InkBoy: the Game Boy on an e-ink screen, at 30 fps
By Tgames · · 1 min read
InkBoy runs Game Boy games on a small e-ink screen, at around 30 fps, in black and white or in grayscale. The project is open source.
The Game Boy on e-paper
An e-ink screen, like the one in an e-reader, is generally considered too slow for video games. InkBoy, released by YouTuber Bo Made It (kuslota on GitHub), proves otherwise: it runs Game Boy games at around 30 frames per second on an e-paper screen. Its display driver interrupts pixels midway through their transition, which creates intermediate grays: enough to recreate the Game Boy's four shades. A faster, dithered black-and-white mode is also available.
The hardware
Good to know
The author warns that driving an e-paper screen this fast can cause permanent image retention or damage the panel, and its lifespan has not been tested. No commercial games are provided; the free game Big2Small is included, and anything else is played with your own games. On the original hardware side, the Game Boy Advance has just received a port of Super Mario Galaxy.
Sources: InkBoy (GitHub) · InkBoy controller (GitHub) · Time Extension
The Game Boy on e-paper
An e-ink screen, like the one in an e-reader, is generally considered too slow for video games. InkBoy, released by YouTuber Bo Made It (kuslota on GitHub), proves otherwise: it runs Game Boy games at around 30 frames per second on an e-paper screen. Its display driver interrupts pixels midway through their transition, which creates intermediate grays: enough to recreate the Game Boy's four shades. A faster, dithered black-and-white mode is also available.
The hardware
- A Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper-1.54 V2 board, with a 200 × 200 pixel screen, a speaker and a microSD reader.
- A FAT32 microSD card for games, saves and settings.
- The InkBoy controller, based on an ESP32-C3, connected over Bluetooth or USB-C, whose design files are published. Regular Bluetooth controllers are not supported yet.
Good to know
The author warns that driving an e-paper screen this fast can cause permanent image retention or damage the panel, and its lifespan has not been tested. No commercial games are provided; the free game Big2Small is included, and anything else is played with your own games. On the original hardware side, the Game Boy Advance has just received a port of Super Mario Galaxy.
Sources: InkBoy (GitHub) · InkBoy controller (GitHub) · Time Extension
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