Samwise Makers' News
July 3, 2026
PaperBoy: Game Boy Emulator Hits 60 FPS on E Ink
E Ink displays aren’t known for speed — their typical waveform refresh method tops out well below real-time gaming. Wenting Zhang’s PaperBoy project throws that assumption out by pushing a Game Boy emulator to 60 FPS on the M5Stack PaperS3’s 4.7-inch, 960×540 E Ink screen. The trick: bypass the standard display driver entirely and drive pixels directly via square waves, trading grey-scale fidelity for blazing speed. Audio comes out the same square-wave route through the on-board buzzer. Source code lives on GitHub and pre-built firmware is available via M5Burner — though you’ll need to hunt for a PaperS3, as M5Stack has discontinued the board.
Sources: CNX Software Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Zelda: Twilight Princess Successfully Ported to 3DS
With a full decompilation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess now available, at least one developer decided to find out whether a port to Nintendo’s 3DS was actually feasible — and the answer turns out to be yes. Despite the early state of the project, the game runs on original 3DS hardware with surprising stability, leveraging the decompiled source to rewrite platform-specific code for the handheld’s ARM processor and limited RAM. The achievement demonstrates the snowballing value of game decompilation efforts: once the source is reconstructed, community members can rapidly explore platforms the original developers never considered. Full source for the port has been shared publicly.
Denmark Police Walk Back Airport Drone Sighting Reports
After last September’s widely reported drone sightings at Danish airports sparked concern among aviation authorities, police in Jutland have quietly retracted their incident report — concluding the ‘drones’ may actually have been misidentified conventional aircraft. The reversal is notable because the drone enthusiast community played an active role in the investigation, cross-referencing known flight paths to show plausible non-drone explanations for each sighting. Hackaday’s coverage contrasts Denmark’s measured approach with the UK’s overreaction to the 2018 Gatwick incident, which grounded flights for days and cost millions. As drone regulations tighten globally, how authorities handle ambiguous reports matters more than ever.
Open Healthware Conference Returns July 9–10 in San Francisco
The Open Healthware Conference returns July 9–10 at San Francisco’s Gray Area venue, bringing together makers, clinicians, and researchers at the intersection of open-source hardware and healthcare. Admission is free, supported by NSF funding, making it one of the more accessible gatherings for anyone building medical or assistive technology outside of traditional commercial pipelines. The two-day format mixes talks with tables where attendees can demo projects and prototypes. Whether you’re working on low-cost diagnostics, accessible assistive devices, or just curious how open hardware principles apply to healthcare, this is a rare opportunity to connect with practitioners and inventors working at that exact boundary.
Sources: Hackster.io Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Cyberdeck Raspberry Pi 4 Mini Music Workstation
This week’s 3D Thursday feature is a compact cyberdeck built for music production, pairing a Raspberry Pi 4 with a Teensy 4.1 for dedicated audio processing inside a fully printed enclosure. The build includes an 800×480 Waveshare DSI touchscreen, a 10,000 mAh battery for portable use, and a Rii Mini X1 wireless keyboard squeezed into a form factor that actually fits in a bag. The combination of RPi 4 Linux flexibility with Teensy’s real-time audio capabilities means the workstation can run DAW software while simultaneously handling low-latency synthesis. Design files are available for anyone who wants to build or adapt the chassis for their own music rig.
Sources: Adafruit Blog Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Titan Mini: Compact Renesas RA8P1 Edge AI Board at $44
The Titan Mini packs serious AI horsepower into a compact form factor. Built around the Renesas R7KA8P1 SoC — combining a 1 GHz Cortex-M85 primary core with a 250 MHz Cortex-M33 secondary and an Arm Ethos-U55 NPU rated at 256 GOPS — the board targets embedded AI inference without the bulk of an SBC. It ships with 32 MB SDRAM, 8 MB QSPI flash, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi HAT-compatible header, and runs RT-Thread RTOS out of the box. At $44.23 on AliExpress, it undercuts similar edge AI platforms while maintaining broad peripheral compatibility. Maker-friendly documentation is available via the RT-Thread community.
Sources: CNX Software Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Waveshare ESP32-C5-LCD-1.47: First Dual-Band WiFi 6 IoT Dev Board
Waveshare’s ESP32-C5-LCD-1.47 is the first widely available dev board built around Espressif’s ESP32-C5, bringing dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi 6 to the maker ecosystem alongside Bluetooth 5.0 LE and 802.15.4 support for Zigbee and Thread. The RISC-V core clocks at 240 MHz, and the board ships with a 1.47-inch 320×172 TFT LCD, USB-C, and a standard 2.54 mm header pinout. Priced at roughly $12–$14 on Waveshare’s store and AliExpress, it’s a compelling upgrade path for WiFi-hungry projects that have outgrown the 2.4 GHz band. ESP-IDF and Arduino framework support is confirmed.
Sources: CNX Software Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
KolibriOS 0.7.7: Assembly-Built OS Still Turns Heads in 2026
In Hackaday’s Jenny’s Daily Drivers series, Jenny List reviews KolibriOS 0.7.7 — an open-source operating system written entirely in x86 assembly language, descended from MenuetOS and small enough to run from a floppy disk. Minimum requirements are genuinely minimal: 1 MB of disk space, 8 MB RAM, and a 586-class 32-bit CPU. On modern hardware it boots almost instantly, landing in a pixelated but functional GUI complete with games, DOSBox, graphics editors, and two web browsers. The catch: neither browser supports HTTPS, walling off most of the modern internet. For makers with old hardware looking for a lightweight emulator platform, though, it’s worth a look.
Top Crowdfunding
Kickstarter / Indiegogo
1. Sipeed NanoKVM-Go — Kickstarter; surpassed $50K HKD goal within hours of Jul 1 launch
2. ESP32P4C61-TINY — Kickstarter; ~$40, shipping July 2026
3. None this week
GitHub Trending
Makers & Hardware
No maker / hardware repos in top trending this week — check github.com/trending for the latest.
Upcoming Events
Maker Faire Hamamatsu — Jul 4, Hamamatsu, Japan
Open Healthware Conference — Jul 9–10, San Francisco, CA (FREE)
Maker Faire Edmonton — Jul 17–19, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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