mmlgb

A MML parser and GBDK sound driver for the Nintendo Game Boy.

Please refer to the MMLGB Wiki for additional information regarding usage.

Dependencies

GBDK
- gbdk/bin should also be added to PATH/Environment Variables.
.NET SDK (C#)
- Required to build the cross-platform C# parser (MMLGB.dll).
- You must have the dotnet CLI available in your terminal (dotnet --version to check).
Python 3.x
- Required to run compile.py and scripts/dist.py.

Create or place your .mml file directly in the music/ directory.
- Feel free to check out the included examples for studying purposes!)
Run python compile.py your_file.mml in Terminal/Command Prompt to compile rom.gb. This works identically on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Add --launch to automatically open rom.gb in an emulator once compiled:
  - Windows: launches BGB, for accuracy. Point the BGB_PATH environment variable at your bgb.exe.
  - macOS: launches SameBoy, expected to be installed at /Applications/SameBoy.app.
  - Linux: launches SameBoy via the sameboy command on your PATH (or set SAMEBOY_PATH to point at a specific binary/AppImage).

Run python scripts/dist.py <platform> [<platform> ...] or python scripts/dist.py all.
- Supported platforms: win-x64, win-x86, linux-x64, osx-x64, osx-arm64.
- Each platform produces its own self-contained distribution. End users don't need the .NET runtime installed.
- This can be run from any OS (Windows, macOS, or Linux) as long as GBDK and the .NET SDK are installed: It cross-compiles the parser for whichever platform(s) you request.
The distributable file(s) will be in the dist directory, one timestamped .zip per platform (e.g. mmlgb-osx-arm64-2026-07-23-101500.zip).

mmlgb Source Code - MIT

All demo songs & art - CC BY-NC 4.0