🎮 CabinBoy

A working Game Boy emulator inside The Long Dark — sit by the fire and play your favorite cartridges on a handheld you carry in your pack.

CabinBoy adds a handheld console to The Long Dark. Equip it from your inventory and a Game Boy folds up into your hands, rendered in 3D, running real .gb / .gbc ROMs with picture and sound. Time keeps passing and your survivor still gets hungry — so don't get too lost in Kanto.

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✨ Features

• 🕹️ Full Game Boy emulation (CPU, PPU, APU) via an embedded UnityGB-based core
• 🔊 Real sound — audio is streamed straight to the Windows sound device (works even though TLD disables Unity's built-in audio)
• 🎒 In-world handheld — a 3D model flies into and out of your hands with a smooth animation
• 🔍 Stepless zoom — pull the screen closer or push it away
• ⏩ Fast-forward — hold a key to speed the emulation up
• 🔈 Volume control — adjust in-game, saved between sessions
• 💾 Battery saves (SRAM) — your in-game progress is written to disk per ROM
• 📚 ROM library — drop in as many ROMs as you like and pick from an on-device menu
• 🛖 Survival-aware — playing relieves Cabin Fever, but time, hunger, cold and fatigue keep ticking

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📦 Requirements & Dependencies

Dependency	Version	Notes
The Long Dark	2.55 (Unity 6000.0.60f1, IL2CPP)	Windows only
MelonLoader	0.7.2	Mod loader
ModComponent	7.0.0	Provides the custom handheld item

⚠️ Windows only. Audio output uses the Windows winmm (waveOut) API, so the mod will not produce sound on Linux/Proton without changes.

📜 ROMs are not included. You must supply your own legally-obtained .gb / .gbc files. Don't ask for or share copyrighted ROMs here.

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🚀 Installation

1. Install MelonLoader 0.7.2 into your The Long Dark folder (run the MelonLoader installer, point it at tld.exe).
2. Install ModComponent — drop ModComponent.dll into TheLongDark/Mods/.
3. Install CabinBoy — from the release archive, copy into your game folder so you end up with this layout:

TheLongDark/
└── Mods/
    ├── ModComponent.dll
    ├── CabinBoy.dll
    ├── cabinboy.modcomponent          ← the handheld item
    └── CabinBoy/
        ├── config.json                ← created on first launch
        ├── AssetBundles/
        │   └── cabinboy               ← 3D handheld model
        ├── Roms/                      ← put your .gb / .gbc files here
        └── Saves/                     ← SRAM battery saves (auto-created)

4. Add ROMs — drop .gb / .gbc files into Mods/CabinBoy/Roms/.
5. Launch the game. Acquire the CabinBoy item, then press Play on it in your inventory.

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🔦 Where to find it

CabinBoy has no fixed map location — it spawns randomly via loot tables, so you can find it in these container types anywhere in the world:

Container	Spawn weight
🗄️ Desks	2 (most likely)
🗃️ Low drawers	1
📦 Plastic boxes	1
🎒 Backpacks	1
And much more!
Safe Spawn in Safes

💡 Loot in The Long Dark is randomized per save — keep searching desks and containers, especially in houses and offices.

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🎛️ Controls

Action	Key
Open handheld	Play on the item in your inventory
Close handheld	F8 (configurable)
D-Pad	W A S D
A button	J
B button	K
Start	Enter
Select	Right Shift
Fast-forward (hold)	Left Shift
Zoom in / out (hold)	+ / −
Volume up / down (hold)	. / ,
Stop / change ROM	Backspace (confirm on screen)
Restart ROM	R
ROM library: navigate / load / rescan	↑ ↓ / Enter / R

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⚙️ Configuration

A config.json is generated in Mods/CabinBoy/ on first launch. Useful keys:

Key	Default	Description
RequiredHandheldGearName	GEAR_CabinBoy	Item name the patches react to
CloseKey	289 (F8)	Key to close the overlay (Unity KeyCode value)
ToggleKey	297 (F16)	Debug open/close toggle
FastForwardMultiplier	4	Emulation speed while holding Left Shift
MasterVolume	0.6	0.0–1.0, adjusted live with , / .
HeldModelDistance	0.55	Handheld distance from camera, adjusted with + / −
AutoLoadLastRom	true	Reload the last played ROM on open
EnableCabinFeverRelief	true	Whether playing relieves Cabin Fever
DebugOverlayEnabled	false	Show the developer IMGUI panel

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🔨 Building from source

Requirements: .NET 6 SDK and a working MelonLoader install of The Long Dark (for the reference assemblies).

The project references DLLs from a local Libs/ folder. Copy these out of your game's MelonLoader install into Libs/:

• MelonLoader.dll, 0Harmony.dll (from MelonLoader/net6/)
• Il2CppInterop.Runtime.dll, Il2Cppmscorlib.dll, Assembly-CSharp.dll, UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll, UnityEngine.IMGUIModule.dll, UnityEngine.InputLegacyModule.dll, UnityEngine.AssetBundleModule.dll, UnityEngine.PhysicsModule.dll (from MelonLoader/Il2CppAssemblies/)

Then build:

dotnet build -c Release

The output CabinBoy.dll lands in bin/Release/net6.0/. Copy it into TheLongDark/Mods/.

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🙏 Credits

• CabinBoy — Lzc4 & Marcy(the Person who made the awesome looking 3d Modell)
• UnityGB — Game Boy emulation core
• MelonLoader & ModComponent — modding framework

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⚖️ Legal

This project does not contain or distribute any Nintendo ROMs, BIOS files, or copyrighted assets. "Game Boy" is a trademark of Nintendo. Use only ROMs you are legally entitled to use. This is a non-commercial fan project and is not affiliated with Nintendo or Hinterland Studio.