A marble shooter for the Game Boy Advance, in the style of Zuma.

Made with AI: this game was built with Claude, Anthropic's AI model, using Claude Code. The code, artwork, music and documentation were written by Claude, directed and playtested by @hjcoggan. See AI disclosure below.

Download zoomer-gba.gba from the latest release and open it in any GBA emulator (mGBA is recommended) or on a flash cart. No building needed.

You need devkitPro's GBA toolchain, make and git. Python 3 is only needed if you change the artwork (make assets).

1. Download and run the devkitPro pacman installer (.pkg) from https://github.com/devkitPro/pacman/releases, then install the GBA tools:

   sudo dkp-pacman -S gba-dev

2. Add the toolchain to your shell (append to ~/.zshrc, then source ~/.zshrc):

   export DEVKITPRO=/opt/devkitpro
   export DEVKITARM=$DEVKITPRO/devkitARM
   export PATH=$DEVKITPRO/tools/bin:$DEVKITARM/bin:$PATH

3. Install mGBA: brew install --cask mgba

4. Build and run:

   git clone https://github.com/hjcoggan/zoomer-gba.git ~/zoomer-gba
   cd ~/zoomer-gba
   make
   open -a mGBA zoomer-gba.gba

1. Download the graphical installer (devkitProUpdater) from https://github.com/devkitPro/installer/releases and run it. When it asks which components to install, tick GBA Development. It installs to C:\devkitPro and sets the DEVKITPRO/DEVKITARM variables for you.

2. Open MSYS2 from the devkitPro folder in the Start menu (a bash shell that comes with devkitPro, with make and git) and build:

   git clone https://github.com/hjcoggan/zoomer-gba.git
   cd zoomer-gba
   make

   If git is missing, install it with pacman -S git.

3. Install mGBA from https://mgba.io/downloads.html and open zoomer-gba.gba with it (or drag the file onto the mGBA window).

1. Install devkitPro pacman. On Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives:

   wget https://apt.devkitpro.org/install-devkitpro-pacman
   chmod +x ./install-devkitpro-pacman
   sudo ./install-devkitpro-pacman

   On Arch and other distros, follow https://devkitpro.org/wiki/devkitPro_pacman.

2. Install the GBA tools, then log out and back in (or run source /etc/profile.d/devkit-env.sh) so the environment variables are set:

   sudo dkp-pacman -S gba-dev

   On Arch-based systems the command is sudo pacman -S gba-dev after adding the devkitPro repositories.

3. Install mGBA: sudo apt install mgba-qt, or from Flathub with flatpak install flathub io.mgba.mGBA.

4. Build and run:

   git clone https://github.com/hjcoggan/zoomer-gba.git
   cd zoomer-gba
   make
   mgba-qt zoomer-gba.gba

The ball-chain logic has host-side tests that build with your normal C compiler:

make test

• Adventure - six track layouts and five Aztec themes (jungle, temple, night, volcano, jade); the combination changes every level and only repeats after 30 levels.
• Endless - the classic spiral track with a random theme and a chain that never stops; it speeds up every 15 seconds and adds a fifth color after 90 seconds.

High scores and settings are saved to cartridge SRAM (a .sav file in emulators).

The aim and shoot/swap buttons can be swapped in Settings (main menu or pause menu).

source/main.c     Game loop, input, rendering (sprites + tile backgrounds)
source/chain.c    Ball chain logic: spawning, pushing, matching, roll-back combos
source/sound.c    Music and sound effects on the GBA's PSG channels
source/ui.c       Text, panels and menus
source/save.c     High scores and settings in SRAM
source/assets*.c  Generated: track layouts, level images, palettes, tiles, font
include/          Headers (gba.h has the hardware registers)
tools/gen_assets.py  Defines the track layouts and draws all artwork, writing
                     assets*.c/assets.h plus build/preview_*.png
tests/            Host-side tests for the chain logic

There are five songs, one per level theme (endless mode picks one at random). They are written as note names in the songs table in source/sound.c, so they are easy to edit.

No libraries are needed beyond devkitARM. After editing the artwork or track in tools/gen_assets.py, run make assets. Run the logic tests with make test.

Nearly everything in this repository was generated by Claude (Anthropic) in Claude Code sessions: the C source, the build setup, the tests, the procedural artwork generator, the music and sound effects, and this README. A human chose the features, played the builds and reported what to change. Commits written this way carry a Co-Authored-By: Claude trailer.

The code has host-side tests for the ball-chain logic and has been played in the mGBA emulator, but it has not been reviewed line by line by a person, so expect rough edges. Bug reports and pull requests are welcome.

MIT - do whatever you like with it. All code, art and music in this repo is original; the artwork is generated by tools/gen_assets.py.

This is an unofficial fan project inspired by PopCap's Zuma. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by PopCap Games or Electronic Arts.