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Game Boy Emulator

A Rust emulator for the original Game Boy architecture, including CPU work, picture processing, instruction decoding, and SDL rendering.

Architecture Overview

The emulator models the Game Boy as a set of cooperating hardware components: CPU, memory, instruction decoder, picture processing unit, timers, and SDL-backed rendering.

Technical Challenges

decoding and executing the instruction set
coordinating CPU and PPU timing
modeling memory-mapped hardware behavior
rendering frames through SDL
validating behavior against ROM expectations

Benchmarks

Useful measurements include instruction throughput, frame pacing, rendering stability, and compatibility against small test ROMs.

Lessons Learned

Emulators are a forcing function for precision. Small timing or state-machine mistakes tend to surface quickly as visible rendering or execution bugs.

Tools

Rust, SDL