Gameslab, a FPGA powered handheld game console

In plain words

Gameslab is a handheld game console that uses FPGA technology to run games. Released in December 2019, it is designed for people interested in portable gaming and retro computing. The standout feature is its FPGA-based architecture, which allows it to emulate classic gaming systems with hardware-level accuracy rather than relying on software emulation alone.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

If you went to Hackaday Supercon 2019, you might have seen someone wandering around with a badge that was way too heavy looking. That was me! And that badge was a Gameslab, my FPGA-powered handheld game console. As the blog posts from years ago prove, I’ve been thinking about building Gameslab for a long time, and over the last few months, I have finally done it. In this post, I’ll explain what exactly a Gameslab is (game-slab, as in brick, or unwieldly object that plays games), why I built one, what’s in it, and how I got it working. The Gameslab is a custom-designed handheld game console based on a Xilinx Zynq FPGA-ARM Cortex A9 combo SoC. The FPGA fabric means that games and apps can…from craigjb.com

• AR
  A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time2019 · internalregister.github.io · ▲2,690

  Software and hardware projects for fun from a guy who loves retro computing

• 
  CHIP-8 console implemented in FPGA2018 · github.com · ▲120

  CHIP-8 console on FPGA. Contribute to pwmarcz/fpga-chip8 development by creating an account on GitHub.

• GB
  Game Bub – open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld2025 · eli.lipsitz.net · ▲274

  Hey HN, Over the past ~1.5 years, I built an open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld that can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. To my knowledge, there isn't an existing open-source FPGA emulator that can play physical cartridges like this. One of my main goals was to do all of the pieces myself, and be able to understand every component of it, so I designed my own PCB, wrote the firmware, wrote a Game Boy and Game Boy Advance emulator for the FPGA (using the Chisel HDL), and designed a 3D-printed case. I detailed the design and development process in the…

• 
  Nintendo Labo2018 · ▲680

  DIY creations for the Nintendo Switch

• 
  Playdate2019 · play.date · ▲588

  A new handheld gaming system from Panic

• 
  My x86 emulator written in JavaScript2013 · copy.sh · ▲765

  Run KolibriOS, Linux or Windows 98 in your browser

• 
  SimCity, but with Permits▲877

  A free city-building game in your browser. You are the mayor. You know what the city needs. Now get it past the zoning board, the neighbors, the appeals court and the next election.

  Life & fun · 22h ago · permit.petercai.com

• IV
  I've been paying for a rural Tanzanian's education for 10 years▲778

  Life & fun · 13d ago · tanzaniaeducationproject.org

• 
  Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app▲728

  Turn a phone, tablet or TV into a sign. Type a message and it fills the screen: welcome signs, timers, Wi-Fi passwords and more. No app, no account, free.

  Life & fun · 14d ago · bigwords.page

• 
  Guitoro, a virtual guitar you strum with your keyboard▲573

  Play a free virtual guitar online with your keyboard or by touch. Slow songs down and see every chord, string and strum. Acoustic, classic, electric and bass.

  Life & fun · 8d ago · guitoro.com

• 
  See *almost* any carriers phone settings▲432

  Carrier settings from iPhone, Pixel and Galaxy firmware, decoded and compared: APNs, VoLTE, 5G and Wi-Fi Calling per carrier, and what each build changed.

  Life & fun · 12d ago · carrierexplode.com

• 
  The whole Solar System and every tracked satellite, live in the browser▲407

  Life & fun · 22d ago · space.bl2.net

• 
  Exploding Topics▲949

  Find proven topics before they take off.

  Growth · 2019 · explodingtopics.com

• AA
  Angeldust – a fast and efficient video game▲716

  After years of solo development I'm presenting: Angeldust, an omni-compatible action RPG and building game! Website: http://angeldu.st My single server hosts 250+K active players in one giant, dynamic fantasy world. Angeldust's game server is pervasively multithreaded, implementing John Carmack's dream of processing an immutable world state each tick. Both world handling and network traffic routing uses any number of threads. For networking, a typical game session only uses ~3Kbps of bandwidth, enabling decent play even over 2G/EDGE networks. The client is programmed in C++…

  Growth · 2019

• AS
  A searchable list of self-hosted software with screenshots▲656

  Dev tools · 2019 · selfhostedsource.tech

• 
  A tiny isometric city builder in JavaScript▲593

  A isometric city builder in JavaScript. Contribute to victorqribeiro/isocity development by creating an account on GitHub.

  Dev tools · 2019 · github.com

• 
  AI Dungeon 2 – AI-generated text adventure built with 1.5B param GPT-2▲584

  Play and create AI-generated adventures with infinite possibilities.

  AI · 2019 · aidungeon.io

• 
  Mailmeteor▲567

  Send hundreds of personalized emails with Gmail.

  Growth · 2019 · mailmeteor.com