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BlockBoy Arcade

Serverside GameBoy emulator as Arcade machines with data driven cartridge items!

Fabric
Loaders
Fabric
Downloads on Modrinth
2.9K
Followers on Modrinth
29
versions
7
Updated
October 1, 2026Oct 1
Published
in 2025
Arcade machines · swipe

At a glance

Runs on Fabric
For Minecraft 1.21.11–26.1.2, 26.3 …
Server only — players don't need to install it
Latest version — 1.1.0+26.3 from October 1, 2026
License LGPL-3.0-or-later — free
Where it's needed
In gamenot neededOn serverrequired

Install on the server only; players don't need it

Game versions1.21.5–1.21.8, 1.21.11–26.1.2, 26.3

Arcade machines with full gameboy resolution and color support!

Fully server-side, using polymer! Checkout polymers authost feature to host the resource-pack (in polymer/resourcepack.zip) automagically!

There are no recipes, use /polymer creative to see the items or use /give @s blockboy:arcade

The mods' builtin datapack comes with 6 open source gameboy games:

patreon

Config

{
  "dateFormat": "dd.MM yyyy, HH:mm",
  "sound": false
}
  • dateFormat: Date format for rom save data tooltip
  • sound: Flag to enable sounds for the playing player using simple voice chat

Adding roms / items

You can either add cartridge items using filament or just use the blockboy:rom component to give yourself an item that can play a given rom file: /give @s paper[blockboy:rom="namespace:game.gb"]

Put the roms in `data//blockboy/.gbanddata//blockboy/.gbc Make sure the rom file names are lowercase and only contain letters from atoz, 0-9` and/or underscores.

To add your own arcade model item + block use the filament mod and the blockboy:arcade behaviour for decorations.

Arcade example for filament (data//filament/decoration/.json):

{
  "id": "blockboy:arcade",
  "group": "blockboy:items",
  "blockTags": ["shulker_boxes"],
  "itemResource": {
    "models": {
      "default": "blockboy:item/arcade-item",
      "floor": "blockboy:item/arcade"
    }
  },
  "properties": {
    "rotate": true,
    "rotateSmooth": true,
    "stackSize": 1,
    "destroyTime": 2,
    "requiresTool": false
  },
  "behaviour": {
    "blockboy:arcade": {
      "seatTranslation": [0, 0.4, 0],
      "screenTranslation": [0, 0.95, -0.775],
      "screenPitch": -22.5,
      "brightness": 10
    }
  },
  "blocks": [
    {
      "origin": [0,0,-1],
      "size": [1,1,2]
    },
    {
      "origin": [0,1,-1],
      "size": [1,1,1]
    }
  ]
}

Cartridge / rom item example for filament (data//filament/item/.json):

{
  "id": "blockboy:flooder",
  "translations": {
    "en_us": "Flooder"
  },
  "group": "blockboy:items",
  "vanillaItem": "minecraft:paper",
  "itemResource":{
    "models": {
      "default": "blockboy:item/cartridge2"
    }
  },
  "properties": {
    "stackSize": 1
  },
  "components": {
    "blockboy:rom": "namespace:flooder.gb"
  }
}

Blockboy Arcade comes with 2 item textures/models for cartridges, feel free to modify them as you wish: blockboy:item/cartridge1 and blockboy:item/cartridge2

Permissions for Luckperms and friends: blockboy_arcade.command, with vanilla permission level 1

Controls:

  • WASD = DPAD
  • Jump = A
  • Left-Click = B
  • F (swap held item) = Start
  • Q (drop held item) = Select

This project uses code from the coffee-gb gameboy emulator and the Image2Map Mod You can find the original licenses in the "licenses" directory. My changes are also licensed under the MIT license.

FAQ

How to install BlockBoy Arcade?

Install Fabric for your Minecraft version, download BlockBoy Arcade for the same version and loader, put the file into the mods folder and launch the game with the loader profile.

Which Minecraft versions does BlockBoy Arcade support?

BlockBoy Arcade has builds for Minecraft 1.21.5–1.21.8, 1.21.11–26.1.2, 26.3.

Is BlockBoy Arcade needed on the server?

Server only — players don't need to install it

License and source
GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 or laterfree to use and share; changes to the mod itself must be published under the same license
Original — Modrinth↗Files unchanged, verified with SHA-512Is this your mod? For rights holders

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