First, there was GameBoy on an eReader. Then, there was the Game Boy on a smaller, less powerful eReader, with no touchscreen inputs. Now, RetroDodo spotted a Game Boy emulator that runs entirely inside Microsoft Excel, officially taking our “Worst Game Boy Setup” crown, for now.
The project comes from developer Katrina Zathey (aka u/KatGoesPurr), who previously released a proof‑of‑concept on GitHub that already had people on r/excel both impressed and horrified. This new version, highlighted by Retro Dodo, packages the idea in a way that is much more approachable: you open an .xlsm file, enable macros, and suddenly your worksheet grid is a Game Boy screen, complete with basic controls mapped to the keyboard.
Under the hood, it is all Visual Basic for Applications doing the heavy lifting, with the emulator stepping through Game Boy instructions and painting each frame into Excel cells. So why worst? Well, performance is hot dookie, but early footage shows simple titles running well enough to be recognisable and somewhat playable, especially slower puzzle games.
There are limitations, natch. Save support and audio are still weak points, and Excel’s own macro security prompts mean you are not exactly being stealthy if IT is paying attention. Still, it is an absurdly charming proof of concept, and a reminder that if there is a programmable surface with a grid on it, someone will eventually find a way to stick Tetris or Pokémon on it.
Source: GitHub via Retro Dodo
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