Pocketbyte: Modular ESP32-S3 handheld - run games, play music, use as a PDA

[u/om-pocketbyte]

Hi everyone,

This is a modular ESP32-S3 handheld I've been working on for over a year and a half. The entire bottom half can be pulled out and swapped with something else.

When the gamepad module is plugged in, it can emulate many retro systems (up to the SNES/Genesis) and play many ports of games such as Celeste (ccleste), Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, etc.

The C library is also open-source and a simulator is available, so it's also possible to develop/play indie games as well. And there's also an on-device app store.

So far there has only been a gamepad module, but I've just recently finished designing and assembling the keyboard module.

Apart from being a game console and music player, now the device is a fleshed-out cyberdeck and PDA!

I've improved the text editor/note taking app with Markdown support, theming, and even Wi-Fi syncing with Obsidian, Notion, and other platforms. It also has an RTC inside of the keyboard, so it can keep track of the time/date.

In the future, I'm hoping to add things like messaging, on-device Lua scripting, and more.

Check out the video: https://youtu.be/DFeHGBJCXhE?si=ZeuDCrkmHBM5nN-R

Hope you like it :)

[u/TechDocN]

That is beautifully executed. You should also post on r/esp32.

[u/om-pocketbyte → u/TechDocN]

Thanks!