GBWallpaper turns your Windows 10 wallpaper into a fully fledged Game Boy emulator

May 21st, 2019, 19:29 Posted By: wraggster

• Wallpapers can sometimes be a bit boring. Even if you install several customisation tools, add many widgets to your desktop and put a thousand different images in your slideshow folder, there's always something that feels a bit dull and static. But what if you could say goodbye to all these silly animations, gadgets and skins and get a real dynamic wallpaper, one that would be fully interactive and could also respond to your inputs? How about something that gives you a challenge whenever you minimize a window instead of just letting you stare idly at your icons, links and taskbar? What if you could have... a completely functional Game Boy emulator as your wallpaper?
  
  You've read that right, thanks to the developer rocksdanister and its newly released GBWallpaper tool, it is now a real possibility! The application is essentially a unity-gb emulator wrapper acting as a live wallpaper, which also includes many additional features and customisation options, such as different layouts and an audio visualizer. You can choose to either play the game yourself like you would on any regular emulator or record macros, essentially turning it into a nice animated backdrop. If you're worried about system resource utilisation then don't be, as the emulator will automatically stop when you run fullscreen apps and games.
  
  However, there are a few limitations that need to be addressed. GBWallpaper is currently only officially compatible with Windows 10 and does not support multi-monitor setups; plus some actions, like temporarily switching focus to a window or running some applications, may make the input non-responsive. Finally, if you're a fan of Super Mario Land then you may be disappointed, as the game is currently incompatible with it.
  
  If you're interested, you can find the ReadMe below (as well as a download link in the sources):
  Quoted from From the ReadMe:

  About
  Feeling bored with basic picture wallpapers? Want to play a quick game while all windows are minimzed? Well why not just run a full gameboy emulator as desktop wallpaper!
  Don't want to play? then disable keyboard input & use Macro input, save sequence of moves & automatically play it back; Like an animated gif wallpaper.
  Don't worry about performance overhead, it will pause when running fullscreen games or application.
  
  Download
  Latest version: v0.1 (Windows 10 Only)
  

  • Gameboy Wallpaper.zip
    (SHA-256: 523a4a48f6010eb241383a0d6dacf6a3be3d34aafe05710096 8914cff00db809)

  Unzip the file, select Start.exe to get started.
  Save files & settings are stored in \Saved Games\GBWallpaper.
  
  Features
  

  • Different layouts styles.
  • Emulator will pause when running fullscreen application or games (~0% cpu & gpu usage).
  • Sound & keyboard input will get disabled when not on desktop, game will continue to run.
  • Audio Visualiser for running games.
  • Runs at system startup (optional).
  • Macro input, save sequence of moves & automatically play it back; Like an animated gif wallpaper.
  • Keyboard input & audio can be disabled.
  • Save works for supported games.

  What is planned for future release
  

  • Multimonitor system support.
  • Currently using unity-gb emulator, might switch it with a better one.
  • Better pause algorithm that works in various situations.
  • More macro input options.
  • Bug fixes.

  Issues
  

  • SUPER MARIOLAND crash in menuscreen.
  • Keyboard input sustaining if you hold and change window focus.
  • Currently disabled on multimonitors systems due to bugs/further testing required.
  • Certain applications will interfere with window focus, will require user to click on desktop to give input.

  FAQ
  Who asked for this?
  Saw the suggestion on discord chat, got intrigued; took me longer than expected to make. Is this useless? maybe. Did I waste my time? Possibly. It was a good learning experience & fun to make.
  
  High system usage?
  The default style of blurred background is a bit expensive if you don't have dedicated graphics, just use different layout style such as "Simple". Regardless, when fullscreen application or game run it will goto ~0% usage.
  
  Not taking input?
  Certain applications can interfere with focus, just click on desktop or taskbar to regain focus.
  
  Where is the source code?
  I will update it later after cleanup & final update.
  
  Donation
  Support me on Ko-Fi
  
  https://github.com/rocksdanister/GBWallpaper/releases
  
  https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbwallpa...ulator.538836/
  
  
  
  

There are 0 comments - Join In and Discuss Here