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):

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: 523a4a48f6010eb241383a0d6dacf6a3be3d34aafe057100968914cff00db809)

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

Source
Official website

 

[PRAGMA]

32:9 49" 1080p = INSANE
Hats off to the creator!
Failed to fetch tweet https://twitter.com/PRAGMA/status/1129784557035823104

 

[MaxiBash]

Now this...

This is art.

 

[kumikochan]

Fuck only works with a single monitor setup, have 3 monitors set up and doesn't work

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

256MB of storage, for a gameboy emulator?

 

[kumikochan]

256MB of storage, for a gameboy emulator?

What's 256mb when you have around 20tb storage lol

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

What's 256mb when you have around 20tb storage lol

Not everyone is rich.

 

[KyleHyde]

This sounds neat, though I probably won't use it permanently. I tend to like having drawings or other kinds of illustrations as my wallpaper. If this had come out around the time that video wallpapers (with sound) became a thing, I would have used it most, if not, all of the time. Thinking about that has made me feel a bit nostalgic about the animated gif icons you could get from the old Animal Crossing website (GameCube) which I'd set as tiled wallpapers every now and then.

I think you'd like this, @KooPako.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Shame no multiple monitor support, would've been neat to have this running on one of my monitors on my gaming desktop. Don't think I'd want to use it for my laptops, so pass I guess.

 

[jesus96]

I know this is impressive but why don't use a normal GB emulator instead?

 

[the_randomizer]

Not everyone is rich.

Not everyone has a < 256 MB HDD though

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Not everyone has a < 256 MB HDD though

Yeah, and if I had to dedicate that much for a emulator, especially when I bet having every single gameboy game ever released would still not even get half that amount required. I don't know what to say.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah, and if I had to dedicate that much for a emulator, especially when I bet having every single gameboy game ever released would still not even get half that amount required. I don't know what to say.

Don't know what to tell ya.

 

[RedoLane]

It's pretty cool if some GB games can keep an animated background forever.

 

[Mama Looigi]

This looks awesome! Can’t wait to try out whatever gameboy games I’m keeping in the deep, dark, forgotten ROM storage folder in my hard drive
I just have to remember how to get there first

 

[Nyako]

This is one of those things that you'd use for a day or two, then switch back to a normal wallpaper.

It's super cool, though I don't really expect that many people to use it a lot.

 

[Rioluwott]

It seems it can´t play gbc games, oh well
maybe i play the Pokemon Gold

 

[Rabbid4240]

Might be off-topic but I'm just here to let you guys know WideGB is now available on Windows.

 

[Tex_McBladeSword]

There was a NES version of this that I used a few years back, it's fun to mess around with, if you have enough games.

 

[Mama Looigi]

Might be off-topic but I'm just here to let you guys know WideGB is now available on Windows.

It’d be nice if someone found a way to combine the two, making a widescreen gameboy emulator wallpaper, you just can’t be cool without it