Boytacean

Boytacean emulates Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Game Boy Color. It reads 6 files, none of them required: it starts games without them.

About this profile

Detail	Value
Type	standalone + libretro
Classification	Official port
Source	https://github.com/joamag/boytacean
Version	0.13.2, stated in setup.py
Revision	joamag/boytacean@4d806d0770f1
Profiled	2026-03-23
Profile	YAML, JSON
Cores	boytacean
Systems	Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Game Boy Color

Technical notes

Game Boy / Game Boy Color emulator written in Rust by Joao Magalhaes.

Libretro: all boot ROMs compiled into binary as static byte arrays in src/data.rs. load_boot_static() copies from arrays. No filesystem access, no RETRO_ENVIRONMENT_GET_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY. No external files. ref: frontends/libretro/src/core.rs:402 instance.load(true) -> src/gb.rs:1377 -> load_boot_static at src/gb.rs:1414

Standalone (SDL): also defaults to embedded boot ROMs via load(true). User can override via --boot-rom-path CLI argument with any boot ROM file (frontends/sdl/src/main.rs:1138-1143). load_boot_file() with hardcoded ./res/boot/*.bin paths exists in src/gb.rs:1427 but is not called from any frontend.

Boot ROM defaults: DmgBootix (DMG), CgbBoytacean (CGB), both open-source.

Files

6 files: 0 required, 6 optional. 6 have an HLE fallback.

In this collection: 6 in repo and 0 missing.

Optional

File	Status
dmg_boot.bin System: Nintendo Game Boy Original Nintendo DMG boot ROM Size: 256 B Collection copy: bios/Nintendo/Game Boy/dmg_boot.bin Platforms: gb/dmg_boot.bin: Recalbox Source Source: src/gb.rs:1416, src/data.rs:14	in repo HLE fallback standalone
sgb_boot.bin System: Nintendo Game Boy Super Game Boy boot ROM Size: 256 B Collection copy: bios/Nintendo/Super Game Boy/sgb_boot.bin Platforms: sgb/sgb_boot.bin: Recalbox Source Source: src/gb.rs:1417, src/data.rs:29	in repo HLE fallback standalone
dmg_bootix.bin System: Nintendo Game Boy Open-source DMG boot ROM from Bootix (default DMG) Size: 256 B Collection copy: bios/Nintendo/Game Boy/dmg_bootix.bin Source Source: src/gb.rs:1418, src/data.rs:44	in repo HLE fallback standalone
mgb_bootix.bin System: Nintendo Game Boy Open-source MGB (Pocket) boot ROM from Bootix Size: 256 B Collection copy: bios/Nintendo/Game Boy/mgb_bootix.bin Source Source: src/gb.rs:1419, src/data.rs:59	in repo HLE fallback standalone
cgb_boot.bin System: Nintendo Game Boy Color Original Nintendo CGB boot ROM Size: 2.2 KB Collection copy: bios/Nintendo/Game Boy Color/cgb_boot.bin Platforms: gbc/cgb_boot.bin: Recalbox Source Source: src/gb.rs:1420, src/data.rs:74	in repo HLE fallback standalone
cgb_boytacean.bin System: Nintendo Game Boy Color Custom open-source CGB boot ROM (default CGB) Size: 2.2 KB Collection copy: bios/Nintendo/Game Boy Color/cgb_boytacean.bin Source Source: src/gb.rs:1421, src/data.rs:177	in repo HLE fallback standalone

Next steps

• Get your files, for the setup you play on
• Every system, and the files each one needs
• When a game does not start

Data as of 4 November 2026.