Retro, handheld game consoles are all the rage these days, primarily due to affordable hacker boards and Linux-based operating systems that act as a great companion to the hardware. Clockwork’s GameShell is one such retro console.
GameShell’s Kickstarter page describes it as “the world’s first modular, portable game console with a GNU/Linux embedded OS.” I’m not sure about this claim, but the device surely looks promising. Console ships with two pre-loaded games — Cave Story and DOOM. It offers many retro emulators, which should enable you to play tons of games from NES, Atari, SNES, GB, etc.
Powered by Linux-based Clockwork OS distro, GameShell runs a Quad-Core Cortex-A7 CPU, 512MB RAM, and Mali GPU. You also get the Wi-Fi on-board module and Bluetooth 4.0. It also features a regular microSD card slot and a micro USB port. Linux distros like Ubuntu, Debian, and Raspbian are also supported.
The device mainly consists of five easy-to-assemble modules, which include mainboard, screen, keypad, battery, and stereo speaker. The mainboard is a single-board computer called Clockwork Pi.
Moreover, it can also be used as a tool to learn programming. It supports languages like C, Lua, Python, and Lisp. As it’s open source, you can modify the code and hardware.
Source: https://fossbytes.com/gameshell-open-source-linux-retro-game-console/
Submitted by: Arnfried Walbrecht
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