imageboy

GameBoy emulator library for Node.js with the main point being for creating images, made with the node-canvas and serverboy projects.

Installation

npm install imageboy

Setting up from source

git clone https://github.com/Unzor/imageboy
cd imageboy
npm i

Use var imageboy = require("imageboy/src/imageboy") to import it in a script.

Simple usage

var imageboy = require("imageboy");
var fs = require("fs");

imageboy.run({
  path: "pokemon_blue.gb",
  interval: 16.6666667, // 60 FPS
  onFrame: function(frame) {
  fs.writeFileSync("frame.png", frame);
  }
})

Examples of actual usage

See examples directory.

Documentation

imageboy.run(): Runs an emulator.

run() arguments

1: (array), inside the array:

• interval (optional): The interval to generate a frame at. Default is 16.6666667 (60 FPS).
• path (required): The path of the game ROM.
• onFrame (required): A callback on when a frame is generated, calls back a buffer of the image.

Returns with:

• gameboy (object): The Gameboy instance. Useful for controlling the emulator or sending a key.
• sendKeys (function): Sends one or multiple keys.

sendKeys() arguments

1: (array) Array of keycodes to press.

imageboy.run() example

imageboy.run({
  path: "pokemon_blue.gb",
  interval: 16.6666667, // 60 FPS
  onFrame: function(frame) {
  fs.writeFileSync("frame.png", frame);
  }
})

imageboy.runB64(): Runs an emulator and returns a Base64 string of image.

runB64() arguments

1: (array), inside the array:

• interval (optional): The interval to generate a frame at. Default is 16.6666667 (60 FPS).
• path (required): The path of the game ROM.
• onFrame (required): A callback on when a frame is generated, calls back a Base64 string of the image.

Returns with:

• gameboy (object): The Gameboy instance. Useful for controlling the emulator or sending a key.
• sendKeys (function): Sends one or multiple keys.

sendKeys() arguments

1: (array) Array of keycodes to press.

imageboy.runB64() example

imageboy.runB64({
  path: "pokemon_blue.gb",
  interval: 16.6666667, // 60 FPS
  onFrame: function(frame) {
 console.log("Base64 of frame: " + frame);
  }
})

imageboy.runDataURL(): Runs an emulator and returns a data URL of the image.

runDataURL() arguments

1: (array), inside the array:

• interval (optional): The interval to generate a frame at. Default is 16.6666667 (60 FPS).
• path (required): The path of the game ROM.
• onFrame (required): A callback on when a frame is generated, calls back a data URL of the image.

Returns with:

• gameboy (object): The Gameboy instance. Useful for controlling the emulator or sending a key.
• sendKeys (function): Sends one or multiple keys.

sendKeys() arguments

1: (array) Array of keycodes to press.

imageboy.runDataURL() example

imageboy.runDataURL({
  path: "pokemon_blue.gb",
  interval: 16.6666667, // 60 FPS
  onFrame: function(frame) {
  console.log("DataURL: " + frame);
  }
})

Cairo-related errors

If you get an error about "libuuid.so.0" or another shared library file, then you should install Cairo, or on Replit, you should use the "NodeJS with Canvas" template. I am not the author of node-canvas (which uses Cairo), and if you find a related error, create an issue here, not on this repo.

Credits

This project would have not been possible without Daniel Shumway's Serverboy project and Automattic's node-canvas project.