In a video, a German physicist and hobbyist shows how he can play GTA 5 and Crysis via his Game Boy or stream YouTube videos.
The numerous attempts to run the classic Doom on a variety of devices, such as overclocked calculators or even pregnancy tests, are even dedicated to a separate (subreddit). The German physicist Sebastian Staacks dared a less absurd, but nevertheless astonishing experiment: On an original Gameboy he streams and controls GTA 5, Crysis and yes, of course Doom.
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This is how GTA 5 runs on a Game Boy
Of course, the hardware of the more than 30-year-old console is not even close to being able to run a modern computer game. Staacks therefore uses several tricks to get around the limitations of the Game Boy, but without modifying it. What else you can do with an old Game Boy, you can find out here:
WiFi cassette
The most important component of the experiment is a matching WiFi cassette developed by Staacks that allows him to send data to the Game Boy and from the handheld console to a computer. Developing this must already have been a relatively elaborate project to which Staacks has already dedicated a separate video. When inserted into the Game Boy’s cradle, it is possible to send data to the console via a WiFi connection.
So the most important prerequisite was already created with the Internet connection: Theoretically, you could now run a game on your computer and stream it to the Game Boy’s display. But as technology experts surely know, there were other hurdles to overcome.
Display limitations
For example, the Game Boy’s display cannot actually show individual pixels, but instead resorts to pre-made sections that are assembled to form an image. Images that are to be displayed on the Game Boy must therefore be divided into these sections, or tiles, and reassembled. To make matters worse, the handheld console can only display a limited amount of individual tiles at a time, which is not enough to fill the entire display with them. However, Staacks was able to successfully circumvent this problem as well. How this and everything else works in detail is best seen for yourself:
It really works!
In the end, Staacks was quite successful with his project, judging by the prerequisites. As you can also admire in the video above, the Game Boy actually shows GTA 5, Crysis, Doom and more in a full 20 FPS at a resolution of 160 by 144 pixels. To illustrate how much that is for a Game Boy, the physicist uses a fitting comparison in his video: in 30 FPS, about eight times the amount of data is transferred per second that Tetris for the Game Boy contained in total.
And even the controls work! Thanks to WiFi cassette, the console’s controls send a fake input to the computer, so Staacks can actually race through San Andreas with his Game Boy or go demon hunting in Doom. In addition, the physicist can also watch videos: For example, he shows how the first Matrix film looks on the Game Boy – here the green tint of the display also fits.
Of course, the whole thing is difficult to see on the console’s small black-and-white display, and unfortunately there is no sound either. The project remains a technical gimmick that nevertheless achieves impressive results.
For those who want to reminisce about the old days even longer, it’s best to take a look at the highlights of the pioneering days of video history
