A lightweight and efficient Nintendo Game Boy emulator written in C++ using SDL2 for graphics, spdlog for high-performance logging, and fmt for clean and flexible formatting. This project faithfully reproduces the classic Game Boy gaming experience, supporting popular game titles with various Memory Bank Controllers.
- Accurate Emulation: Faithfully replicates Game Boy hardware behavior for a classic gaming experience.
- Supported MBCs: Compatible with games using:
- MBC1
- MBC3
- MBC5
- No MBC (simple ROMs)
- Keyboard Support: Play directly using your keyboard.
- up/down/left/right = arrow keys, a/b = s/a, start/select = enter/lshift
- High-Performance Logging: Debug seamlessly with
spdlog.
- C++17 or later
- SDL2
- spdlog
- fmt
Ensure these dependencies are installed on your system before building the emulator.
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/kaezrr/starGB.git cd starGB -
Build the project using CMake:
mkdir build cd build cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release make -
Put the roms that you want to run in the
roms/folder. (NOTE: don't delete thedmg_boot.binfile, it is necessary to run the emulator) -
Run the emulator:
./starGB [path/to/rom]
- No Settings Customization: All configurations are hardcoded for now.
- No Audio Support: Game audio is not yet implemented.
- Add audio emulation.
- Introduce customizable key mapping and emulator settings.
- Expand compatibility to Game Boy Color.
Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to improve the emulator, feel free to fork the repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request.
- Thanks to the open-source libraries
SDL2,spdlog, andfmtfor enabling this project. - Thanks to the wonder folks over at r/emuDev and their discord
- Thanks to LIJI32 for the copyright free boot rom.
- Thanks to pandocs and hacktix for their wonderful documentations.
- Thanks to gekkio, blargg and adtennant for their absolutely amazing tests.
- Inspired by the legacy of the Nintendo Game Boy and the retro gaming community.