The First Battery Free Gameboy

[GhostRoadieBL]

Summary

 Jasper de Winkel and his small team, a group of Computer Scientists, have finished a completely battery free original Game Boy. The "Engage" utilized solar panels and energy gathering from button presses to power the Game Boy. 

Other innovation has been developed on the software side with rapid state saving and loading to allow the game to continue at the exact millisecond it shut down if you happen to not mash enough buttons to power the device. 

 

 

Quote

"The handheld device is a "proof by demonstration" that battery-free mobile gaming is possible. It's not a Nintendo product, but it's also not just a simple novelty for researchers, either. Like the original Game Boy, it's designed to spark a revolution. "

 

Quote

"It's a fully operational Game Boy and can play any of the console's titles, from Tetris to Super Mario Land. It harvests energy from five small rows of solar panels on its face and from button presses made by the user. In its present state, that's enough to power the Engage for around 10 seconds, depending on the game. Then, losing power, it switches off. A few quick button mashes restore gameplay in less than a second. "

My thoughts

It looks pretty hacked together with mismatching screen and awkward colour choices but as a proof of concept this is very cool. A solar charged GameBoy mod with batteries would undoubtedly be more useful day to day but the idea of gaming without ever charging is a unique option. Obviously games like Pokemon would not be ideal if you can only get 10sec walking through a field but more Engage-ing  games like tetris or mario would be ideal. 

the save state and load state option for gameplay have been around in emulators for a long long time however rapid resuming a game from a save state hasn't been introduced mainstream yet. Most games have "checkpoints" but not immediate turn on and play from where you were save states.

 

Sources

https://www.cnet.com/features/the-first-battery-free-game-boy-wants-to-power-a-gaming-revolution/

[Drama Lama]

Never recharge 

a dream has come true 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Drama Lama

[Moonzy]

so now there's a legit reason to push the buttons harder?

how about tilting our body in racing games? is that able to generate electrcity?

[minibois]

Wouldn't the first battery-free GameBoy be the Super GameBoy for the SNES or the GameBoy Player for the GameCube?

Both were devices that basically housed a full GameBoy or GBA (respectively) and ran without batteries; as they ran off of mainpower, through the console they are used in?

Or even people running their GameBoy (Original/Color/Pocket )straight from wall-power..

Just a technicality I thought needed to be mentioned vs. that sensationalist CNET title.

 

Still a cool project nonetheless. 

[Senzelian]

6 minutes ago, minibois said:

Wouldn't the first battery-free GameBoy be the Super GameBoy for the SNES or the GameBoy Player for the GameCube?

Yeah. Lies!

Where are my bloody torch and pitchfork when I need them?! 

 

Also, if I take the batteries out of the original Gameboy, isn't that the first battery-free Gameboy?

[GhostRoadieBL]

i guess it's the first "player powered GameBoy", not quite as catchy as battery-less

[StDragon]

Who didn't purchase the A/C Adapter for the GameBoy? It was battery free for me then.

[ouroesa]

Looks like a 3rd grade project with 10secs of battery time. Not super impressed. 

[GhostRoadieBL]

6 minutes ago, ouroesa said:

Looks like a 3rd grade project with 10secs of battery time. Not super impressed. 

 

it's honestly just a proof of concept, but consider how much power it takes to run a gameboy and they have found a way to solar and kinetic power it. In the future it's possible (if wishful thinking) to have a raspberry pi running off the keyboard you are using to type your emails or your game controller no longer has batteries and charges solely off of solar and button presses so you never need to think about batteries for your switch. 

[GhostRoadieBL]

16 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Mobile gaming is mostly on phones which take more power to run and do not come with physical buttons or solar panels.

 

If it just for the sake of not having a battery, then its already been done to death with laptops missing the battery but hooked up to the mains.

sure glad you weren't on the design team for the first mobile phones

"gaming is done on consoles with buttons and have to be hooked up to the wall outlets, no one will game on a mobile device"

 

when was the last time you used a laptop without a battery on an airplane? 

 

clearly you missed the whole point. just blind

[ARikozuM]

Ngl this would have saved my childhood... 

Spoiler

FUCK YOU, CHANSEY! YOU HAPPY POS!

 

[Guest]

Look at that! They figured out how to run a sophisticated calculator with solar panels.

 

Well I'll be damned.

[DeScruff]

"the device has been created by coupling existing Game Boy emulation techniques with the latest in energy harvesting and intermittent-computing technology"
Does that mean its using some kinda FPGA? I'm genuinely curious how hardware accurate it is, and if it actually can run all games, or just the 32Kb Gameboy games.
(Gameboy games over 32KB required a memory bank controller, which would probably increase the power draw of the cartridge by ~50%. - And Everdrives... forget it. The Gameboy pocket apparently has issues providing enough power for an Everdrive)

Also just saying the Gameboy Pocket is already fairly amazingly low power. The actual power draw is 3V ~75mA. sooo 0.225W? (The Pocket is a LOT more efficient then the original brick). About 25% of that power draw being the cartridge and screen.

[Drama Lama]

Let’s go Nuclear 

[Beerzerker]

So.... It cuts on and off about every ten seconds...... While playing.....
Nah - Keep it.

[GhostRoadieBL]

2 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

Let’s go Nuclear 

There is a team working on nuclear waste being used as batteries in the same form factor and voltage output of AA, AAA, and 18650s. It uses graphine waste from nuclear reactor fuel rod housings and already has some working prototype chips with estimated half lifes of decades to 2k+ years. Has some crazy industrial diamond latice coating which absorbs and converts the radiation to voltage. Their focus right now is pacemakers and other medical implants. 

[Doqtori]

How much would the parts for one of these cost? I want one, even just for the party trick.

 

"Hey guys, wanna play some Pokemon? Wait, I just gotta mash these buttons for a bit"

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

10 hours ago, minibois said:

Wouldn't the first battery-free GameBoy

I thought the original Gameboys had DC in? 

[Drama Lama]

8 hours ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

There is a team working on nuclear waste being used as batteries in the same form factor and voltage output of AA, AAA, and 18650s. It uses graphine waste from nuclear reactor fuel rod housings and already has some working prototype chips with estimated half lifes of decades to 2k+ years. Has some crazy industrial diamond latice coating which absorbs and converts the radiation to voltage. Their focus right now is pacemakers and other medical implants. 

Oops Daddy 

I dropped the batteries