These days, even an old Game Boy will set you back $100 or more, and a new handheld console will be many multiples of that. However, you can build a really cheap handheld gaming toy if you follow [Chris Dell’s] example.
In [Chris]’s own words, he used Rust to build a $1 handheld gaming console. How is that possible? Well, it all comes down to the CH32V003—a microcontroller cheaper than just about anything else out there. It sells for just 9 cents in bulk, and it’s no slouch either. The RISC-V device is a fully-fledged 32-bit chip running at 48 MHz, though with only 2 KB of RAM and 16 KB of flash. Still, that’s more than enough to make some little games. To this end, [Chris] paired the CH32V003 with an SSD1306 OLED display, and three tactile pushbuttons. He then whipped up some code in Rust with the aid of the ch32-hal project, implementing a neat platform game that ran at a healthy 25 fps.
The CH32V003 probably won’t be starring in a new handheld gaming revolution anytime soon. Still, it’s always interesting to see just what can be achieved with one of the cheapest microcontrollers on the market.
[Thanks to Kian Ryan for the tip!]