E-Reader Z80 Emulator

This is a web based emulator written in JavaScript and TypeScript for the Nintendo E-Reader.

It allows running E-Reader applications without using any of Nintendo's proprietary IP. The application runs completely outside of a GBA and an E-Reader, so there are no copyright or IP implications.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6bdc089c-26b9-48d8-abc2-5a2e183d29ba

Try it out

You can try the emulator playing Solitaire here: https://www.retrodotcards.com/solitaire/play

Status: Pre Alpha

This is very raw, but coming along. It now plays Solitaire (see video above) almost perfectly.

How to use

Get a z80 bin

You will need the binary of a Nintendo z80 E-Reader app. This is not .raw, .bmp or .vpk files.

TODO: explain how to convert from .raw to .bin

Create an emulator

const result = await fetch("/url/To/The/Z80.bin");
const buffer = await result.arrayBuffer();
const data = new Uint8Array(buffer);

const emulator = new EreaderEmulator(data);

const canvas = document.getElementById("someCanvasOnAWebPage");
canvas.width = 240;
canvas.height = 160;

emulator.run();
emulator.pause();
emulator.reset();

run() uses requestAnimationFrame, so it is not asychronous in the traditional sense. pause() and reset() can be called whenever.

System Resources

By default the emulator has no system resources loaded, ie sound effects, music or backgrounds. It will still run, just silently and with nothing happening when LoadSystemBackground is called.

To change this, call SoundManager.setSounds() and SystemBackgroundManager.setBackgrounds().

const mySoundEffect = await loadAudioFile('mysoundeffect.ogg');
SoundManager.setSounds({
  23: mySoundEffect
});

Where 23 is the sound's id. Ie the parameter passed to PlaySystemSound.

The resources directory contains creative common resources that can be used for this purpose.

The sandbox implementation uses these sounds and can be used as a guide here

Preloading

The first time tiles are created for a sprite or background can be very slow, especially if the sprite has a lot of frames and especially on mobile. This can be mitigated with emulator.preload.

// the address in the rom where the sprite or bg is located
const addressofSpriteStruct = 0x1234;
const addressofBackgroundStruct = 0x4567;

await emulator.preload({
  sprites: [addressOfSpriteStruct],
  customBackgrounds: [addressOfBackgroundStruct],
});

preload returns a promise allowing throwing up a loading screen.

Once the sprites/bgs are preloaded, they will then run in the emulator at full speed.

Sandbox

In sandbox is an implementation of the emulator. To use:

NOTE: the emulator is currently assuming you are running Solitaire.

1. yarn install at the root of the repo
2. Get a .bin file and place it at sandbox/public/main.bin
3. yarn sandbox-dev
4. visit http://localhost:5173

Known Issues

• Much of ERAPI remains to be implemented
• halt frames happen much faster in the emulator compared to a real GBA.

Development

Publishing

ereader-z80-emulator uses semantic versioning

Publishing a new version is done by bumping the version in package.json

yarn version
yarn version v1.22.19
info Current version: 0.4.0
question New version: 0.4.1
info New version: 0.4.1
Done in 16.19s.

git push
git push --tags

Once the Publish action notices the version has changed, it will run a build and publish to npm.