Keychain-Sized Retro Gaming with the PocketStar

From the first Game Boy in the late 1980s to the smartphones of today, it’s amazing how much gaming power one can fit in a tiny package. One might be tempted to think we’ve gone as small as we can portable gaming-wise, but the PocketStar by Zepsch, now crowdfunding on Kickstarter, takes things to a new level.

At just 50 x 30 x 10mm, or roughly 2 x 1.2 x 0.4 inches, the PocketStar looks like a miniature Game Boy. It features a 94 x 64-pixel color OLED screen on top, and a D-pad and A/B button combination on the bottom. The unit runs on an ESP32-C3 processor, providing 3D-graphics along with communication via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

This wireless capability is slated to enable multi-player gaming locally via Bluetooth, or over the Internet over Wi-Fi. What's more, an in-development app store will make it easy to add games.

For on-device storage, the PocketStar includes a microSD card slot, enabling it to hold hundreds of games at a time. Also packed onboard is a small speaker, vibration motor, accelerometer, and battery/charging facilities. The keychain-sized console comes with original and exclusive game titles, plus a Game Boy and Sega Master System emulator. And if you’re wondering, yes, it can run Doom.

Reward-level pledges start at 49 Euros (roughly $49), with an estimated shipping date of April 2023. If this little device looks familiar, you may note that it uses Zepsch's Pocuter hardware, the result of a successful Kickstarter that we coveredd back in August 2021.