Summary
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The e-ink on the ESP32 M5Stack PaperS3 runs at 60Hz, turning low refresh limits into smooth motion
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The Game Boy emulation is surprisingly playable, effectively rendering a 160×144 area.
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PaperBoyS3 on M5Burner; download now.
If you’ve read any of my ESP32 pieces, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of e-Ink devices. They look as incredible as possible just hang one on your wall and fits perfectly with the rest of your art. However, they have low refresh rates, meaning they are often empowered to display photos and smart home dashboards. This is not a bad thing; this is just a limitation.
Well, one hardworking genius worked hard to make this weakness a thing of the past. They’ve managed to get an ESP32-powered e-Ink display running at a smooth 60Hz, which means you can play Game Boy games on it at extremely playable frame rates.
This Game Boy emulator on M5Stack PaperS3 is amazingly playable
It’s basically as good as the real deal
As seen PCGamerThis amazing feat was accomplished by Go channel on YouTube. To get the job done, they used the M5Stack PaperS3, which combines the ESP32-S3 with a 4.7-inch e-Ink touchscreen. So getting a Game Boy emulator up and running is as simple as turning the screen into a digital Game Boy and letting people play games by pressing buttons on the screen.
Since the screen is displayed at 60Hz, it is actually quite possible to play games on “Paper Boy” because the resolution of the Game Boy was 160×144. This means they can focus most of the processing on that small square, which means more power to render the game at a playable frame rate. Wenting even went so far as to scratch the PaperS3’s audio signal to replicate the Game Boy’s sound system.
If you want to try it yourself, you can find PaperBoyS3 on M5Burner and download it to your device now. It would certainly make recreating the classics more fun.
