GameBoy Opcode Summary

The GameBoy has instructions & registers similiar to the 8080, 8085, & Z80 microprocessors. The internal 8-bit registers are A, B, C, D, E, F, H, & L. Theses registers may be used in pairs for 16-bit operations as AF, BC, DE, & HL. The two remaining 16-bit registers are the program counter (PC) and the stack pointer (SP).

The F register holds the cpu flags. The operation of these flags is identical to their Z80 relative. The lower four bits of this register always read zero even if written with a one.

The GameBoy CPU is based on a subset of the Z80 microprocessor. A summary of these commands is given below.

8-Bit Loads

LD r,s	r s	s=r,n,(HL)	r=4, n=8, (HL)=8
LD d,r	d r	d=r,(HL)	r=4, (HL)=8
LD d,n	d n		r=8, (HL)=12
LD A,(ss)	A (ss)	ss=BC,DE,HL,nn	[BC,DE,HL]=8, nn=16
LD (dd),A	(dd) A	dd=BC,DE,HL,nn
LD A,(C)	A ($FF00+C)	-	8
LD (C),A	($FF00+C) A		8
LDD A,(HL)	A (HL), HL HL - 1		8
LDD (HL),A	(HL) A, HL HL - 1		8
LDI A,(HL)	A (HL), HL HL + 1		8
LDI (HL),A	(HL) A, HL HL + 1		8
LDH (n),A	($FF00+n) A		12
LDH A,(n)	A ($FF00+n)		12

16-Bit Loads

LD dd,nn	dd nn	dd=BC,DE,HL,SP	12	-	-	-	-
LD (nn),SP	(nn) SP	-	20
LD SP,HL	SP HL		8
LD HL,(SP+e)	HL (SP+e)		12	0	0	*	*
PUSH ss	(SP-1) ssh, (SP-2) ssl, SPSP-2	ss=BC,DE,HL,AF	16	-	-	-	-
POP dd	ddl (SP), ddh (SP+1), SPSP+2	dd=BC,DE,HL,AF	12

8-Bit ALU

ADD A,s	A A + s	CY is the carry flag. s=r,n,(HL)	r=4, n=8, (HL)=8	*	0	*	*
ADC A,s	A A + s + CY
SUB s	A A - s			*	1	*	*
SBC A,s	A A - s - CY
AND s	A A s			*	0	1	0
OR s	A A s			*	0	0	0
XOR s	A A s
CP s	A - s			*	1	*	*
INC s	s s + 1	s=r,(HL)	r=4, (HL)=12	*	0	*	-
DEC s	s s - 1			*	1	*	-

16-Bit Arithmetic

ADD HL,ss	HL HL + ss	ss=BC,DE,HL,SP	8	-	0	*	*
ADD SP,e	SP SP + e		16	0	0	*	*
INC ss	ss ss + 1		8	-	-	-	-
DEC ss	ss ss - 1		8

Miscellaneous

SWAP s		Swap nibbles. s=r,(HL)	r=8, (HL)=16	*	0	0	0
DAA	Converts A into packed BCD.	-	4	*	-	0	*
CPL	A /A		4	-	1	1	-
CCF	CY /CY	CY is the carry flag.	4	-	0	0	*
SCF	CY 1		4	-	0	0	1
NOP	No operation.	-	4	-	-	-	-
HALT	Halt CPU until an interrupt occurs.		4
STOP	Halt CPU.		4
DI	Disable Interrupts.		4
EI	Enable Interrupts.		4

Rotates & Shifts

RLCA			4	0	0	0	*
RLA
RRCA
RRA
RLC s		s=A,r,(HL)	r=8, (HL)=16	*	0	0	*
RL s
RRC s
RR s
SLA s		s=r,(HL)	r=8, (HL)=16
SRA s
SRL s

Bit Opcodes

BIT b,s	Z /sb	Z is zero flag. s=r,(HL)	r=8, (HL)=12	*	0	1	-
SET b,s	sb 1		r=8, (HL)=16	-	-	-	-
RES b,s	sb 0

Jumps

JP nn	PC nn	-	16
JP cc,nn	If cc is true, PC nn, else continue.		If cc is true, 16 else 12.
JP (HL)	PC HL		4
JR e	PC PC + e		12
JR cc,e	if cc is true, PC PC + e, else continue.		If cc is true, 12 else 8.

Calls

CALL nn	(SP-1) PCh, (SP-2) PCl, PC nn, SPSP-2	-	24
CALL cc,nn	If condition cc is false continue, else same as CALL nn.		If cc is true, 24 else 12.

Restarts

RST f

(SP-1) PCh, (SP-2) PCl, PCh 0, PCl f, SPSP-2

-

16

Returns

RET	pcl (SP), pch (SP+1), SPSP+2	-	16
RET cc	If cc is true, RET else continue.		If cc is true, 20 else 8.
RETI	Return then enable interrupts.		16

Terminology