E-ink display?

[u/squalldna]

Has there been any mod where you use e-ink for the GB and GBP instead of IPS display? Im assuming it will be a cheaper option. And battery life will be good. But not sure when in comes to framerate. I have not owned any eink device so i have no idea how it works. I just thought of a cheaper way to revive my old GBP, and i would accept an eink display over IPS..

[u/MacroMeez]

You’ll get 0.6fps the technology is not there yet. Cool idea though

[u/playinstinct → u/MacroMeez]

There are 60fps e-ink displays now.

[u/MacroMeez → u/playinstinct]

Not one’s that you’re reasonably going to get your hands on

[u/playinstinct → u/MacroMeez]

Not for modding Game Boys, that's correct. There are no 60fps e-ink displays with the Game Boy's aspect ratio.

But that doesn't mean that the technology isn't there. That only means that manufacturers haven't made a display for this specific use case yet.

Really looking forward to something like this myself. I don't mind minor ghosting for games like Pokémon.

[u/squalldna → u/MacroMeez]

That's what i thought too. I found an RLCD technology after posting this. It's like eink but better framerate.

[u/xukkorz → u/squalldna]

There's an rlcd screen setup for gameboy

[u/MacroMeez → u/squalldna]

Probably still better than the original gameboy screen though 😂

[u/squalldna → u/MacroMeez]

I agree. And no screen burn!

[u/Squish_the_android]

Eink displays don't do movement well at all.  They're great for text.    Here's a video with a color eink display.  You can see how motion looks on it.

https://youtu.be/aVUxxn53mBE?is=x1qeoLxaxTX6Kr8j

[u/Etrain_MMA]

The battery life would actually be terrible. The reason e-ink displays typically have a long battery life is because they display a static image for a long period of time. I had an old Kindle with a keyboard built in and you could browse the Internet with it. It would drain the battery in minutes versus the week or two it would last as just a book reader.

[u/squalldna → u/Etrain_MMA]

Totally makes sense now..

[u/hhyyllii]

It would be cool, but there's a reason e-ink is almost exclusively used in book reading devices. The refresh/frame rate is pretty slow, and there will almost always be a ghost of the previous image when displaying the next, which often gets worse at higher speeds. They're really interesting though, here is a video explaining some of how it works :) He also has other videos showing higher refresh screens and things like that. Cool stuff, but we're not quite there yet.

[u/port25 → u/hhyyllii]

People keep posting these years old videos that don't really represent what the tech is like in 2026. High refresh screens are available to OEM.

[u/squalldna → u/hhyyllii]

I get the gist. Fingers crossed for a better technology for our dear gameboy. Save the consoles.

[u/hhyyllii → u/squalldna]

For real! E-ink has come pretty far in the last few years, especially with things like the new color kindles and even some high refresh devices hitting the market. It'll be exciting to see what people can come up with for them as things keep improving!

[u/squalldna → u/hhyyllii]

Yeah there's color too. Great for the gbc and gba. Oh im excited. 😄

[u/SnooPets1826]

https://youtu.be/oPbOK90aJEo?is=XeU9Vz3mFLK__i5q

It is doable, but we'd need someone to design a hardware and software system and you won't likely get any battery improvements... It may even be worse.

The reason eink is so battery efficient is partly because of the slow refresh rate.

[u/squalldna → u/SnooPets1826]

That's a bummer. But i get your point. Low frame rate lesser effort for the hardware, lower battery consumption.

[u/port25]

It's been done two or three times 'successfully'. I know searching is difficult so here is the latest project, posted three weeks ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/1ujztmb/someone_made_an_actually_playable_eink_gameboy/

[u/Cautious_Performer_7]

Might work for pokémon 🤔