Arduino Powered Gameboy
Hardware- 4 Devlogs
- 82 Total hours
Using an Altoids box, and a arduino, I'll create a phone! This project won't be easy, but lets make it happen!
Hi guys!
I’ve been working for 24 hours on this project and the new features are perfected
New:
• Flappy Bird
• Timer/Stopwatch
• Flappy Bird - I’ve added another classic game to this: Flappy Bird! There still needs to be some tweaks to this, as once you click the button, it will leave a little mark once it goes up, but other than that, EEPROM and everything work!
•Stopwatch - Neat feature that I thought may be helpful in the real world, it does work and can save your time!
What next?
• I’m thinking of adding a world clock. I would need to design the app, link it to the Arduino Nano ESP32, and then display. Let me know what you guys think!
Ship #1
Pending review
Devlog - 03
A Curiously Minty Gameboy
Officially, I’ve given my project a name: The Minty Boy!
I call it that because it’s not just a regular Gameboy, it has a little “kick” to it, like a mint.
Instead of just running the 3 regular games: 2048, Tetris, and Pong, it can now send messages and display the weather accurately; moreover, I’ve added the feature where it can track your IP address and find out what the weather is in your location, and on the home screen, display the date/time of your location (according to the IP Address).
This project is reaching the end.
The end of the prototype, of course.
This is just the beginning of the Minty boy.
Devlog -02
A Curiously Minty Gameboy
This is probably one of my favorite builds so far—a tiny, Altoids powered “Gameboy” that somehow turned into a full-on mini gaming system.
What started as a simple project with an Arduino Nano quickly got an upgrade. I switched over to the Arduino Nano ESP32, and that change honestly unlocked everything. With more power, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, and way more flexibility, the project went from “cool gadget” to something that actually feels like a real handheld console.
On the software side, I’ve packed in a bunch of classic games:
2048 (which took forever to get smooth and responsive)
Tetris (definitely the most satisfying one to play)
Pong (simple, but it just feels right on this device)
But the part I’m most proud of isn’t even the games—it’s the settings system. I built out a full menu where you can actually customize the device like a real piece of tech. Inside settings, you can:
Connect to WiFi
Use Bluetooth
Switch between light and dark mode
And even clear all saved data if you want a fresh start
That’s something I didn’t originally plan, but once I started adding features, it just made sense to treat it like a real OS instead of just a game launcher.
Hardware-wise, everything is crammed into an Altoids tin, which makes it feel super compact and kind of ridiculous in the best way. There’s still some tweaking left—mainly refining controls and polishing the UI—but it’s at the point where it’s fully usable and actually fun.
Overall, this project taught me a ton—not just about Arduino and ESP32, but about designing systems, managing features, and turning a small idea into something way bigger than I expected.
Devlog - 01
A Curiously Minty Gameboy😏
Using an Altoids tin and an Arduino, I’ve been building a fully functional mini “gameboy,” and I’m now at the point where the project is almost complete. Over the past few days, I’ve put in a lot of time refining the code, especially working on the 2048 game feature. I’m thinking about adding Pong and Tetris at this stage. After a long stretch of late-night debugging and tweaking, I finally have the game running smoothly on the display, which feels like a huge accomplishment.
At this stage, most of the core functionality is finished, and everything is coming together exactly how I imagined. The display works, the logic behind the game is solid, and the overall structure of the code is nearly finalized. The main thing left to polish is the pushbutton input system, since the controls still need to be a bit more responsive and reliable.
Once I fix that, the project will essentially be complete, and I can focus on final touches like optimizing performance and maybe adding a few extra features. It’s been a challenging but super rewarding experience, and I’m really close to having a fully working Arduino-powered “phone” inside an Altoids tin.
