TL;DR
- YouTuber Wenting Zhang has created a Game Boy emulator using nothing more than a 4.7-inch E-Ink touchscreen and the ESP32 chip.
- Unlike conventional E-Ink displays, the Paper Boy S3 features a refresh rate suitable for Original Game Boy titles.
- The Paper Boy S3 has some limitations at the moment, although the creator has shown what can be achieved with basic hardware and some additional tweaks.
Retro gaming enthusiasts have tons of great options when it comes to emulating Game Boy games today. But every once in a while we come across a concept that pushes the boundaries of what we thought was possible. One YouTuber has done just that by building a Game Boy emulator using an e-ink display.
We know what you’re thinking: Aren’t E-Ink displays known for their slow refresh rates that make them primarily suitable for turning the pages of your e-book? Well, that’s technically true, but YouTuber Going Zhang overcame those obstacles by developing an e-ink driver with a high refresh rate (via PC gamer).
The result is the Paper Boy S3, built with the M5Stack PaperS3 and ESP32 chipset, a popular choice for e-ink based projects including a small handmade e-reader as well as an open source smart watch. For the uninitiated, PaperS3 is a development device used by developers to modify and create experiences for e-ink displays.
Before bringing this project to life, Zhang spent four years developing the portable E-Ink display with a 60Hz refresh rate, which we know as Mode flow.
This experience served as a springboard for the Paper Boy S3, turning a 4.7-inch, 960×540 E-Ink touchscreen into a Game Boy emulator capable of running original Game Boy titles like Pokémon Blue. Game Boy Color support isn’t ready yet, while Zhang also mentions some issues with Bluetooth connectivity.
Additionally, since the M5Stack PaperS3 doesn’t offer huge speakers, Zhang had to get creative to improve the Paper Boy S3’s sound. Watch the video above for a closer look at the project, which also includes all the technical details that brought this project to life.
While it’s not perfect, the Paper Boy S3 proves that you can build just about anything if you put your mind to it.
The bad news, as Zhang points out in the video above, is that the M5Stack PaperS3 has reached the end of its lifespan, and the creator is hopeful that a replacement or next-generation model will be available soon. This also explains why there is no crowdfunding effort to bring it to market, unlike Modos Flow.
Zhang has uploaded the Paper Boy S3 firmware, allowing enthusiasts with access to the right hardware to try out this exclusive Game Boy emulator.
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