Someone made a Game Boy emulator for the Apple Watch

By Brad Jones March 21, 2017

giovanni apple watch game boy — Gabriel O'Flaherty-Chan

In the 1990s, the Game Boy was the height of portable gaming, but today it’s easier than ever to cram hardware into a tiny form factor. To demonstrate that fact, a developer has set about creating a Game Boy emulator for the Apple Watch, allowing users to play the handheld’s library from their wrist.

Gabriel O’Flaherty-Chan named his emulator Giovanni, after the villainous leader of Team Rocket from Pokemon Red and Blue. The software gives the Apple Watch Series 2 the ability to play most Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, according to a report from Ars Technica.

Admittedly, the hardware isn’t a perfect fit for the extended Game Boy library. Some title aren’t compatible, and those that are rely on a slightly uncomfortable control scheme intended to make up for the Apple Watch’s lack of physical buttons.

Users manipulate a virtual control pad with the left hand side of the screen, while tapping the right hand side of the screen registers as a press of the A button. A row of on-screen buttons allow users to press Start, Select, and the B button, and the Digital Crown can also be used to enter up and down directional input for menus and the like.

Giovanni is based on an existing Game Boy emulator called Gambatte, but producing a version that worked with the Apple Watch wasn’t easy. As well as the revamped control scheme, O’Flaherty-Chan had to work around the fact that the hardware doesn’t support the graphics APIs utilized by iOS and MacOS.

Apple is not a fan of emulators, so don’t expect to see Giovanni hitting the App Store any time soon. However, if you want to try loading Game Boy games onto your Apple Watch the hard way, O’Flaherty-Chan has uploaded the source code to GitHub.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Gaming

The method to Apple Arcade’s madness? ‘Bring us an incredible game’

Apple Arcade characters stand on a chess board.

Whenever Apple rolls out a lofty new idea, it invites as many skeptics as it does fans. Devices like the Vision Pro birthed naysayers from the moment it was announced, but armchair criticism has rarely, if ever, put a dent in the tech giant’s plans. It has a way of committing to its products and initiatives, even when outsiders might think no one is using them.

That’s been the story of Apple Arcade since it launched in 2019. The service came at a time when the biggest tech companies were hungry for a piece of the lucrative video game industry. While Google and Amazon tried to break in with cloud platforms, Apple laid out an entirely different vision: a mobile subscription service full of games that featured no ads or microtransactions. It sounded too good to be true – and some people at that time weren't convinced. Look back at the comments on its original tweet announcing the service and you’ll find a mess of replies ripping it apart.

Gaming

The best Donkey Kong games of all time

best-single-player-nintendo-switch-games

While Mario has become the face of Nintendo, and perhaps video games as a whole, it's important to remember that it was in a Donkey Kong game that he really became an icon. Since then, our beloved ape has bounced between being friend and foe of the plumber, as well as broken free to star in his own series of games with an expanded cast of friends and enemies. It's been a long time since we've been graced with one of his banana-fueled adventures, so we decided this was as good a time as any to look back at Dinkey Kong's legacy and decide which of his many solo efforts stand as the best.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Gaming

After watching Dune: Part Two, go play this Xbox Game Pass title

dune spice wars xbox game pass recommendation

Dune: Part Two has taken theaters by storm after a relatively quiet start to the 2024 box office. It’s getting even more people into this franchise, which is the grandfather of a lot of modern sci-fi stories. Dune also has a more storied history with video games than you may think. If you’re in the mood to return to Arrakis and experience more entertainment set within the Dune universe, you don’t have to wait for Dune: Awakening.

There’s a Dune strategy game available right now on Xbox Game Pass across PC, consoles, and cloud called Dune: Spice Wars. If you’ve ever sunk time into strategy games or are most intrigued by the political machinations that happen in the background of Dune’s narrative, then I recommend you try out Dune: Spice Wars after watching Dune: Part Two.
Spice is life
Developed by Shiro Games and published by Funcom, Dune: Spice Wars is a 4X strategy game. For the uninitiated, 4X is an abbreviation of “explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate,” and those kinds of strategy games allow players to do those four things on a massive scale. The most mainstream 4X strategy game series is Sid Meier’s Civilization, and Dune: Spice Wars shares a lot of elements with that game. Of course, it’s set on Arrakis instead of Earth.