Tag Archives: Gaming

This Tiny E-Paper Game Boy lets you play Super Mario Land at 30 FPS on a reading screen

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Who would have thought an e-paper screen could run Game Boy games at 30 FPS? That’s exactly what Bo Made It’s InkBoy project sets out to do, turning a tiny display designed for simple, static content into a surprisingly capable retro gaming setup. It can even run Super Mario Land smoothly enough to make you forget you’re playing on a screen better suited to an e-reader.

Built around an ESP32 development board with an integrated e-paper display, InkBoy takes on one of the technology’s biggest limitations: slow refresh rates. E-paper is great for reading because it uses very little power to maintain an image, but updating that image quickly enough for a video game is a different story. Instead of accepting the usual limitations, the project finds a way to make the screen respond much faster.

Designer: Bo Made It

The trick lies in how the display is driven. E-paper screens form images by moving tiny particles using electrical pulses. A conventional refresh involves a carefully controlled sequence that takes time and can produce the familiar flashing effect seen on e-readers. InkBoy cuts down this process by using much shorter pulses and updating individual pixels rather than repeatedly refreshing the entire screen. This results in a much quicker response without replacing the display itself.

Getting the image to look right is just as important as making it move. InkBoy uses carefully controlled pixel transitions to produce different shades of gray, although this can leave faint trails behind moving objects. There’s also a faster black-and-white mode that uses dithering to create the impression of additional shades. It gives the project some flexibility, letting the developer trade tonal detail for a more responsive image when needed.

The project builds on ideas explored in PaperBoy, an earlier e-paper gaming experiment by Wenting Zhang. InkBoy brings a similar theme to a compact development board, using existing Game Boy emulation projects to handle the games themselves. Titles can be loaded from a microSD card, and the software supports saving progress and resuming a session later.

The rest of the setup is equally technical as the rest of the build. Controls are managed by a separate ESP32-C3 board housed in a 3D-printed enclosure and connected to the display module over USB-C. Bluetooth pairing is also supported, while a built-in speaker handles game audio. Together, these elements turn what could have been a simple proof of concept into a more complete little gaming device.

There are still limitations with this DIY. Some games struggle to maintain the target frame rate, and the modified refresh method can leave ghosting on the screen. The long-term effects of repeatedly using unconventional waveforms are also uncertain, particularly when it comes to image retention and potential permanent marks. However, InkBoy turns one of e-paper’s biggest limitations into its most surprising feature, bringing classic Game Boy gaming to a screen nobody would expect to play on!

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Xbox finally made a Nano controller that fits in your hoodie pocket

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The Xbox controller is one of the best things ever put in a human hand and one of the worst things ever put in a backpack. Those big grips and that two-AA battery bay feel great on the couch and ridiculous on a train. 8BitDo worked out the pocket problem a while ago, and its wired Ultimate Mini squeezed the Xbox layout into a $35 body weighing about 6.7 ounces (189.6 grams). Microsoft’s answer is the Xbox Nano Controller, a little over 5 inches long and just 3.5 ounces (99 grams). It keeps all 18 standard inputs and swaps the AA bay for a built-in rechargeable battery.

At $49.99, the Nano undercuts the $64.99 standard controller by $15 but still costs more than the $30 to $35 pads from CRKD and 8BitDo. Native Xbox Wireless and a programmable Action Button for screenshots and clips are the premium on offer. I am happy to pay it, mostly because Xbox under CEO Asha Sharma has been on a listening streak. She took over Microsoft Gaming in February, lowered Game Pass pricing, and reportedly spends a few hours a month answering player support tickets herself. A pocketable pad for kids, commuters, and small hands looks a lot like that listening turned into plastic. It ships November 4 in the US and 35 other markets.

Designer: Xbox

A landscape slab with stub grips and a familiar face

The Nano looks like the Xbox Wireless Controller after a dictionary fell on it. The face is a single inset plate with a visible seam, the grips are short stubs, and the shell in Microsoft’s images is the same Robot White as the standard pad. Everything else stays familiar, from the staggered stick layout and faceted hybrid D-pad to the textured stick caps and glossy black ABXY buttons with colored letters. Shrinking a controller usually means redrawing it, and Xbox mostly shrank the drawing it already had. Colors beyond white have not been announced, though the May leak showed a black model too.

Each side of the top edge carries a single pad labeled LB over LT or RB over RT, which puts bumper and trigger in one compact housing, with the USB-C port and pairing button sitting between them. The back is smooth and matte, with a recessed label panel and four round recesses whose purpose Microsoft has not explained. How independently the bumper and trigger move is something only hands-on time can settle. The overall rectangle will look familiar to anyone who has browsed 8BitDo’s catalog, and Engadget said the leaked version looked like something that company would make. 8BitDo spent years proving the shape works, and Microsoft is borrowing the proof.

Eighteen inputs, one new button, and a few blanks

All 18 standard gameplay inputs made the trip, and the one addition is a programmable Action Button that appears to sit below the Xbox logo. Through the Xbox Accessories app it can fire off screenshots, gameplay capture, or other shortcuts, and the same app handles button remapping. It also seems to take over the job of the standard pad’s Share button, which has no obvious twin on the Nano’s face. Microsoft has not shared battery life, rumble or Impulse Trigger support, or whether a headphone jack exists. Those answers will decide how the Nano stacks up against the cheaper pads in its aisle.

Connectivity runs on Xbox Wireless for consoles and Bluetooth for Windows PCs, iOS, Android, and select smart TVs. A USB-C cable handles charging and is sold separately. Tecnoblog’s May report on Brazilian Anatel filings described a compact cloud-focused pad that looks a lot like the Nano, with Wi-Fi 6 and a 500 mAh battery, but Microsoft’s launch post mentions only Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth, so the Wi-Fi part stays unconfirmed. The cloud angle still shows up in the bundles, since Samsung’s Gaming Hub streams Game Pass titles and select Samsung TVs and Meta Quest headsets carry holiday Nano offers with two months of Game Pass Ultimate for new US members. That is a lot of screens for 3.5 ounces.

Where $49.99 lands among the pocket pads

The $49.99 price parks the Nano between the $30 to $35 pocket pads and the $64.99 standard controller. 8BitDo’s wired Ultimate Mini offers Hall effect sticks and triggers, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and an RGB Fire Ring for $35, which is a lot of spec per dollar. The Nano answers with first-party Xbox Wireless, a built-in battery, and zero cable tether, though Microsoft has not said what sits under its sticks. So the choice comes down to whether you value a plug-in spec sheet or a cord-free pad that speaks Xbox Wireless natively. Microsoft is also leaning on Minecraft Dungeons II, which supports four players, as the obvious reason to own a few.

Designing for hands the standard pad does not fit is familiar territory for Xbox, which built the Xbox Adaptive Controller, first glimpsed as the Project Z leak in 2018. The Nano takes that instinct and points it at small hands and small pockets. It also fits the Sharma era’s pattern of making Xbox cheaper to join and easier to carry. Grips this short will get their real verdict in a three-hour session, and I am curious to run one. 8BitDo drew the map. Xbox just showed up with the logo.

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