Hardwareby Tech Talkies · HacksterHardware · build
A Game Boy on e-paper, pushed to 30 FPS
Bo Made It ran a Waveshare e-paper board at 30 frames per second, measured the power draw, and kept it running for about 20 hours to see what happens to the panel.
Build sheet
- Device page
- Game Boy →
- Display
- 1.54in e-paper, 200x200
- Controller
- Custom ESP32-C3 gamepad
- Language
- C (ESP-IDF)
- Refresh
- ~30 fps
Can I build this?Intermediate · AI 3/5 · $30–60
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- AI-buildability
- 3/5
- Time
- A weekend
- Cost
- $30–60
The InkBoy driver and emulator already exist on GitHub, so flashing is easy, but the custom ESP32-C3 gamepad needs soldering and wiring, and tuning e-paper waveforms is risky and hard to get right.
Tools
USB-C data cablesoldering ironcomputer with ESP-IDF
Starter prompt
Based on "A Game Boy on e-paper, pushed to 30 FPS" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/a-game-boy-on-e-paper-pushed-to-30-fps
Write ESP-IDF firmware for a Waveshare ESP32-S3 e-paper board (200x200 1.54in panel) that runs a Game Boy emulator, reading ROMs from a microSD card in FAT32 and drawing dithered black-and-white frames. Add a BLE gamepad input from a custom ESP32-C3 controller, and an optional on-screen FPS counter. Start with the display driver and a single test ROM before adding input.
Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).
Story
E-paper gets picked because it draws almost nothing between updates. Bo Made It flipped that idea on its head by driving a Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper board at 30 fps while running a Game Boy emulator. The video breaks down power draw for idle, emulation and full gameplay with the screen updating nonstop.
The panel was the other question. The run lasted about 20 hours of constant updates to check for permanent image retention. The driver and emulator are published as InkBoy on GitHub, and the project's own warning is blunt: custom waveforms and high refresh rates may cause permanent image retention or panel damage, so run it at your own risk.
If you want to try it yourself, InkBoy is the thing to steal. It runs on a 200x200 e-paper board with an SD ROM browser, speaker audio and a custom ESP32-C3 gamepad, and it builds with ESP-IDF.
Resources · 2
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