Same-Boy

Same::Boy is a Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator for Perl. It is an XS
binding over the Core of SameBoy (https://github.com/LIJI32/SameBoy), a
highly accurate emulator by Lior Halphon. The Core is vendored and compiled
into the extension, so there are no external library dependencies.

SameBoy's own MIT-licensed open-source boot ROMs are embedded, so the
emulator boots out of the box -- no copyrighted Nintendo boot ROMs and no
build-time assembler toolchain are required. (Cartridge ROMs are supplied by
you at runtime and are not included.)

SYNOPSIS

    use Same::Boy;

    my $gb = Same::Boy->new(model => 'cgb', rom => 'game.gbc');

    $gb->run_frame for 1 .. 60;

    my ($w, $h) = $gb->dimensions;   # 160, 144
    my $frame   = $gb->pixels;       # packed 0x00RRGGBB words, $w*$h of them

    $gb->press('a');
    $gb->run_frame;
    $gb->release('a');

INSTALLATION

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install

A C compiler is required. RGBDS is NOT required to build or install; it is
only needed to regenerate the embedded boot ROMs (see tools/gen_bootroms).

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This software is Copyright (c) 2026 by LNATION and is free software,
licensed under the Artistic License 2.0.

The vendored SameBoy Core and boot ROMs are Copyright (c) Lior Halphon,
used under the Expat (MIT) license; see LICENSE.SameBoy.