Zig powers a Game Boy Advance game

The author pushed a Game Boy Advance (GBA) ROM built entirely in Zig 0.12.0 to GitHub on June 12, 2026 [Lobsters]. The repository contains a single source file, ~1,200 lines of Zig code, and a Makefile that invokes zig build to produce a 256 KB .gba image ready for flash cartridges. The shipped ROM boots on original GBA hardware and displays a side-scrolling platformer at 60 fps [Lobsters]. The game uses the GBA’s tiled-mode graphics, sound DMA, and button input without any external C libraries. The build script links against the public libgba headers, but all logic—including sprite animation and collision detection—is written in Zig. The author reports a binary size of 184 KB, well under the 256 KB cartridge limit, and a RAM footprint of roughly 2 KB during gameplay [Lobsters]. The source includes a CI workflow that runs the mgba emulator on each push to verify that the ROM loads and the main loop executes without crashes. According to the Zig Blog, Zig 0.12.0 introduces several features that make it suitable for embedded development [Zig Blog]. By compiling directly to ARM7TDMI machine code, Zig bypasses the need for a C toolchain, simplifying the build process for embedded developers. The project showcases Zig’s compile-time metaprogramming, where the author leverages comptime to generate lookup tables for tile maps, eliminating runtime overhead and keeping the RAM usage minimal [Lobsters]. Open-sourcing a retro title lowers the barrier for hobbyists, providing a ready-made template that other developers can fork to create their own GBA games, potentially expanding Zig’s community beyond desktop and server use cases.