Discover How Apple Watch Turns Into A Game Boy Emulator

A developer named Gabriel O'Flaherty-Chan has hacked an Apple Watch by turning it into a functional Game Boy emulator. The emulator was known as Giovanni which is named after the infamous Ream Rocket villain from the Pokémon game.

The hack was built out of an existing iOS emulator called Gambatte where Gabriel O'Flaherty-Chan has managed to use as a starting point and creates the watchOS version from it. Although he noted that the Apple Watch is lacking for support to an OpenGL or Metal which makes it difficult to write pixels to its screen.

The hacker Gabriel O'Flaherty-Chan has also managed to work in cleverness by simply replicating the Game Boy's controls via Apple Watch limited button set. The D-pad was replaced with planning on device's touchscreen which includes the button A by just tapping the screen, Select, the Start, and the button B with virtual counterparts. Its digital crown can be also used for scrolling through lists which make the whole thing actually looks truly usable for controlling the game.

The emulator Giovanni's biggest limitation is the limited hardware of the Apple Watch itself in which Apple will never allow such a game app that will spread into the official App Store channels, as noted by Ars Technica. In the most recent Series 2 hardware, the emulator is only able to play games at a fraction of its speed as an actual Game Boy where it could be solved by Apple simply releasing a more powerful version of their Apple Watch.

Despite its limitation, there will be more players that will be interested in this hack that serves as a reminder of what the miniature computers we wear around every day are capable of. Hacker Gabriel O'Flaherty-Chan's emulator is now available as an open source at Github. If you are tech enthusiast especially a Pokémon fan, try it!