nowfound

Dev tools · February 12, 2025

GB

Game Bub – open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld

Hey HN, Over the past ~1.5 years, I built an open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld that can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. To my knowledge, there isn't an existing open-source FPGA emulator that can play physical cartridges like this. One of my main goals was to do all of the pieces myself, and be able to understand every component of it, so I designed my own PCB, wrote the firmware, wrote a Game Boy and Game Boy Advance emulator for the FPGA (using the Chisel HDL), and designed a 3D-printed case. I detailed the design and development process in the…

Game Bub – open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld launched on February 12, 2025 with 274 votes, #126 of 5,999 launches that month and more than 99% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.

Visit eli.lipsitz.net ↗Alternativestop 2% of February 2025

In plain words

Game Bub is an open-source FPGA-based handheld device that plays physical Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. The creator designed the custom PCB, wrote the firmware and emulators using Chisel HDL, and created a 3D-printed case. All design files and code are available on GitHub, allowing users to understand and reproduce every component of the system.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

I’m excited to announce the project I’ve been working on for the last year and a half: Game Bub, an open-source FPGA based retro emulation handheld, with support for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games. May 2025 Update: Want to buy a prebuilt Game Bub? I’m launching a crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply! Sign up to be notified when the campaign goes live. Play

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hey HN, Over the past ~1.5 years, I built an open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld that can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. To my knowledge, there isn't an existing open-source FPGA emulator that can play physical cartridges like this. One of my main goals was to do all of the…

Does a similar job

all alternatives →

Questions this answers

More dev tools this month

the category →
  • /dev/null▲482

    a social network for devs

    Dev tools · 3d ago · dev-null.sh

  • Whiteboard (YC W26) – an open-source IDE for thoughtful software design▲423

    open-source IDE for thoughtful software design. Contribute to devdotfast/whiteboard development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Dev tools · 28d ago · github.com

  • Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things▲411

    Contribute to reladraw/reladraw development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Dev tools · 26d ago · github.com

  • OpenBot▲362

    Grok Bot alternative: free, local, open-source, multiplayer

    Dev tools · 23d ago · openbot.run

  • Talanoa▲346

    Hi HN, I’m a fullstack developer, and honestly, I’ve lost count of how many side projects I’ve worked on over the years. But one idea kept coming back to me: a different kind of email client. It first came to me in 2014: “What if we could handle emails more like conversations?” Every year, I’d revisit this concept in my “Build Notes.” Ten years later, no one had built exactly what I had in mind — so I finally decided to do it myself. That’s how Talanoa was born. I wanted something focused on people, not timelines. I was tired of marking messages as unread just to remember to reply later, or…

    Dev tools · 20d ago · talanoa.email

  • CoreSpeed▲332

    One MCP for everything your agents need: apps, memory, tools

    Dev tools · 28d ago · corespeed.io

Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part

Launched alongside, February 2025

the whole month →
  • Screen Studio 3.0▲1,832

    Beautiful screen recordings with instant shareable links

    Growth · 2025 · screen.studio

  • Tana▲1,665

    Put your notes to work with voice and AI

    AI · 2025 · tana.inc

  • IG
    I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam▲1,581

    I was at FB/Meta from late 2013 to early 2023, mostly working in the compiler/runtime spaces. I got hit in the spring 2023 layoff wave. I immediately started making games in my newfound free time (a lifelong interest, and I even worked in AA(A?) back ca. ~2000), and in October 2023 I stumbled upon the idea of a roguelike pachinko/plinko game inspired by Luck Be A Landlord. Things snowballed quickly, I started talking to publishers, then worked like crazy through all of 2024, almost the hardest I've ever worked in my career, and launched the game in December 2024. It's sold…

    Work · 2025

  • Tanka▲1,410

    AI Messenger with smart reply & long term memory for teams

    AI · 2025 · tanka.ai

  • Tool Finder▲1,327

    Your shortcut to better software

    AI · 2025 · toolfinder.com

  • I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass▲1,203

    i wanted to change the habit of reaching for my phone in the morning and doomscrolling away an hour so i built an app to help me. now i have to literally touch grass before accessing my most distracting apps the app is built in swiftui, uses the screen time apis provided by apple and google vision to recognise grass or not i'd love to get your thoughts on the concept.

    Life & fun · 2025 · touchgrass.now