Developer Gabriel O'Flaherty-Chan recently shared a project where he managed to get a Game Boy emulator he dubbed "Giovanni" running on the second-generation Apple Watch, allowing it to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.

According to O'Flaherty-Chan, it was a challenge finding the right balance "between framerate and performance," but he says the end result is a "surprisingly usable emulator." In GIFs shared in a blog post, the Apple Watch is displayed running Pokémon Yellow.

applewatchpokemonyellow1
The Giovanni emulator, named after the villain in Pokémon Yellow, was built using open source code from Gambatte, an existing iOS emulator. It uses the Digital Crown and gestures for control purposes.

applewatchpokemonyellow2

By allowing the user to pan on screen for directions, rotate the Digital Crown for up and down, and tap the screen for A, I was able to eliminate buttons until I was left with Select, Start, and B.

Touching the screen for movement isn't a great interaction, but being able to use the Crown worked out a lot better than originally anticipated. Scrolling through a list of options is basically what the Crown was made for, and if the framerate was even slightly higher, the interaction could almost be better than a hardware D-pad.

As Ars Technica points out, Giovanni is not something you should expect to see in the App Store -- it's more of a proof of concept than anything else. Apple does not allow emulators on the App Store, and O'Flaherty-Chan himself says it is afflicted with bugs due to the "constraints of watchOS," including the lack of support for OpenGL and Metal.

The Giovanni source code is, however, available on Github for anyone to download, and the blog post behind the creation of Giovanni is worth reading for anyone interested in the development process.

Tags: Hack, Emulator

Top Rated Comments

jclo Avatar
100 months ago
Couple days late on this one MR
Send us a tip next time! Sometimes things go under the radar, especially on the weekend. I thought this was interesting to share even if we're a couple days late. It's always fun to see weird stuff running on the Apple Watch.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
44267547 Avatar
100 months ago
There was an article similar last year with a developer (Nick Lee) running windows on the Apple Watch.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WRChris Avatar
100 months ago
Send us a tip next time! Sometimes things go under the radar, especially on the weekend. I thought this was interesting to share even if we're a couple days late. It's always fun to see weird stuff running on the Apple Watch.
Ok, I will do that. Is there a specific place I should send tips? I notice you guys don't post anything on the weekends typically and I think that's when I read about this.

It is a good read, for those who haven't read it already! Keep up the good work!!! Love the site
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jclo Avatar
100 months ago
Ok, I will do that. Is there a specific place I should send tips? I notice you guys don't post anything on the weekends typically and I think that's when I read about this.

It is a good read, for those who haven't read it already! Keep up the good work!!! Love the site
Yep, tips@macrumors.com. Feel free to send us anything interesting you come across.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WRChris Avatar
100 months ago
Yep, tips@macrumors.com. Feel free to send us anything interesting you come across.
Thanks for your time!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mazz0 Avatar
100 months ago
Pi-KA-chu!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

10 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Thursday October 31, 2024 9:42 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well. ...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 Cinema 4D Slack Finder Xcode 1

Apple Announces MacBook Pro Models With M4 Pro and M4 Max Chips, Thunderbolt 5 Support, and More

Wednesday October 30, 2024 8:01 am PDT by
Apple today announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models featuring M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, alongside a new entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro powered by the M4 chip. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new M4 Pro and M4 Max machines come with a minimum of 24GB of Unified Memory as standard, up from 18GB in the previous models. Both models feature three...
M4 Pro on Blue

M4 Pro Chip Benchmark Results Reveal an Extremely Impressive Performance Feat

Thursday October 31, 2024 7:06 pm PDT by
The first Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the M4 Pro chip surfaced today. Impressively, the results that are available so far show that the highest-end M4 Pro chip is faster than the highest-end M2 Ultra chip in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance. Here is a comparison of the results: Mac mini with M4 Pro (14-core CPU): 22,094 multi-core score (average of 11 results) Mac Studio...
m3 macbook air blue

Apple Announces MacBook Air Now Starts With Increased 16GB of RAM With No Price Increase

Wednesday October 30, 2024 8:04 am PDT by
Apple today in its new MacBook Pro press release announced that the MacBook Air lineup now starts with 16GB of RAM, up from 8GB previously. This change applies to the 13-inch model with the M2 chip, the 13-inch model with the M3 chip, and the 15-inch model with the M3 chip. In the U.S., the MacBook Air lineup continues to start at $999, so there is no price increase associated with the...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces Redesigned Mac Mini With M4 and M4 Pro Chips, Two Front USB-C Ports, and More

Tuesday October 29, 2024 8:01 am PDT by
Apple today announced fully redesigned Mac mini models featuring the M4 and M4 Pro chips, a considerably smaller casing, two front-facing USB-C ports, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and more. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The product refresh marks the first time the Mac mini has been redesigned in over a decade. The enclosure now measures just five by five inches...
Apple iPhone SE 4 5G Modem 1

iPhone SE 4 First to Get Apple-Designed 5G Modem, iPhone 17 Pro to Add Custom Wi-Fi 7 Chip

Friday November 1, 2024 4:04 am PDT by
The iPhone SE 4 that's set to come out early next year is expected to debut Apple's first in-house 5G modem, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain. In a research note this week with Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities, Pu said Apple is expected to roll out its custom-made 5G modem starting with the next-generation...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Skipping the New MacBook Pro? Here Are Two Bigger Changes Rumored

Thursday October 31, 2024 4:00 pm PDT by
While the new MacBook Pro lineup features faster M4 chip options, Thunderbolt 5 support for higher-end configurations, a nano-texture display option, and more, most of the previous MacBook Pro models with Apple silicon chips still offer the latest overall design, and fast performance, which might lead you to avoid upgrading this year. If you are planning to skip the new MacBook Pro, here are ...