Gambatte-K2 - Game Boy / Game Boy Color emulator

[crazyelectron]

Gambatte-K2: Game Boy Emulator for Kindle (GTK2/FBInk)

Gambatte-K2 is a Game Boy / Game Boy Color (.gb, .gbc ROMS) emulator frontend for Kindle e-ink devices, built with performance in mind. It uses the gambatte-libretro core and provides a GTK2 interface, as well as direct framebuffer rendering mode via FBInk

Usage

Grab the zip (gambatte-k2.zip), unpack on /mnt/us/extensions as any other extension:

Launch via KUAL and/or copy the shortcut (shortcut_gambatte-k2.sh) to /mnt/us/documents so it shows on your library.

Open a game/ROM using the Open button.

TL-DR Technical Features

Spoiler:

- Fast, Lightweight UI:
Minimal dependencies (`2.5Mb` binary), runs pretty well on low-RAM e-ink Kindles using around `15Mb` of RAM.
- Two Rendering Modes:
- GTK2:Standard X11/GTK2 drawing mode using the OS e-ink refreshing.
- FBInk:Direct framebuffer output for maximum speed, a little quirky, with more ghosting.
- Performance-Oriented Design:
- Only one main loopin the frame processing path doing scaling and dithering at once.
- Ordered dithering (BW)(Bayer 4x4) applied during a first scaling stage for improved frame speed processing.
- Nearest-neighbor scalingin the second stage for fast upscaling.
- Single GdkPixbufreused for all frames to minimize RAM usage and allocations.
- LUT (Lookup Table):Precomputed 65536-entry lookup table with RGB565→RGB888→grayscale conversion for fast pixel processing.
- Touch & Multi-Touch Controls:
- On-screen virtual Game Boy like buttons with ad-hoc multi-touch support (up to 2 touches) listening directly on the /dev/input/eventX device events.
- Dynamic Quality/Size Controls:
- Toggle between some scaling/quality presets.
- Threaded Frame Processing:
- Frame conversion and drawing are offloaded to a worker thread to keep the UI responsive.
- Minimal External Dependencies:
- Only needs GTK2, GDK-Pixbuf, and FBInk (for direct mode).

Download: gambatte-k2.zip

https://github.com/crazy-electron/gambatte-k2

[HenriHenry]

Amazing!
Works exceptionally smoothly for an e-reader.
Are there any plans to add an option to save the game?
It's the only missing thing to play Pokemon on kindle
(or is it already implemented? If yes, how do I use it?)

[HenriHenry]

Amazing!
Runs exceptionally smoothly for an e-reader.
Are there any plans to add an option to save the game?
It's the last thing needed to play Pokemon on kindle (well that,and a GBA emulator, but I have a feeling the RAM wouldn't like it...)
Or is saving already implemented? If yes, how do I use it?

[HenriHenry]

Sorry, posted it twice.
Guess the kindle browser does lag a lot

[crazyelectron]

Update: save/load functionality
-save/load functionality with 5 available slots, allowing to save and resume game progress. experimental
-fixed button positions and geometries.
-added a manual e-ink refresh button.
-some multitouch improvements.
Note: as an e-ink device, designed for reading, with just a two-point multi-touch capacitive touch-screen, it may not be extremely responsive at the end.

[HenriHenry]

Honestly, this is incredible:
A fast gb/gbc emulator, on an e-ink screen, that can save ANY game (even those without built-in save functionality!)
And with (almost) no bugs!
(Altough there is one that is common occurence: the down key staying pressed seemingly forever, but a quick press on up + down keys fixs that.
This app truly deserves any praise it receives.

[Eltico2k]

It really works very well and fast, on my Kindle11 it can be played without ghosting.

[HenriHenry]

How do you connect a device for the new bluetooth functionality?
Nevrmind, I foud it once I ran it through KUAL instead of the book shortcut.
It 's even better with audio! (but it seems unstable i.e. the audio sometimes crackles, is this normal?)