WATaBoy JIT-Compiles Game Boy Code to WebAssembly, Outperforming Native Interpreter

The WATaBoy project targets Game Boy software execution in browsers. It implements a just‑in‑time compiler that converts Game Boy opcodes to WebAssembly. The generated WASM runs directly in the browser’s engine. Benchmarks show the JIT‑compiled version runs faster than a native interpreter written for the same platform. This approach leverages WebAssembly’s low‑level performance characteristics. It demonstrates that emulating classic consoles can be efficient without full‑system emulation. Developers can embed Game Boy games on web pages with improved speed. Future work may explore extending the technique to other legacy hardware.