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Graphics are not available, but there is one piece of hardware that crypto miners have not yet disassembled: the famous Nintendo handheld game console. Kutil now started regular Bitcoin mining on it, with an output of almost hashes per second.
Recently, there was a rumor that cryptocurrencies could be mined on the PlayStation 5 with a high degree of profitability. Fortunately, this was not confirmed (because otherwise it would probably lead to their redemption and unavailability for regular customers). But to keep you sad, cryptocurrency mining has been launched on another console: the Nintendo Game Boy.
Game Boy is already quite an old console (from 1989), and it was also a handheld. I don’t know how much the younger years of our readers have met her yet, but this machine is so legendary that it is perhaps not an unknown name. However, the combination of pencil battery operation and creation time also means very simple hardware, the Game Boy is actually an 8-bit computer. Nevertheless, someone started mining cryptocurrencies, specifically bitcoin.
Of course, this is not because someone would like to exploit these old consoles (they were not connected to the Internet, of course) or it had some practical significance. And the mining performance is, of course, extremely low, so it’s a curiosity with which the modder, nicknamed stacksmashing, who demonstrated the experiment, put the job around mainly for fun (and to show what he can do).
One thing was clear: I have to start a mining business. But in the shops, all the powerful graphics were sold out. But then I realized that I had powerful gaming hardware right at my fingertips, so why not use it. So I took Game Boy… – stacksmashing
Game Boy does not directly contain any of the classic 8-bit processors that are generally known (mainly MOS 6502 or Zilog Z80), instead it has its own Sharp LR35902 chip, which should be a hybrid of Z80 and its Intel 8080 master. It ran at 4.19 MHz and for he had 8 KB of RAM and an equally small 8KB of graphics memory (the display had 160 × 144 dots with four shades of gray, so two bits per dot were enough).
8-bit adaptation for modern times
In order for the Game Boy to “benefit” (a lot in quotes), it needs an internet connection, so in this case, not just the console itself is actually used. It must be connected to a PC, which provides the network part of the bitcoin client and sends data to the handheld via a special adapter and cable.
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Bitcoin cryptocurrency extraction on Nintendo Game Boy console: connection to PC via Raspberry Pi Pico as an interface between the console’s serial interface and USB Source: stacksmashing
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He made the stacksmashing using a Raspberry Pi Pico (with additional electronics for voltage conversion). It uses the connector that the console has from the factory and it could be used to connect two Game Boys, for example in Pokémon series games. Pi Pico actually serves as a controller for this primitive interface, connected to a PC via USB.
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Mining code at work. The BTC logo moves as an indicator of ongoing calculations Source: stacksmashing
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If you’re interested, Stacksmashing has also released code to extract on the Game Boy console, firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico helper, which implements a SPI-like communication protocol with a resulting speed of about 1 KB / s, as well as code running on a PC. The links are in list videos on YouTube.
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This is what it would look like if Game Boy accidentally had a handle and pulled out a block Source: stacksmashing
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Hashrate: ano
In the video you can see that mining on the Game Boy really works, the program even shows the status on the LCD. Hashrate, as the video says, lags slightly behind today’s ASIC chips by about 14 orders of magnitude. The power on a 4.19MHz processor reaches about 0.8 H / s, so one hash during mining takes a little over a second.
Cryptocurrencies are probably not something that needs further promotion and interest, but the fun is nice and the main point is, of course, something else: “homebrew” creation for these old consoles or computers, similar to demos.
Gallery: Mining of cryptocurrency Bitcoin on the Nintendo Game Boy console
However, if you look a little, it is by no means the first case where fans got cryptocurrency mining on “retro” computers. Experiments with surprisingly valuable historical exhibits can be found on the Internet from the times of previous cryptobublins, and these are sometimes very interesting articles:
Resources: Stacksmashing, techPowerUp
