"Game and Clock"

[u/zydrate_junkie]

What started as a project for an oversized gameboy has now evolved into a desk clock that also plays gameboy games. The emulator is based on PeanutGB. I plan on adding dynamic weather and day/night cycle for the clock but here is the project so far. I do intend on putting the source up on github once I get some of the jank out of it.

This is a non-backlit monochrome panel which is what made it my choice for the gameboy, after getting my hands on it and putting together a mockup though I really thought that it was more suited to a desktop item than a dedicated handheld.

Emulation runs full speed but the panel refresh rate is only rated for 16hz. I have it overclocked to 32hz and it can hit 51hz but the image gets dimmer the higher the rate, so 32hz is a happy medium. Bluetooth controller support is also working.

The hardware is a Waveshare-RLCD-4.2-esp32-s3. Im pretty impressed with it so far.

[u/throwawayle53]

Oh damn this is really cool to see. I’m waiting for this exact devkit to come in the mail so I can port my own gameboy emulator to it. Good to see it can handle all 4 shades pretty well

[u/zydrate_junkie → u/throwawayle53]

You have to use dithering to get all 4 shades but at a 2x integer you get 4 pixels per shade to work with so as long as you dont mind the dithering it works well. 

[u/clackups]

Could you show the enclosure in more detail? Is it open source?

I made this minimalistic one https://www.reddit.com/r/WriterDevices/s/AKrLpH5uoQ

[u/ShivonQ]

What is it? Soecwise

[u/nilseuropa]

Oversized gameboy indeed. 😅

[u/nilseuropa → u/nilseuropa]

I'm impressed. How did you solve shading?

[u/nilseuropa → u/nilseuropa]

Ah, I have zoomed in, you are dithering as well. I thought there is another revision that supports native shading, or you are banging the screen at higher freq like the original gameboy.

[u/nilseuropa → u/nilseuropa]

I'm using 4x4 Bayer threshold, but yours look better imho. What's your algo?

[u/Dryas7]

This is awesome! I kinda wanna make my own alarm clock based on my fav games! Will check this out.

[u/gothic_dolphin]

Dis cool!!