Nintendo's ancient handheld has an 8 MHz Sharp SM83 8-bit processor that doesn’t even support multiplication.
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A canny developer has managed to coax a Game Boy Color (GBC) into running an interactive, user-controlled, real-time 3D shader demo. Danny Spencer shared a video, blog post , downloadable ROMs, source code, and even embedded the demo in an online GBC emulator, so anyone interested can give his Lambert-shaded 3D teapot a spin.
It is always fascinating to see developers squeeze the last ounce of performance out of the available hardware. So, seeing this interactive spinning teapot demo for the GBC is super cool. Moreover, Spencer reveals all the nitty-gritty behind this feat.
Getting this real-time shader running on the GBC wouldn’t be a big deal if the handheld had a powerful processor. Nintendo’s second handheld was far from powerful, though. It retained the Sharp SM83 SoC, as used in the original Game Boy, but boosted it to “dual-speed mode” at a smidgen over 8 MHz. This mode switching, single-to dual-speed chip, was great for backwards compatibility, though.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/developer-creates-real-time-3d-shader-demo-for-the-game-boy-color-you-can-download-the-rom-or-interact-with-the-3d-teapot-online#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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