Say hello to the Pocket Sprite, a mini emulator born from a collaboration between hardware hacker Jeroen Domburg and Steve K, who tackled fabrication. It doesn’t seem possible, but it is a fully functioning emulator that easily fits into the palm of your hand and is small enough to be used as a keychain. Don’t let the size fool you, though. The Pocket Sprite crams some amazing specs and builds quality into what limited room it has to work with.
The ESP32 dual-core 240 MHz MCU processor is what really sets it apart from the other emulators of similar stature. Its 25 x 22 mm OLED display is cropped to the same screen ratio (5:4) as a Game Boy and is capable of 60+ fps. The rechargeable battery is stated to give “hours of gameplay and months of standby.” A welcome feature of the standby mode is that it pauses the game being played, allowing it to resume when powered on again. And it still has room for a speaker!
According to the campaign details, the Pocket Sprite “Plays all Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Sega Master System, and Game Gear games.” Updates, ROMs, and additional emulators can be uploaded to its 128MB internal flash drive by connecting to the internal wifi/Bluetooth. So you can upload all of your favorite arcade classics. On top of that, since it’s open-source software/hardware, it makes for a great software and hardware development platform.
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The Pocket Sprite has been in the works for nearly a year and is currently available via its crowdfunding campaign on crowdsupply.com. The campaign has well over a month left but has exceeded its $20k goal. However, you can still back the project.
At the moment, there are four different options available for purchase:
- The PocketSprite is assembled, tested, and ready to rock and roll $55
- The PocketSprite – Hacker Edition (Early Bird) in “Kit Form” $45
- The PocketSprite – Hacker Edition in “Kit Form” $55
- The PocketSprite – Deluxe Edition (aluminum case/quartz screen protector) $199
For more information on Pocket Sprite, head over to their Crowd Supply campaign or visit their website at pocketsprite.com.
