Summary
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E-ink on ESP32 M5Stack PaperS3 runs at 60Hz, turning low refresh limits into smooth motion
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Game Boy emulation is surprisingly playable by rendering the 160×144 area efficiently
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PaperBoyS3 is on M5Burner; download it now.
If you’ve ever read one of my articles on ESP32, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of e-ink devices. They look amazing, to the point that you can just hang one on your wall and it would fit perfectly with the rest of your art. However, they have low refresh rates, which means they are often tasked with displaying photos and smart home control panels. Which is not bad; It’s just a limitation.
Well, a genius has been working hard to make that weakness a thing of the past. They managed to get an ESP32-powered e-ink display to run at a smooth 60Hz, meaning you can play Game Boy games at an extremely playable frame rate.
This Game Boy emulator on the M5Stack PaperS3 is surprisingly playable
It’s basically as good as the real thing.
How he saw it pc gamerThis incredible feat was accomplished by Visits channel on YouTube. To get the job done, they used an M5Stack PaperS3, which combines an ESP32-S3 with a 4.7-inch e-ink touchscreen. As such, getting a Game Boy emulator up and running is as simple as turning the screen into a digital Game Boy and letting people play by pressing on-screen buttons.
Because the screen plays at 60Hz, playing games on the “Paper Boy” is actually very doable, mainly because the resolution of the Game Boy was 160×144. This means they could focus most of the processing on that small square, meaning more power to render the game at a playable frame rate. Wenting even went so far as to modify the PaperS3’s ringtone to replicate the Game Boy’s sound system.
If you want to try this yourself, you can find PaperBoyS3 on M5Burner and download it to your device right now. It would definitely make replaying the classics a lot more fun.
