🎮 RimRetroBoy – Because Your Colonists Deserve Game Boys Too
Ever looked at your RimWorld colony and thought, [i]“This needs more handheld gaming and legally-distinct pocket monsters”[/i]?
[b]RimRetroBoy[/b] lets your colonists build a Game Boy–style pedestal, boot real [b].gb / .gbc[/b] ROMs [b]inside RimWorld[/b], and then [b]print creatures from those saves directly into the world as obedient, ability-flinging pawns[/b].
Yes. You read that right.
No. This is probably not PETA-approved.
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🕹️ What This Mod Does
📟 RimRetroBoy Pedestal (1x1)
[list]
[*] Buildable pedestal that acts as a fully functional Game Boy emulator
[*] Assign a colonist, insert a ROM, and play without leaving RimWorld
[*] Each pedestal remembers its [b]own save files[/b], like a real cartridge
[*] Destroying the pedestal wipes its save folder, because that’s how memory cards worked and also because consequences
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🪟 In-Game Emulator Window
[list]
[*] Emulator launches only when a ROM exists and an owner is assigned
[*] Optional colony pause while playing (because raids are rude)
[*] Isolated audio routing so your colonists don’t hear 8-bit beeps echoing through the dining room
[*] Grants configurable recreation while playing
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🖨️ RimRetroBoy Printer (2x2)
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[*] Link the printer to any pedestal on the map
[*] Browse compatible save files and [b]print creatures into the colony[/b]
[*] Live progress gizmo while printing, because suspense matters
[*] Dev Mode lets you preview sprites before spawning
[*] If a ROM can’t provide creature data, the UI explains why instead of silently judging you
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🧬 Printed Creatures (The Important Part)
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[*] Spawn as player-aligned pawns with:
[list]
[*] Their original roster ID and name
[*] Source cartridge title
[*] Auto-assigned master
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[*] When supported by the ROM:
[list]
[*] Load Gen-1-style sprites
[*] Inherit base stats and elemental types
[*] Automatically gain elemental abilities
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[*] Abilities auto-cast in combat using configurable cooldowns
[*] Lose abilities if they stop being yours, because betrayal has rules
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📂 ROM Support & Compatibility
[b]⚠️ Current Creature Printing Support[/b]
At the moment, creature printing is supported [b]only[/b] for the original [b]Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue, and Pokémon Yellow[/b] releases for [b]Game Boy[/b].
[list]
[*] These are the only games that expose roster, sprite, and type data to the printer right now
[*] Other Game Boy / Game Boy Color games will still run perfectly in the emulator
[*] Unsupported games simply cannot feed creatures into the printer (no errors, no crashes, just disappointment)
[/list]
More games may be added in the future, but for now, Gen 1 is doing all the heavy lifting.
[list]
[*] Drop [b].gb / .gbc[/b] files anywhere under the [i]ROMs/[/i] folder
[*] Subfolders supported and shown in-game
[*] ROM compatibility is driven by cartridge header titles
[*] Unsupported games still run perfectly in the emulator, they just won’t feed the printer (yet)
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⚙️ Settings You Can Tweak
[list]
[*] Pause colony while playing
[*] Recreation gained per real-time minute
[*] Emulator volume and creature cry volume
[*] Logging verbosity (for people who enjoy staring into the void of stack traces)
[*] Individual cooldown sliders for Fire, Electric, Ice, Psychic, Ghost, Dragon, and more
[*] Changes apply instantly
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🧠 Tips & Limitations
[list]
[*] Emulator targets ~60 FPS and dynamically throttles speed to keep audio smooth
[*] Audio switches to a dedicated output while the emulator is open
[*] Pedestals auto-recover if ROMs go missing
[*] Destroying a pedestal wipes its saves like formatting a cartridge
[*] This mod is powerful, ridiculous, and absolutely not balanced around RimWorld’s normal tech curve
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⚠️ Important Notes
[b]📜 The Legal Stuff[/b]
[b]RimRetroBoy does NOT include, bundle, ship, hide, wink at, or secretly smuggle any ROMs, sprites, audio, music, creature data, or other copyrighted content.[/b]
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[*] We do [b]not[/b] provide game files from Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., or any other company that has very good lawyers
[*] You [b]must[/b] supply your own [b]legally obtained Game Boy / Game Boy Color ROMs[/b]
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When you place a ROM into the [i]ROMs/[/i] folder, you are explicitly giving RimRetroBoy permission to:
[list]
[*] Read data from that ROM
[*] Extract sprites, audio, save data, and creature information from that ROM
[*] Use that extracted data [b]locally on your machine only[/b], inside your RimWorld save
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If you did not legally obtain the ROM, you should not put it in the folder.
If you did legally obtain the ROM, congratulations, this mod will politely do science with it.
Nothing is downloaded. Nothing is redistributed. Everything comes directly from the ROM you provide.
If something breaks, the logging tools are extremely detailed and slightly judgmental.
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🧪 Final Thoughts
RimRetroBoy is equal parts:
[list]
[*] Emulator
[*] Creature factory
[*] Questionable ethics simulator
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If you’ve ever wanted to relive handheld gaming [i]and[/i] deploy its consequences in a RimWorld firefight, this mod is for you.
[b]Happy printing.[/b] Try not to crash the colony with nostalgia.
