README.md

Boytacean

A Game Boy emulator that is written in Rust .

This emulator has been written for educational purposes and shouldn't be taken too seriously. But yeahh it plays games, which is cool...

Features

• Supports Game Boy (DMG) emulation
• Simple navigable source-code
• Web and SDL front-ends
• Support for multiple MBCs: MBC1, MBC2, MBC3, and MBC5
• Variable CPU clock speed

For the web front-end...

• Mobile first experience
• Transparent RAM saving using Web Storage API
• GamePad support using Web Gamepad API
• Unobstructive on-screen GamePad
• Cool bespoke display palettes built by TheWolfBunny64.
• Fullscreen mode
• Debug mode - VRAM and registers

Deployments

Provider	Stable	URL
Cloudfare	True	boytacean.pages.dev
Cloudfare	True	prod.boytacean.pages.dev
Cloudfare	True	stable.boytacean.pages.dev
Cloudfare	False	master.boytacean.pages.dev

Build

WASM for Node.js

cargo install wasm-pack
wasm-pack build --release --target=nodejs -- --features wasm

WASM for Web

cargo install wasm-pack
wasm-pack build --release --target=web --out-dir=examples/web/lib -- --features wasm
cd examples/web
npm install && npm run build
cd dist && python3 -m http.server

Web version

You can use some GET parameters to control the initial behaviour of the emulator.

Parameter	Type	Description
rom_url	String	The URL from which the initial ROM is going to be loaded, should support CORS.
url	String	The same as url.
fullscreen	Boolean	If the emulator should start in fullscreen mode.
debug	Boolean	If the "debugger" should start visible.
keyboard	Boolean	If the on screen keyboard should start visible.
palette	String	The name of the palette to be set at startup( eg: christmas, hogwards, mariobros, etc.).

Palettes

The palettes offered in the web version were provided by TheWolfBunny64.

Inspiration

Documentation

• Game Boy Development community
• Game Boy - Pan Docs
• GameBoy Emulation in JavaScript
• POKEGB: a gameboy emulator that only plays Pokémon blue
• Game Boy CPU Opcodes
• Codeslinger - Game Boy
• Game Boy hardware database

ROMs

• GitHub - c-sp/gameboy-test-roms

Emulators

• GitHub - LIJI32/SameBoy (C)
• GitHub - binji/binjgb (C)
• GitHub - Rodrigodd/gameroy (Rust)
• GitHub - simias/gb-rs (Rust)
• GitHub - RubenG123/frosty (Rust)
• GitHub - feo-boy/feo-boy (Rust)
• GitHub - calvinbaart/gameboy (TypeScript)

Videos

• YouTube - The Ultimate Game Boy Talk (33c3)

Other

• GitHub - gbdev/awesome-gbdev
• GitHub - Hacktix/Bootix

License

Boyacian is currently licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.