In the early 1980s, even as oil and gas companies hushed up research about the climate impact of fossil fuel consumption (opens in new tab), Japanese electronics manufacturer Bandai released a handheld videogame console that runs on solar energy. Reminiscent of Nintendo’s much later DS consoles, but with a strip of photovoltaic cells in place of the top screen, the LCD Solarpower range (opens in new tab) offered simple, built-in games like spook ‘em up Terror House or prison caper Breakout, rendered with jaunty, “painted-on” 2D graphics. While all but forgotten today, Bandai’s machines have countless spiritual descendants in the world of homebrew development and hardware modding – from this decidedly impractical $1,400 (£1,200 / AU$2,200) “Solar-powered mobile Wii for DIY freaks” (opens in new tab) to RunTinyRun (opens in new tab), an ATtiny10-based dinosaur platformer running on a thumb-sized OLED screen.
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