TinyCircuits's Diminutive 'Thumby' Game Boy Clone Would Make Ant-Man Proud
Thumby measures just 1.2” x 0.7” x 0.3” and features a 72x30 monochrome OLED display. Powering the console is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 SoC paired with 2MB of internal storage and a tiny 40 mAh battery. Despite its size, the battery is good enough for a relatively palatable 2 hours of gameplay.
Although we can’t imagine staring at that tiny screen for two straight hours, you should know that the 4-way D-pad works as you would expect and is joined by two action buttons on its face (just like the original Game Boy). Five retro-themed games come preinstalled out of the box:
- TinyBlocks – A classic puzzle game
- Space Debris – A space shooter, similar to asteroids
- Annelid – A snake game, collect the food to grow your annelid
- Delver – A dungeon adventure game, collect and buy weapons, battle monsters
- Saur Run – You are a small running and jumping dinosaur, side scroller
TinyCircuits says that you can program the Thumby with MicroPython within a web browser, which allows you to add your own games to the [limited] internal storage. Connecting to a PC and recharging is accomplished via microUSB cable. Surprisingly, multiplayer gaming is supported using a Thumby Link cable, which also uses the microUSB port.
According to the Kickstarter page, you can grab a Thumby for a little as $19, which gets you the console in its standard gray color. If you pay an additional $5, you can take your pick of the available colors. The Kickstarter-exclusive gold color costs $35, while a two-pack in your choice of colors will set you back $50. Right now, TinyCircuits has more than doubled its $15,000 goal with 900 backers pledging $37,192.
The Thumby will begin shipping in February, barring any unforeseen delays.
