YouTuber built 30-frame-per-second grayscale Game Boy, then open sourced it for all e-paper displays

YouTuber Bo Made It recently showcased a custom open-source E Ink driver that could potentially enable any display to achieve similar results to the classic Game Boy. Demonstrated on a tiny ESP32-S3-powered e-paper board, the display produced a grayscale version of the Game Boy screen, albeit not as visually appealing as the original olive-green screen.

E Ink displays, such as the one used in this demonstration, are known for their power efficiency by retaining screen states without continuous energy consumption. However, the trade-off is a slow pixel-changing process, making it impractical for displaying fast-moving images. To overcome this limitation, Bo developed a custom driver that shortened the refresh waveform and allowed per-pixel driving, reducing ghosting and enabling four shades of grey.

While not a first attempt, Bo's method offers a unique approach to faster E Ink refresh times by utilizing stock hardware. However, this achievement comes with a warning: modifying E Ink screens to achieve higher refresh rates can potentially damage the panel and has not been evaluated for long-term panel life. As such, Bo advises against attempting this on sensitive devices like a modded Kindle and recommends using a cheap E Ink screen instead.