Writing a Game Boy Emulator in OCaml
summary
CAMLBOY is a Game Boy emulator written in OCaml that runs in the browser and aims to boot real cartridges like Pokémon. Implementation focuses on a functor-based CPU that depends on a bus interface so the CPU can be unit-tested with a mock bus, avoiding tight coupling to cartridge, RAM, and IO devices. Instruction decoding uses GADTs for instruction typing to express varying argument and result types, and the project shows concrete design choices and tradeoffs that make testing and correctness tractable.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction and motivation
- 2:08Understanding emulators
- 4:13Addressing tight coupling
- 6:51Applying OCaml functors
- 9:01Instruction set challenges
- 12:32Implementing GADTs
- 15:21The learning cycle
- 16:51Criteria for projects
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