Go full Team Rocket on your wrist
If you long for a simpler time when Pikachu and pals were confined to a Game Boy, a fresh hack could allow you to experience the magic from your Apple Watch.
Developer Gabriel O’Flaherty-Chan’s emulator is built out of an existing iOS system, with workarounds used to allow users to control the action from the limited button set of the smartwatch.
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The D-pad is replaced with panning on the touchscreen, the A button by tapping on a screen, and the Start, Select, and B buttons with virtual counterparts. The digital crown is also in charge of scrolling through lists, providing one of the more useful applications for the button we’ve seen so far.
If you like emulators, I open sourced a Game Boy emulator for the Apple Watch, and wrote about it here! https://t.co/cozkMzI8Bq #pokemon pic.twitter.com/pKwLLEmfnJ
— GABRIELOFLAHERTYCHAN (@_gabrieloc) March 17, 2017
And while it all appears to be a charming wrist adventure, it’s not without its limitations. O’Flaherty-Chan indicated that the Apple Watch lacks support for OpenGL or Metal, making it difficult to write pixels to the screen.
This hardware issue results in games being played at a slower speed than the original Game Boy, something that wouldn’t be solved until Apple released a more powerful device.
There’s also the notable issue of this all being unavailable through Apple’s official App Store. In order to get involved with Giovanni — the name of the project — you’ll have to head to Github and own the smarts to sneak Nintendo’s colourful collective onto your wrist.
Of course, if you’re really craving the nostalgia fix, picking up the original Game Boy online or hunting around your attic is probably an easier solution, but imagine the look of jealousy from your coworkers when they realise you’ve merged retro and new tech together.
Via: Ars Technica
