Rust emulator prototype · education layer first

vibe-gba

A scratch-built Game Boy Advance emulator prototype focused on proving the native Pokémon Emerald onboarding route, then turning that route into a guided puzzle / reflection loop.

Play in browser GitHub repo Tester loop

Boundary, because lawsuits are boring

vibe-gba does not include ROMs, save files, BIOS dumps, or emulator state snapshots. To run it locally, you must provide your own legal ROM. The live site is currently a public project/testing page, not a browser-playable emulator.

What works now

Loads user-provided .gba or zipped .gba files locally.
Runs deterministic headless frames with scripted input.
Captures screenshots, save states, and debug summaries.
Reaches Emerald onboarding milestones from native KEYINPUT.

New layer

The first Emerald education objective mode parses emulator debug summaries and tracks onboarding objectives:

Wake up in the moving truck.
Reach Littleroot Town.
Reach Route 101.
Rescue Professor Birch.
Acquire a starter.

Pokémon Emerald rendered at the Littleroot entry milestone — Littleroot entry milestone.

Pokémon Emerald rendered while walking through Littleroot — Native movement through Littleroot.

test-driven development starts here

Tester loop

When you test, send feedback in this exact shape so I can turn it into a failing test before touching production code:

What broke: the visible bug or wrong behavior.
What you expected: the behavior you think should happen instead.
What evidence you captured: screenshot, command output, browser URL, or reproduction steps.

cargo run -- /path/to/Pokemon\ Emerald.gba --frames 65200 --edu-mode --dump-state