Running Pokémon With A Compass And Straightedge

A developer created CasNum, a system that implements computation using only compass and straightedge operations—the same geometric tools used in ancient mathematics. The project represents numbers as points in a Cartesian plane and performs arithmetic through geometric constructions. As a proof of concept, they modified a Game Boy emulator to use these operations for its ALU instructions, successfully booting Pokémon at roughly 1 FPS after extensive caching. The project demonstrates how classical geometric constraints mirror computational limitations and explores the boundary between analog and digital computing.