Bitwise AND/OR/XOR
+ - — Addition and subtraction
== != < > <= >= — Comparisons
&& — Boolean AND
|| — Boolean OR

Okay so bestie, let's talk about the actual operators 💅 — ** raises a number to a non-negative power. It's the only right-associative operator, meaning p ** q ** r is equal to p ** (q ** r), not (p ** q) ** r. Every other binary operator is left-associative. Periodt.

~ complements a value by inverting all 32 of its bits. All of them. Every single one. No cap.

% gets you the remainder of the corresponding division, so x / y * y + x % y == x is always true. The result has the same sign as the divisor. That makes x % y equal to (x + y) % y or (x - y) % y — iconic behavior, honestly.

Shifting works by shifting all bits in the left operand either left (<<) or right (>>) by the right operand's amount. When shifting left, all newly-inserted bits are reset; when shifting right, they're copies of the original most significant bit instead. This makes a << b and a >> b equivalent to multiplying and dividing by 2 to the power of b, respectively. Slay.

Comparison operators return 0 if the comparison is false, and 1 otherwise. Simple. Clean. We love a binary queen 👑.

Unlike in many other languages — and for technical reasons — rgbasm still evaluates both operands of && and ||. No short-circuiting here, bestie. It's giving “we do it for the bit” 😭.

The operators && and & with a zero constant as either operand will be constant 0, and || with a non-zero constant as either operand will be constant 1, even if the other operand is non-constant. That's the rule, fr fr.

! returns 1 if the operand was 0, and 0 otherwise. Even a non-constant operand with any non-zero bits will return 0. Not me checking every bit 💀.

✨ Integer functions ✨

Besides operators, there are also some functions which have more specialized uses:

HIGH(n) — Equivalent to (n & $FF00) >> 8.
LOW(n) — Equivalent to n & $FF.
BITWIDTH(n) — Returns the number of bits necessary to represent n. Some useful formulas: BITWIDTH(n) - 1 equals ⌊log2(n)⌋; BITWIDTH(n - 1) equals ⌈log2(n)⌉; and 32 - BITWIDTH(n) equals clz(n), the count of leading zero bits in the binary representation of n.
TZCOUNT(n) — Returns ctz(n), the count of trailing zero bits in the binary representation of n.

💖 Fixed-point expressions 💖

Fixed-point numbers are technically just integers, but conceptually they have a decimal point at a fixed location (hence the name). This gives them increased precision, at the cost of a smaller range, while remaining far cheaper to manipulate than floating-point numbers (which rgbasm does not support). It's giving “float at home” but make it efficient ✨.

The default precision of all fixed-point numbers is 16 bits, meaning the lower 16 bits are used for the fractional part; so they count in 65536ths of 1.0. This precision can be changed with the -Q command-line option, and/or by OPT Q (see “Changing options while assembling”). An individual fixed-point literal can specify its own precision, overriding the current default, by appending a “q” followed by the number of fractional bits: for example, 789.25q8 is equal to $000315_40 (=789.25*28). 👀

Since fixed-point values are still just integers, you can use them in normal integer expressions. You can easily truncate a fixed-point number into an integer by shifting it right by the number of fractional bits, or by dividing it by 1.0. It follows that you can convert an integer to a fixed-point number by shifting it left that same amount, or by multiplying it by 1.0. For example, 123.0 / 1.0 == 123, and 123 * 1.0 == 123.0. Math ate 💅.

Note that the current number of fractional bits can be computed as TZCOUNT(1.0).

The following functions are designed to operate with fixed-point numbers (which must be known constant):

DIV(x, y) — Fixed-point division
MUL(x, y) — Fixed-point multiplication
FMOD(x, y) — Fixed-point modulo
POW(x, y) — x raised to the power y (xʸ)
LOG(x, y) — Logarithm of x to the base y
ROUND(x) — Round x half away from zero to the nearest integer
CEIL(x) — Round x up to the nearest integer
FLOOR(x) — Round x down to the nearest integer
SIN(x) — Sine of x
COS(x) — Cosine of x
TAN(x) — Tangent of x
ASIN(x) — Inverse sine of x
ACOS(x) — Inverse cosine of x
ATAN(x) — Inverse tangent of x
ATAN2(y, x) — Angle between (x,y) and (1,0)

There are no functions for fixed-point addition and subtraction, because the + and - operators can add and subtract pairs of fixed-point operands. No extra function needed, bestie.

Note that some operators or functions are meaningful when combining integers and fixed-point values. For example, 2.0 * 3 is equivalent to MUL(2.0, 3.0), and 6.0 / 2 is equivalent to DIV(6.0, 2.0). Be careful and think about what the operations mean when doing this sort of thing. 🫶

All of these fixed-point functions can take an optional final argument, which is the precision to use for that one operation. For example, MUL(6.0q8, 7.0q8, 8) will evaluate to 42.0q8 no matter what value is set as the current Q option. rgbasm does not check precisions for consistency, so nonsensical input like MUL(4.2q8, 6.9q12, 16) will produce a nonsensical (but technically correct) result: “garbage in, garbage out”. It's giving chaotic but valid 😭.

The FMOD function is used to get the remainder of the corresponding fixed-point division. The result has the same sign as the dividend; this is the opposite of how the integer modulo operator % works! Not me getting caught by that 💀.

The trigonometry functions (SIN, COS, TAN, etc) are defined in terms of a circle divided into 1.0 “turns” (equal to 2π radians, or 360 degrees). Angles but make it fixed-point 🌈.

These functions are useful for automatic generation of various tables. For example:

; Generate a table of 128 sine values
; from sin(0.0) included to sin(0.5) excluded,
; with amplitude scaled from [-1.0, 1.0] to [0.0, 128.0],
; then divided by 1.0 to round down to integer values.
FOR angle, 0.0, 0.5, 0.5 / 128
    db MUL(SIN(angle) + 1.0, 128.0 / 2) / 1.0
ENDR

🌸 String expressions 🌸

The most basic string expression is a string literal: any number of characters contained in double quotes ("for instance"). The backslash character \ is special in that it causes the character following it to be “escaped”, meaning that it is treated differently from normal. There are a number of escape sequences you can use within a string:

\\ — Backslash (escapes the escape character itself)
\" — Double quote (does not terminate a string)
\' — Single quote (does not terminate a character literal)
\{ — Open curly brace (does not start interpolation)
\} — Close curly brace (does not end interpolation)
\n — Newline (ASCII $0A)
\r — Carriage return (ASCII $0D)
\t — Tab (ASCII $09)
\0 — Null (ASCII $00)

Multi-line string literals are contained in triple quotes ("""for instance"""). Escape sequences work the same way in multi-line strings; however, literal newline characters will be included as-is, without needing to escape them with \r or \n. Multi-line but make it cute 🎀.

Raw string literals are prefixed by a hash #. Inside them, backslashes and braces are treated like regular characters, so they will not be expanded as macro arguments, interpolated symbols, or escape sequences. For example, the raw string #"\t\1{s}\" is equivalent to the regular string "\\t\\1\{s}\\". (Note that this prevents raw strings from including the double quote character.) Raw strings also may be contained in triple quotes for them to be multi-line, so they can include literal newline or quote characters (although still not three quotes in a row). Raw strings are the “no thoughts, head empty” of strings, and we respect that 🙈.

You can use the ++ operator to concatenate two strings. "str" ++ "ing" is equivalent to "string", or to STRCAT("str", "ing"). Concatenation slay.

You can use the === and !== operators to compare two strings. "str" === "ing" is equivalent to STRCMP("str", "ing") == 0, and "str" !== "ing" is equivalent to STRCMP("str", "ing") != 0. String equality but make it explicit 💅.

The following functions operate on string expressions, and return strings themselves:

STRCAT(strs...) — Concatenates strs.
STRUPR(str) — Returns str with all ASCII letters (a-z) in uppercase.
STRLWR(str) — Returns str with all ASCII letters (A-Z) in lowercase.
STRSLICE(str, start, stop) — Returns a substring of str starting at start and ending at stop (exclusive). If stop is not specified, the substring continues to the end of str.
STRRPL(str, old, new) — Returns str with each occurrence of the substring old replaced with new.
STRFMT(fmt, args...) — Returns the string fmt with each %spec pattern replaced by interpolating the format spec (using the same syntax as “Symbol interpolation”) with its corresponding argument in args (%% is replaced by the % character).
STRCHAR(str, idx) — Returns the substring of str for the charmap entry at idx with the current charmap. (idx counts charmap entries, not characters.)

The following functions take varying operands, and return strings:

REVCHAR(vals...) — Returns the string that is mapped to vals with the current charmap. If there is no unique charmap entry for vals, an error occurs.
READFILE(name, max) — Returns the contents of the file name as a string. Reads up to max bytes, or the entire contents if max is not specified. If the file isn't found in the current directory, the include-path list passed to rgbasm(1)'s -I option on the command line will be searched.

The following functions operate on string expressions, but return integers:

STRLEN(str) — how many characters are in str, periodt ✨
STRCMP(str1, str2) — compares str1 and str2 by good old ASCII ordering of their characters 💅 returns -1 if str1 is lower than str2, 1 if str1 is greater, or 0 if they're literally the same bestie
STRFIND(str, sub) — gives you the first index of sub inside str, or -1 if it's giving "not found" 😭
STRRFIND(str, sub) — the last index of sub inside str, or -1 if it's not there 🙈
BYTELEN(str) — how many bytes are in str (ngl non-ASCII characters can be multiple bytes, so this hits different than STRLEN 🦋)
STRBYTE(str, idx) — returns the byte value at idx in str
INCHARMAP(str) — 1 if str has an entry in the current charmap, 0 otherwise ✨
CHARLEN(str) — how many charmap entries are in str with the current charmap
CHARCMP(str1, str2) — compares str1 and str2 by their charmap entry values with the current charmap, returns -1 if str1 is lower, 1 if greater, 0 if they match 🎀
CHARSIZE(char) — how many values are in the charmap entry for char with the current charmap
CHARVAL(char, idx) — the value at idx of the charmap entry for char. If idx isn't specified, char must have a single value, and that's what gets returned 👑

Okay so quick mental note bestie: indexes count starting from 0 at the beginning, or from -1 at the end 💖. The characters of a string are counted by STRLEN; the charmap entries of a string are counted by CHARLEN; and the values of a charmap entry are counted by CHARSIZE. Three different counts, don't mix them up fr fr.

🧚 Character maps 🧚

So when you're writing text strings meant to show up on the Game Boy, the character encoding in the ROM may need to be different than the source file encoding. Like, the tiles used for uppercase letters might be placed starting at tile index 128, which is lowkey not the same as ASCII starting at 65 😳.

Character maps let you map strings or character literals to arbitrary sequences of numbers:

CHARMAP "A", 42
CHARMAP ':)', 39
CHARMAP "<br>", 13, 10
CHARMAP '&euro;', $20ac

So this would make db "Amen :)<br>" equivalent to db 42, 109, 101, 110, 32, 39, 13, 10, and dw "25€" equivalent to dw 50, 53, $20ac 💅 iconic.

Character mappings are matched greedily, so the longest applicable one will be mapped in a string 👑. Any characters in the string without defined mappings get copied directly, using the source file's encoding of characters to bytes.

It's totally possible to create multiple character maps and then switch between them whenever you want 🦋. This can be used to encode debug information in ASCII and use a different encoding for other purposes, for example. Initially, there's one character map called main and it's automatically selected as the current character map from the very beginning. There's also a character map stack that saves and restores which character map is currently active ✨.

NEWCHARMAP name — creates a new, empty character map called name and switches to it 🎀
NEWCHARMAP name, basename — creates a new character map called name, copied from character map basename, and switches to it
SETCHARMAP name — switch to character map name
PUSHC — push the current character map onto the stack
PUSHC name — push the current character map onto the stack and switch to character map name
POPC — pop a character map off the stack and switch to it 💖

Note bestie: modifications to a character map take effect immediately from that point onward ⚠️ no cap.

🌈 Other functions 🌈

There are a few other functions that do things beyond numeric or string operations:

DEF(symbol) — returns 1 if symbol has been defined, 0 otherwise. String constants are not expanded within the parentheses 🙅‍♀️
ISCONST(arg) — returns 1 if arg's value is known by RGBASM (e.g. if it can be an argument to IF), or 0 if only RGBLINK can compute its value
BANK(arg) — returns a bank number 💅
- If arg is the symbol @, this function returns the bank of the current section
- If arg is a string, it returns the bank of the section that has that name
- If arg is a label, it returns the bank number the label is in
- The result may be constant if rgbasm is able to compute it ✨
SECTION(symbol) — returns the name of the section that symbol is defined in. symbol must have been defined already. If arg is the symbol @, this function returns the name of the current section
SIZEOF(arg) — if arg is a string, this function returns the size of the section named arg. The result is a known constant if the section is already "completed" (i.e. not a UNION or FRAGMENT and no longer the current section) 🎀
- If arg is a section type keyword, it returns the size of that section type. The result is not constant, since only RGBLINK can compute its value
- If arg is an 8-bit or 16-bit register, it returns the size of that register
STARTOF(arg) — if arg is a string, this function returns the starting address of the section named arg. The result is a known constant if the section has a fixed address 🦋
- If arg is a section type keyword, it returns the starting address of that section type. The result is not constant, since only RGBLINK can compute its value

🌸 SECTIONS 🌸

Before you can even start writing code, you must define a section bestie. This tells the assembler what kind of information follows and where to put it 💖.

SECTION name, type
SECTION name, type, options
SECTION name, type[addr]
SECTION name, type[addr], options

name is a string enclosed in double quotes, which is the name of the section. If the type doesn't match, an error occurs 🚨. Each section must have a unique name, even across different source files, or the linker will treat it as an error.

Possible section types are as follows:

ROM0 — a ROM section. addr can range from $0000 to $3FFF, or $0000 to $7FFF if tiny ROM mode is enabled in the linker ✨
ROMX — a banked ROM section. addr can range from $4000 to $7FFF. Becomes an alias for ROM0 if tiny ROM mode is enabled in the linker
VRAM — a banked video RAM section. addr can range from $8000 to $9FFF. bank can be 0 or 1, but bank 1 is unavailable if DMG mode is enabled in the linker 🎀
SRAM — a banked external (save) RAM section. addr can range from $A000 to $BFFF
WRAM0 — a general-purpose RAM section. addr can range from $C000 to $CFFF, or $C000 to $DFFF if WRAM0 mode is enabled in the linker
WRAMX — a banked general-purpose RAM section. addr can range from $D000 to $DFFF. bank can range from 1 to 7. Becomes an alias for WRAM0 if WRAM0 mode is enabled in the linker
OAM — an object attribute RAM section. addr can range from $FE00 to $FE9F 👑
HRAM — a high RAM section. addr can range from $FF80 to $FFFE

RGBDS produces ROMs, which means code and data can only be placed in ROM0 and ROMX sections 😳. The other RAM section types are for statically allocated labels. If you need code or data in RAM, you'll need to copy it from ROM to RAM yourself. See "RAM code" for an example of how to conveniently do that with a LOAD block 💅.

options are comma-separated and may include:

BANK[bank] — specify which bank for the linker to place the section in. See above for possible values for bank, depending on type
ALIGN[align, offset] — place the section at an address whose align least-significant bits are equal to offset. Note that ALIGN[align] is a shorthand for ALIGN[align, 0] ✨. This option can be used with [addr], as long as they don't contradict each other. It's also possible to request alignment in the middle of a section; see "Requesting alignment" below

If [addr] is not specified, the section is considered "floating" 🦋 — the linker will automatically calculate an appropriate address for the section. Similarly, if BANK[bank] is not specified, the linker will automatically find a bank with enough space.

Sections can also be placed by using a linker script file. The format is described in rgblink(5). They allow the user to place floating sections in the desired bank in the order specified in the script. This is useful if the sections can't be placed at an address manually because the size may change, but they have to be together 💖.

Section examples:

SECTION "Cool Stuff", ROMX

This switches to the section called "CoolStuff", creating it if it doesn't already exist. It can end up in any ROM bank. Code and data may follow 🎀.

If it is needed, the base address of the section can be specified:

SECTION "Cool Stuff", ROMX[$4567]

An example with a fixed bank:

SECTION "Cool Stuff", ROMX[$4567], BANK[3]

And if you want to force only the section's bank, and not its position within the bank, that's also possible:

SECTION "Cool Stuff", ROMX, BANK[7]

Alignment examples: the first one could be useful for defining an OAM buffer to be DMA'd, since it must be aligned to 256 bytes 🔥. The second could also be appropriate for GBC HDMA, or for an optimized copy code that requires alignment.

SECTION "OAM Data", WRAM0, ALIGN[8] ; align to 256 bytes
SECTION "VRAM Data", ROMX, BANK[2], ALIGN[4] ; align to 16 bytes

Okay so, the current section can be ended without starting a new section by using ENDSECTION. This directive clears the section context, so you literally can’t write code until you start another section. It’s lowkey useful for avoiding accidentally defining code or data in the wrong section. 💅

🧵 Section stack

POPS and PUSHS are your interface to the section stack. The number of entries in the stack is limited only by the amount of memory in your machine. ✨

PUSHS pushes the current section context onto the section stack. Then POPS can later restore it. This is iconic for defining sections in included files when you don’t want to override the section context at the point the file was included. 🫶

PUSHS can also take the same arguments as SECTION, so it can push the current section context and define a new section at the same time:

SECTION "Code", ROM0
Function:
    ld a, 42
    PUSHS "Variables", WRAM0
        wAnswer: db
    POPS
    ld [wAnswer], a

💾 RAM code

Sometimes you want to have some code (or data) in RAM, e.g. for self-modifying code. But bestie, you can’t just put it directly in a RAM section — you have to store it in ROM and copy it to RAM at some point. That means the code will be executed at a different address range than where it’s defined, which can be inconvenient for references to labels within that code. This situation is exactly what LOAD blocks are designed for. Here’s an example of how to use them: 🌸

SECTION "LOAD example", ROMX
CopyCode:
    ld de, RAMCode
    ld hl, RAMLocation
    ld c, RAMCode.end - RAMCode
.loop
    ld a, [de]
    inc de
    ld [hli], a
    dec c
    jr nz, .loop
    ret

RAMCode:
  LOAD "RAM code", WRAM0
RAMLocation:
    ld hl, .string
    ld de, $9864
.copy
    ld a, [hli]
    ld [de], a
    inc de
    and a
    jr nz, .copy
    ret

.string
    db "Hello World!\0"
  ENDL
.end

A LOAD block feels similar to a SECTION declaration because it creates a new one. All data and code generated within such a block is placed in the current section like usual, but all labels are created as if they were placed in this newly-created section. 🎀

In the example above, all of the code and data will end up in the "LOAD example" section. You’ll notice the RAMCode and RAMLocation labels: RAMCode is situated in ROM, where the code is stored, and RAMLocation is in RAM, where the code will be loaded. 👑

You cannot nest LOAD blocks, nor can you change or stop the current section within them. 🚫

The current LOAD block can be ended by using ENDL. This directive is only necessary if you want to resume writing code in its containing ROM section. Any of LOAD, SECTION, ENDSECTION, or POPS will end the current LOAD block before performing its own function. ✨

LOAD blocks can use the UNION or FRAGMENT modifiers as described in “Unionized sections” below. 💜

🤝 Unionized sections

When you’re tight on RAM, you may want to define overlapping static memory allocations, as explained in the “Allocating overlapping spaces in RAM” section. But a UNION only works within a single file, so it can’t be used e.g. to define temporary variables across several files, all of which use the same statically allocated memory. Unionized sections solve this problem. To declare a unionized section, add a UNION keyword after the SECTION one; the declaration is otherwise not different. Unionized sections follow some different rules from normal sections: 🦋

The same unionized section (i.e. having the same name) can be declared several times per rgbasm invocation, and across several invocations. Different declarations are treated and merged identically whether within the same invocation, or different ones.
If one section has been declared as unionized, all sections with the same name must be declared unionized as well.
All declarations must have the same type. For example, even if rgblink(1)’s -w flag is used, WRAM0 and WRAMX types are still considered different.
Different constraints (alignment, bank, etc.) can be specified for each unionized section declaration, but they must all be compatible. For example, alignment must be compatible with any fixed address, all specified banks must be the same, etc.
Unionized sections cannot have type ROM0 or ROMX.

Different declarations of the same unionized section are not appended, but instead overlaid on top of each other, just like “Allocating overlapping spaces in RAM”. Similarly, the size of an unionized section is the largest of all its declarations. 📏

🧩 Section fragments

Section fragments are sections with a small twist: when several fragments with the same name are encountered, they are concatenated into one section instead of producing an error, even across multiple object files. This works within the same file (paralleling the behavior "plain" sections has in previous versions), but also across object files. To declare a section fragment, add a FRAGMENT keyword after the SECTION one; the declaration is otherwise not different. However, similarly to “Unionized sections”, some rules must be followed: 💅

If one section has been declared as fragment, all sections with the same name must be declared fragments as well.
All declarations must have the same type. For example, even if rgblink(1)’s -w flag is used, WRAM0 and WRAMX types are still considered different.
Different constraints (alignment, bank, etc.) can be specified for each section fragment declaration, but they must all be compatible. For example, alignment must be compatible with any fixed address, all specified banks must be the same, etc.
A section fragment may not be unionized; after all, that wouldn’t make much sense. 💀

When RGBASM merges two fragments, the one encountered later is appended to the one encountered earlier. ✨

When RGBLINK merges two fragments, the one whose file was specified last is appended to the one whose file was specified first. For example, assuming bar.o, baz.o, and foo.o all contain a fragment with the same name, the command

rgblink -o rom.gb baz.o foo.o bar.o

would produce the fragment from baz.o first, followed by the one from foo.o, and the one from bar.o last. 🎀

🎁 Fragment literals

Fragment literals are useful for short blocks of code or data that are only referenced once. They are section fragments created by surrounding instructions or directives with [[ double brackets ]], without a separate SECTION FRAGMENT declaration. 🫶

The content of a fragment literal becomes a SECTION FRAGMENT, sharing the same name and bank as its parent ROM section, but without any other constraints. The parent section also becomes a FRAGMENT if it was not one already, so that it can be merged with its fragment literals. RGBLINK merges the fragments in no particular order. 🌈

A fragment literal can take the place of any 16-bit integer constant n16 from the gbz80(7) documentation, as well as a DW item. The fragment literal then evaluates to its starting address. For example, you can CALL or JP to a fragment literal. 🔥

This code using named labels:

DataTable:
    dw First
    dw Second
    dw Third
First:  db 1
Second: db 4
Third:  db 9
Routine:
    push hl
    ld hl, Left
    jr z, .got_it
    ld hl, Right
.got_it
    call .print
    pop hl
    ret
.print:
    ld de, $1003
    ld bc, STARTOF(VRAM)
    jp Print
Left:  db "left\0"
Right: db "right\0"

is equivalent to this code using fragment literals:

DataTable:
    dw [[ db 1 ]]
    dw [[ db 4 ]]
    dw [[ db 9 ]]
Routine:
    push hl
    ld hl, [[ db "left\0" ]]
    jr z, .got_it
    ld hl, [[ db "right\0" ]]
.got_it
    call [[
        ld de, $1003
        ld bc, STARTOF(VRAM)
        jp Print
    ]]
    pop hl
    ret

The difference is that the example using fragment literals does not declare a particular order for its pieces. 😌

Fragment literals can be arbitrarily nested, so extreme use cases are technically possible. This code using named labels:

dw FortyTwo
FortyTwo:
    call Sub1
    jr Sub2
Sub1:
    ld a, [Twenty]
    ret
Twenty: db 20
Sub2:
    jp Sub3
Sub3:
    call Sub1
    inc a
    add a
    ret

is equivalent to this code using fragment literals:

dw [[
    call [[
        Sub1: ld a, [ [[db 20]] ] :: ret
    ]]
    jr [[
        jp [[ call Sub1 :: inc a :: add a :: ret ]]
    ]]
]]

🔣 SYMBOLS

RGBDS supports several types of symbols: 💖

Label — Numeric symbol designating a memory location. May or may not have a value known at assembly time.
Constant — Numeric symbol whose value has to be known at assembly time.
Macro — A block of rgbasm code that can be invoked later.
String — A text string that can be expanded later, similarly to a macro.

Symbol names can contain ASCII letters, numbers, underscores _, hashes #, dollar signs $, and at signs @. However, they must begin with either a letter or an underscore. Additionally, label names can contain up to a single dot ., which may not be the first character. 🎀

A symbol cannot have the same name as a reserved keyword, unless its name is a “raw identifier” prefixed by a hash #. For example, #load denotes a symbol named load, and #LOAD denotes a different symbol named LOAD; in both cases the # prevents them from being treated as the keyword LOAD. 💅

💖 Labels 💖

okay so one of the assembler’s whole main-character jobs is keeping track of addresses for you, so you can work with meaningful names instead of “magic” numbers. Labels are literally that: a label ties a name to a specific location inside a section. A label resolves to a bank and address, determined at the same time as its parent section’s (peep further down in this section).

A label is defined by writing its name at the beginning of a line, followed by one or two colons, without any whitespace between the label name and the colon(s). Declaring a label (global or local) with two colons :: will define and EXPORT it at the same time. (See “Exporting and importing symbols” below). When defining a local label, the colon can be omitted, and rgbasm will act as if there was only one.

A label is said to be local if its name contains a dot .; otherwise, it is said to be global (not to be mistaken with “exported”, explained in “Exporting and importing symbols” below). More than one dot in label names is not allowed.

For convenience, local labels can use a shorthand syntax: when a symbol name starting with a dot is found (for example, inside an expression, or when declaring a label), then the current “label scope” is implicitly prepended.

Defining a global label sets it as the current “label scope”, until the next global label definition, or the end of the current section.

Here are some examples of label definitions:

GlobalLabel:
AnotherGlobal:
.locallabel ; This defines "AnotherGlobal.locallabel"
.another_local:
AnotherGlobal.with_another_local:
ThisWillBeExported:: ; Note the two colons
ThisWillBeExported.too::

In a numeric expression, a label evaluates to its address in memory. (To obtain its bank, use the BANK() function described in “Other functions”). For example, given the following, ld de, vPlayerTiles would be equivalent to ld de, $80C0 assuming the section ends up at $80C0:

SECTION "Player tiles", VRAM
vPlayerTiles:
    ds 6 * 16
.end

A label’s location (and thus value) is usually not determined until the linking stage, so labels usually cannot be used as constants. However, if the section in which the label is defined has a fixed base address, its value is known at assembly time.

Also, while rgbasm obviously can compute the difference between two labels if both are constant, it is also able to compute the difference between two non-constant labels if they both belong to the same section, such as PlayerTiles and PlayerTiles.end above.

🕶️ Anonymous labels 🕶️

Anonymous labels are useful for short blocks of code. They are defined like normal labels, but without a name before the colon. Anonymous labels are independent of label scoping, so defining one does not change the scoped label, and referencing one is not affected by the current scoped label.

Anonymous labels are referenced using a colon : followed by pluses + or minuses -. Thus :+ references the next one after the expression, :++ the one after that; :- references the one before the expression; and so on.

      ld hl, :++
  :   ld a, [hli] ; referenced by "jr nz"
      ldh [c], a
      dec c
      jr nz, :-
      ret

  :   ; referenced by "ld hl"
      dw $7FFF, $1061, $03E0, $58A5

🧮 Variables 🧮

An equal sign = is used to define mutable numeric symbols. Unlike the other symbols described below, variables can be redefined. This is useful for internal symbols in macros, for counters, etc.

DEF ARRAY_SIZE EQU 4
DEF COUNT = 2
DEF COUNT = 3
DEF COUNT = ARRAY_SIZE + COUNT
DEF COUNT *= 2
; COUNT now has the value 14

Note that colons : following the name are not allowed.

Variables can be conveniently redefined by compound assignment operators like in C:

+=, -= — compound plus/minus
*=, /=, %= — compound multiply/divide/modulo
<<=, >>= — compound shift left/right
&=, |=, ^= — compound and/or/xor

Examples:

DEF x = 10
DEF x += 1    ; x == 11
DEF y = x - 1 ; y == 10
DEF y *= 2    ; y == 20
DEF y >>= 1   ; y == 10
DEF x ^= y    ; x == 1

Declaring a variable with EXPORT DEF or EXPORT REDEF will define and EXPORT it at the same time. (See “Exporting and importing symbols” below).

🔢 Numeric constants 🔢

EQU is used to define numeric constant symbols. Unlike = above, constants defined this way cannot be redefined. These constants can be used for unchanging values such as properties of the hardware.

def SCREEN_WIDTH  equ 160 ; In pixels
def SCREEN_HEIGHT equ 144

Note that colons : following the name are not allowed.

If you really need to, the REDEF keyword will define or redefine a numeric constant symbol. (It can also be used for variables, although it’s not necessary since they are mutable.) This can be used, for example, to update a constant using a macro, without making it mutable in general.

    def NUM_ITEMS equ 0
MACRO add_item
    redef NUM_ITEMS equ NUM_ITEMS + 1
    def ITEM_{02x:NUM_ITEMS} equ \1
ENDM
    add_item 1
    add_item 4
    add_item 9
    add_item 16
    assert NUM_ITEMS == 4
    assert ITEM_04 == 16

Declaring a numeric constant with EXPORT DEF or EXPORT REDEF will define and EXPORT it at the same time. (See “Exporting and importing symbols” below).

🧱 Offset constants 🧱

The RS group of commands is a handy way of defining structure offsets:

RSRESET
DEF str_pStuff RW   1
DEF str_tData  RB   256
DEF str_bCount RB   1
DEF str_SIZEOF RB   0

The example defines four constants as if by:

DEF str_pStuff EQU 0
DEF str_tData  EQU 2
DEF str_bCount EQU 258
DEF str_SIZEOF EQU 259

There are five commands in the RS group of commands:

RSRESET — equivalent to RSSET 0.
RSSET constexpr — sets the _RS counter to constexpr.
DEF name RB constexpr — sets name to _RS and then adds constexpr to _RS.
DEF name RW constexpr — sets name to _RS and then adds constexpr * 2 to _RS.
DEF name RL constexpr — sets name to _RS and then adds constexpr * 4 to _RS.

If the constexpr argument to RB, RW, or RL is omitted, it’s assumed to be 1.

Note that colons : following the name are not allowed.

Declaring an offset constant with EXPORT DEF will define and EXPORT it at the same time. (See “Exporting and importing symbols” below).

🧵 String constants 🧵

EQUS is used to define string constant symbols. Wherever the assembler reads a string constant, it gets expanded: the symbol’s name is replaced with its contents, similarly to #define in the C programming language. This expansion is disabled in a few contexts: DEF(name), DEF name EQU/=/EQUS/etc ..., REDEF name EQU/=/EQUS/etc ..., FOR name, ..., PURGE name, and MACRO name will not expand string constants in their names. Expansion is also disabled if the string constant’s name is a raw identifier prefixed by a hash #.

    DEF COUNTREG EQUS "[hl+]"
        ld a, COUNTREG

    DEF PLAYER_NAME EQUS "\"John\""
        db PLAYER_NAME

This will be interpreted as:

    ld a, [hl+]
    db "John"

String constants can also be used to define small one-line macros:

DEF pusha EQUS "push af\npush bc\npush de\npush hl\n"

Note that colons : following the name are not allowed.

String constants, like numeric constants, cannot be redefined. However, the REDEF keyword will define or redefine a string constant symbol. For example:

DEF s EQUS "Hello, "
REDEF s EQUS "{s}world!"
; prints "Hello, world!"
PRINTLN "{s}\n"

String constants can’t be exported or imported.

🫶 important note, bestie: when a string constant is expanded, its expansion may contain another string constant, which will be expanded as well, and may be recursive. If this creates an infinite loop, rgbasm will error out once a certain depth is reached (see the -r command-line option in rgbasm(1)). The same problem can occur if the expansion of a string constant invokes a macro, which itself expands.

🪄 Macros 🪄

One of the best features of an assembler is the ability to write macros for it. Macros can be called with arguments, and can react depending on input using IF constructs.

MACRO my_macro
    ld a, 80
    call MyFunc
ENDM

The example above defines my_macro as a new macro. String constants are not expanded within the name of the macro.

Macros can’t be exported or imported.

Nesting macro definitions is not possible, so this won’t work:

MACRO outer
    MACRO inner
        PRINTLN "Hello!"
    ENDM ; this actually ends the 'outer' macro...
ENDM     ; ...and then this is a syntax error!

But you can work around this limitation using EQUS, so this will work:

MACRO outer
    DEF definition EQUS "MACRO inner\nPRINTLN \"Hello!\"\nENDM"
    definition
    PURGE definition
ENDM

More about how to define and invoke macros is described in “THE MACRO LANGUAGE” below.

📦 Exporting and importing symbols 📦

Importing and exporting of symbols is a feature that is very useful when your project spans many source files and, for example, you need to jump to a routine defined in another file.

Exporting of symbols has to be done manually, importing is done automatically if rgbasm finds a symbol it does not know about.

The following will cause symbol1, symbol2 and so on to be accessible to other files during the link process:

EXPORT symbol1 [, symbol2, ...]

For example, if you have the following three files:

a.asm:

SECTION "a", WRAM0
LabelA:

b.asm:

SECTION "b", WRAM0
ExportedLabelB1::
ExportedLabelB2:
    EXPORT ExportedLabelB2

c.asm:

SECTION "C", ROM0[0]
    dw LabelA
    dw ExportedLabelB1
    dw ExportedLabelB2

Then c.asm can use ExportedLabelB1 and ExportedLabelB2, but not LabelA, so linking them together will fail:

$ rgbasm -o a.o a.asm
$ rgbasm -o b.o b.asm
$ rgbasm -o c.o c.asm
$ rgblink a.o b.o c.o
error: Undefined symbol "LabelA"
    at c.asm(2)
Linking failed with 1 error

💀 and that's the link-time heartbreak, bestie.

🧹 Purging symbols

PURGE lets you completely remove a symbol from the symbol table, as if it had never been defined. It's giving "factory reset but make it one symbol" energy. 💅

DEF value EQU 42
PURGE value
DEF value EQUS "I'm a string now"
ASSERT DEF(value)
PURGE value
ASSERT !DEF(value)

Careful, bestie: be very careful when purging symbols that have been referenced in section data, or that have been exported, because it could result in unpredictable errors if something depends on the missing symbol (for example, expressions the linker needs to calculate). Purging labels at all is not recommended.

String constants are not expanded within the symbol names. 🫶

🌟 Predeclared symbols

The assembler defines these symbols for you, already loaded and iconic:

@ — type EQU, contents: PC value (essentially, the current memory address)
. — type EQUS, contents: The current global label scope
.. — type EQUS, contents: The current local label scope
__SCOPE__ — type EQUS, contents: The innermost current label scope level (empty, ., or ..)
_RS — type =, contents: _RS Counter
_NARG — type EQU, contents: Number of arguments passed to macro, updated by SHIFT
__ISO_8601_LOCAL__ — type EQUS, contents: ISO 8601 timestamp (local)
__ISO_8601_UTC__ — type EQUS, contents: ISO 8601 timestamp (UTC)
__UTC_YEAR__ — type EQU, contents: Today's year
__UTC_MONTH__ — type EQU, contents: Today's month number, 1–12
__UTC_DAY__ — type EQU, contents: Today's day of the month, 1–31
__UTC_HOUR__ — type EQU, contents: Current hour, 0–23
__UTC_MINUTE__ — type EQU, contents: Current minute, 0–59
__UTC_SECOND__ — type EQU, contents: Current second, 0–59
__RGBDS_MAJOR__ — type EQU, contents: Major version number of RGBDS
__RGBDS_MINOR__ — type EQU, contents: Minor version number of RGBDS
__RGBDS_PATCH__ — type EQU, contents: Patch version number of RGBDS
__RGBDS_RC__ — type EQU, contents: Release candidate ID of RGBDS, not defined for final releases
__RGBDS_VERSION__ — type EQUS, contents: Version of RGBDS, as printed by rgbasm --version

The current time values will be taken from the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable if that is defined as a UNIX timestamp. Refer to the spec at reproducible-builds.org: https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/source-date-epoch/. ⏰

💾 DEFINING DATA

📦 Defining constant data in ROM

DB defines a list of bytes that will be stored in the final image. Ideal for tables and text.

DB 1,2,3,4,"This is a string"

Alternatively, you can use DW to store a list of words (16-bit) or DL to store a list of double-words/longs (32-bit). Both of these write their data in little-endian byte order; for example, dw $CAFE is equivalent to db $FE, $CA and not db $CA, $FE.

Strings are handled a little specially: they first undergo charmap conversion (see “Character maps”), then each resulting character is output individually. For example, under the default charmap, the following two lines are identical:

DW "Hello!"
DW "H", "e", "l", "l", "o", "!"

If you do not want this special handling, enclose the string in parentheses.

DS can also be used to fill a region of memory with some repeated values. For example:

; outputs 3 bytes: $AA, $AA, $AA
DS 3, $AA
; outputs 7 bytes: $BB, $CC, $BB, $CC, $BB, $CC, $BB
DS 7, $BB, $CC

You can also use DB, DW and DL without arguments. This works exactly like DS 1, DS 2 and DS 4 respectively. Consequently, no-argument DB, DW and DL can be used in a WRAM0 / WRAMX / HRAM / VRAM / SRAM section. ✨

🧷 Including binary data files

You probably have some graphics, level data, etc. you'd like to include. Use INCBIN to include a raw binary file as it is. If the file isn't found in the current directory, the include-path list passed to rgbasm(1)'s -I option on the command line will be searched.

INCBIN "titlepic.bin"
INCBIN "sprites/hero.bin"

You can also include only part of a file with INCBIN. The example below includes 256 bytes from data.bin, starting from byte 78.

INCBIN "data.bin", 78, 256

The length argument is optional. If only the start position is specified, the bytes from the start position until the end of the file will be included. 🎀

🧮 Statically allocating space in RAM

DS statically allocates a number of empty bytes. This is the preferred method of allocating space in a RAM section. You can also use DB, DW and DL without any arguments instead (see “Defining constant data in ROM” below).

DS 42 ; Allocates 42 bytes

Empty space in RAM sections will not be initialized. In ROM sections, it will be filled with the value passed to the -p command-line option, except when using overlays with -O. 🫶

Instead of an exact number of bytes, you can specify ALIGN[align, offset] to allocate however many bytes are required to align the subsequent data. Thus, DS ALIGN[align, offset], ... is equivalent to DS n, ... followed by ALIGN[align, offset], where n is the minimum value needed to satisfy the ALIGN constraint (see “Requesting alignment” below). Note that ALIGN[align] is a shorthand for ALIGN[align, 0].

🫂 Allocating overlapping spaces in RAM

Unions allow multiple static memory allocations to overlap, like unions in C. This does not increase the amount of memory available, but allows re-using the same memory region for different purposes.

A union starts with a UNION keyword, and ends at the corresponding ENDU keyword. NEXTU separates each block of allocations, and you may use it as many times within a union as necessary.

; Let's say PC == $C0DE here
UNION
    ; Here, PC == $C0DE
    wName:: ds 10
    ; Now, PC == $C0E8
    wNickname:: ds 10
    ; PC == $C0F2
NEXTU
    ; PC is back to $C0DE
    wHealth:: dw
    ; PC == $C0E0
    wLives:: db
    ; PC == $C0E1
    ds 7
    ; PC == $C0E8
    wBonus:: db
    ; PC == $C0E9
NEXTU
    ; PC is back to $C0DE again
    wVideoBuffer: ds 16
    ; PC == $C0EE
ENDU
; Afterward, PC == $C0F2

In the example above, wName, wHealth, and wVideoBuffer all have the same value; so do wNickname and wBonus. Thus, keep in mind that ld [wHealth], a assembles to the exact same instruction as ld [wName], a.

This whole union's total size is 20 bytes, the size of the largest block (the first one, containing wName and wNickname). 🧠

Unions may be nested, with each inner union's size being determined as above, and affecting its outer union like any other allocation.

Unions may be used in any section, but they may only contain space-allocating directives like DS (see “Statically allocating space in RAM”).

🎯 Requesting alignment

While ALIGN as presented in “SECTIONS” is often useful as-is, sometimes you instead want a particular piece of data (or code) in the middle of the section to be aligned. This is made easier through the use of mid-section ALIGN align, offset. It will retroactively alter the section's attributes to ensure that the location the ALIGN directive is at, has its align lower bits equal to offset.

If the constraint cannot be met (for example because the section is fixed at an incompatible address), an error is produced. Note that ALIGN align is a shorthand for ALIGN align, 0.

There may be times when you don't just want to specify an alignment constraint at the current location, but also skip ahead until the constraint can be satisfied. In that case, you can use DS ALIGN[align, offset] to allocate however many bytes are required to align the subsequent data.

If the constraint cannot be met by skipping any amount of space, an error is produced. Note that ALIGN[align] is a shorthand for ALIGN[align, 0]. 🌈

🧚 THE MACRO LANGUAGE

📣 Invoking macros

A macro is invoked by using its name at the beginning of a line, like a directive, followed by any comma-separated arguments.

add a, b
ld sp, hl
my_macro      ; This will be expanded
sub a, 87
my_macro 42   ; So will this
ret c
my_macro 1, 2 ; And this

After rgbasm has read the macro invocation line, it will expand the body of the macro (the lines between MACRO and ENDM) in its place.

Important note: When a macro body is expanded, its expansion may contain another macro invocation, which will be expanded as well, and may be recursive. If this creates an infinite loop, rgbasm will error out once a certain depth is reached (see the -r command-line option in rgbasm(1)). The same problem can occur if the expansion of a macro then expands a string constant, which itself expands. 😭

It's possible to pass arguments to macros as well!

MACRO lb
    ld \1, (\2) << 8 | (\3)
ENDM
    lb hl, 20, 18        ; Expands to "ld hl, (20) << 8 | (18)"
    lb de, 3 + 1, NUM**2 ; Expands to "ld de, (3 + 1) << 8 | (NUM**2)"

You expand the arguments inside the macro body by using the escape sequences \1 through \9, \1 being the first argument, \2 being the second, and so on. Since there are only nine digits, you can only use the first nine macro arguments that way. To use the rest, you put the argument number in angle brackets, like \<10>.

This bracketed syntax supports decimal numbers and numeric symbols, where negative values count from the last argument. For example, \<_NARG> or \<-1> will get the last argument.

Other macro arguments and symbol interpolations will also be expanded inside the angle brackets. For example, if \1 is 13, then \<\1> inside the macro body will expand to \<13>. Or if DEF v10 = 42 and DEF x = 10, then \<v{d:x}> will expand to \<42>.

Macro arguments are passed as string constants, although there's no need to enclose them in quotes. Thus, arguments are not evaluated as expressions, but instead are expanded directly inside the macro body. This means that they support all the escape sequences of strings (see “String expressions” above), as well as some of their own:

\, — a literal comma, and it does not end the argument
\( — open parenthesis, and it does not kick off enclosing-argument contents
\) — close parenthesis, and it does not wrap up enclosing-argument contents

Line continuations work as usual inside macros or inside lists of macro arguments. But some characters need escaping first, like in this little demo:

MACRO PrintMacro1
    PRINTLN STRCAT(\1)
ENDM
    PrintMacro1 "Hello "\, \
                "world"
MACRO PrintMacro2
    PRINT \1
ENDM
    PrintMacro2 STRCAT("Hello ", \
                       "world\n")

Okay so the comma in PrintMacro1 has to be escaped, otherwise it starts another macro argument and everything falls apart 😭. The comma in PrintMacro2 is fine as-is because it's chilling inside parentheses — same energy as macro arguments in the C programming language, iykyk. And the backslash in \n doesn't need escaping either, because quoted string literals behave totally normally inside macro arguments. slay.

Since macro arguments get expanded directly (no protection, no buffer, no vibes), it's often a genuinely good idea to wrap them in parentheses if they're meant to be part of a numeric expression. Watch what happens:

MACRO print_double
    PRINTLN \1 * 3
ENDM
    print_double 1 + 2

The body expands to PRINTLN 1 + 2 * 3, which prints 7, not 9 like you were probably expecting. math girlies stay losing 💀

The SHIFT directive is only available inside macro bodies. It shifts the argument numbers by one to the left, so what was \2 is now \1, what was \3 is now \2, and so forth. (What was \1 is no longer accessible, so _NARG is decreased by 1.) Literally just a little slide to the left ✨

SHIFT can also take an integer parameter to shift that many times instead of once. A negative parameter will shift the arguments to the right, which can regain access to previously shifted ones — iconic comeback behaviour tbh.

SHIFT is especially useful in REPT loops to iterate over different arguments, evaluating the same loop body each time.

There are some escape sequences that are only valid inside the body of a macro:

\1 – \9 — the 1st–9th macro argument
\<...> — further macro arguments
\# — all _NARG macro arguments, separated by commas
\@ — unique symbol name affix (more on this below)

The \@ escape sequence is often useful in macros that define symbols. Suppose your macro expands to a loop of assembly code:

MACRO loop_c_times
    xor a, a
.loop
    ld [hl+], a
    dec c
    jr nz, .loop
ENDM

If you use this macro more than once in the same label scope, it will define .loop twice, which is an error. Rude. To work around this problem, you can use \@ as a label suffix:

MACRO loop_c_times_fixed
    xor a, a
.loop\@
    ld [hl+], a
    dec c
    jr nz, .loop\@
ENDM

This will expand to a different value in each invocation, similar to gensym in the Lisp programming language. she's basically a fresh username generator 🫶

\@ also works in REPT blocks, expanding to a different value in each iteration.

✨ Automatically repeating blocks of code ✨

Suppose you want to unroll a time-consuming loop without copy-pasting it like some kind of gremlin. REPT is here for that purpose bestie. Everything between REPT and the matching ENDR will be repeated a number of times, just as if you had done a copy/paste operation yourself. This example will assemble add a, c four times:

REPT 4
    add a, c
ENDR

You can also use REPT to generate tables on the fly:

; Generate a table of square values from 0**2 = 0 to 100**2 = 10000
DEF x = 0
REPT 101
    dw x * x
    DEF x += 1
ENDR

As in macros, you can also use the escape sequence \@. REPT blocks can be nested 🪆

A common pattern is to repeat a block for each value in some range. FOR is simpler than REPT for that purpose. Everything between FOR and the matching ENDR will be repeated for each value of a given symbol. String constants are not expanded within the symbol name. For example, this code will produce a table of squared values from 0 to 255:

FOR N, 256
    dw N * N
ENDR

It acts just as if you had done:

DEF N = 0
    dw N * N
DEF N = 1
    dw N * N
DEF N = 2
    dw N * N
; ...
DEF N = 255
    dw N * N
DEF N = 256

You can customize the range of FOR values, similarly to the range function in the Python programming language 🐍

FOR V, stop — V increments from 0 to stop
FOR V, start, stop — V increments from start to stop
FOR V, start, stop, step — V goes from start to stop by step

The FOR value will be updated by step until it reaches or exceeds stop, i.e. it covers the half-open range from start (inclusive) to stop (exclusive). The variable V will be assigned this value at the beginning of each new iteration; any changes made to it within the FOR loop's body will be overwritten. So the symbol V need not be already defined before any iterations of the FOR loop, but it must be a variable (see "Variables") if so. For example:

FOR V, 4, 25, 5
    PRINT "{d:V} "
    DEF V *= 2
ENDR
    PRINTLN "done {d:V}"

This will print:

4 9 14 19 24 done 29

Just like with REPT blocks, you can use the escape sequence \@ inside of FOR blocks, and they can be nested ✨

You can stop a repeating block with the BREAK command. A BREAK inside of a REPT or FOR block will interrupt the current iteration and not repeat any more. It will continue running code after the block's ENDR. For example:

FOR V, 1, 100
    PRINT "{d:V}"
    IF V == 5
        PRINT " stop! "
        BREAK
    ENDC
    PRINT ", "
ENDR
    PRINTLN "done {d:V}"

This will print:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 stop! done 5

🌸 Conditionally assembling blocks of code 🌸

The four commands IF, ELIF, ELSE, and ENDC let you have rgbasm skip over parts of your code depending on a condition. This is a powerful feature commonly used in macros.

IF NUM < 0
  PRINTLN "NUM < 0"
ELIF NUM == 0
  PRINTLN "NUM == 0"
ELSE
  PRINTLN "NUM > 0"
ENDC

The ELIF (standing for "else if") and ELSE blocks are optional. IF / ELIF / ELSE / ENDC blocks can be nested.

Heads up bestie ⚠️ note that if an ELSE block is found before an ELIF block, the ELIF block will be ignored. All ELIF blocks must go before the ELSE block. Also, if there is more than one ELSE block, all of them but the first one are ignored. order matters, periodt 💅

🦋 Including other source files 🦋

Use INCLUDE to process another assembler file and then return to the current file when done. If the file isn't found in the current directory, the include-path list passed to rgbasm(1)'s -I option on the command line will be searched. You may nest INCLUDE calls infinitely (or until you run out of memory, whichever comes first) 😭

INCLUDE "irq.inc"

You may also implicitly INCLUDE a file before the source file with the -P option of rgbasm(1).

🎀 Printing things during assembly 🎀

The PRINT and PRINTLN commands print text and values to the standard output. Useful for debugging macros, or wherever you may feel the need to tell yourself some important information 💬

PRINT "Hello world!\n"
PRINTLN "Hello world!"
PRINT _NARG, " arguments\n"
PRINTLN "sum: ", 2+3, " product: ", 2*3
PRINTLN STRFMT("E = %f", 2.718)

PRINT prints out each of its comma-separated arguments. Numbers are printed as unsigned uppercase hexadecimal with a leading $. For different formats, use STRFMT.

PRINTLN prints out each of its comma-separated arguments, if any, followed by a newline (\n).

🔥 Aborting the assembly process 🔥

FAIL and WARN can be used to print errors and warnings respectively during the assembly process. This is especially useful for macros that get an invalid argument. FAIL and WARN take a string as the only argument and they will print this string out as a normal error with a line number.

FAIL stops assembling immediately while WARN shows the message but continues afterwards.

If you need to ensure some assumption is correct when compiling, you can use ASSERT and STATIC_ASSERT. Syntax examples are given below:

Function:
    xor a
ASSERT LOW(MyByte) == 0
    ld h, HIGH(MyByte)
    ld l, a
    ld a, [hli]
; You can also indent this!
    ASSERT BANK(OtherFunction) == BANK(Function)
    call OtherFunction
; Lowercase also works
    ld hl, FirstByte
    ld a, [hli]
assert FirstByte + 1 == SecondByte
    ld b, [hl]
    ret
.end
    ; If you specify one, a message will be printed
    STATIC_ASSERT .end - Function < 256, "Function is too large!"

First, the difference between ASSERT and STATIC_ASSERT is that the former is evaluated by RGBASM if it can, otherwise by RGBLINK; but the latter is only ever evaluated by RGBASM. If RGBASM cannot compute the value of the argument to STATIC_ASSERT, it will produce an error. no cap, she will not let that slide 🙈

Second, as shown above, a string can be optionally added at the end, to give insight into what the assertion is checking.

Finally, you can add one of WARN, FAIL or FATAL as the first optional argument to either ASSERT or STATIC_ASSERT. If the assertion fails, WARN will cause a simple warning (controlled by rgbasm(1) flag -Wassert) to be emitted; FAIL (the default) will cause a non-fatal error; and FATAL immediately aborts 💀

🦋 MISCELLANEOUS 🦋

💅 Changing options while assembling

okay so OPT is literally the glow-up of the century — it lets you change some of the options during assembling from inside the source itself, instead of having to define them on the command-line. (peep rgbasm(1) for the deets ✨)

OPT takes a comma-separated list of options as its argument, no cap:

PUSHO
    OPT g.oOX, Wdiv       ; acts like command-line `-g.oOX -Wdiv`
    OPT -Wdiv             ; dashes before the options are optional
    DW `..ooOOXX          ; uses the graphics constant characters from OPT g
    PRINTLN $80000000/-1  ; prints a warning about division
POPO
    DW `00112233          ; uses the default graphics constant characters
    PRINTLN $80000000/-1  ; no warning by default

OPT can modify the options b, g, p, Q, r, and W. that's the whole list bestie, don't try anything else 💀

POPO and PUSHO are the interface to the option stack. PUSHO pushes the current set of options onto the option stack. Then POPO can be used later to restore them. it's giving "save state before you do something chaotic" 🎀 super useful if you want to change some options in an include file and you don't want to destroy the options set by the program that included your file. the stack's number of entries is limited only by the amount of memory in your machine — so like… limitless vibes, iykyk 🫶

PUSHO can also take a comma-separated list of options, to push the current set and apply the argument set at the same time:

PUSHO b.#, g.oO#
    DB %..####..
    DW `..ooOO##
POPO

🕵️♀️ Excluding locations from backtraces

Errors and warnings print backtraces showing the location in the source file where the problem occurred, tracing the origin of the problem even through a chain of REPT, FOR, MACRO, and INCLUDE locations. it's the receipts trail fr fr 🔥

Sometimes there are locations you would like to ignore — for example, a common utility macro when you only care about the line where the macro is used, or an INCLUDE file that only serves to include other files and is just filler in the backtrace. lowkey annoying, we know 🙈

In those cases, you can silence a location with a question mark ‘?’ after the token: all of the locations created by a ‘REPT?’, ‘FOR?’, or ‘MACRO?’ will not be printed, and any location created by an ‘INCLUDE?’, or a macro invocation whose name is immediately followed by a ‘?’, will not be printed. iconic tbh

For example, if this were assembled as ‘example.asm’:

MACRO lb
    assert -128 <= (\2) && (\2) < 256, "\2 is not a byte"
    assert -128 <= (\3) && (\3) < 256, "\3 is not a byte"
    ld \1, (LOW(\2) << 8) | LOW(\3)
ENDM
SECTION "Code", ROM0
    lb hl, $123, $45

This would print an error backtrace:

error: Assertion failed: $123 is not a byte
    at example.asm::lb(2)
    <- example.asm(7)

But if ‘MACRO’ were changed to ‘MACRO?’, or ‘lb hl’ were changed to ‘lb? hl’, then the error backtrace would not mention the location within the ‘lb’ macro:

error: Assertion failed: $123 is not a byte
    at example.asm(7)

clean. minimal. ate. 💅

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

go read them all bestie, they're all bangers ⭐

🌸 HISTORY 🌸

rgbasm(1) was originally written by Carsten Sørensen as part of the ASMotor package, and was later repackaged in RGBDS by Justin Lloyd. it's now maintained by a number of contributors at https://github.com/gbdev/rgbds 🫶 shoutout to the whole squad, real ones fr fr 👑

okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially an rgbasm scholar 🎓✨ this was the Debian build, dated September 22, 2026, and the page itself is RGBASM(5) — go forth and assemble, you absolute icon 💖👑

📦 where this page comes from

arch rolling: rgbds 1.0.4-1 · MIT
nixpkgs unstable: rgbds 1.0.4
📜 the page's license: MIT
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms