# rossumur/esp_8_bit

Atari 8 bit computers, NES and SMS game consoles on your TV with nothing more than a ESP32 and a sense of nostalgia

Repository: https://github.com/rossumur/esp_8_bit
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/esp_8_bit
Language: C
License Family: other
Last push: 2023-02-17T17:15:22+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2306, "days_push": 1293, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1191, forks 177 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:56.192406+00:00)

## What it is
ESP_8_BIT is firmware for the ESP32 that emulates Atari 8-bit computers, NES, and Sega Master System consoles, outputting NTSC/PAL composite video and audio directly to a TV. It supports Bluetooth Classic and IR keyboards and joysticks, and is built within the Arduino IDE framework.

## Use cases
- play NES games on a modern TV with an ESP32
- emulate Atari 8-bit computers on original hardware
- run Sega Master System ROMs from an ESP32
- build a retro gaming console with composite video output
- use Bluetooth joysticks with a retro emulator
- load ATR disk images and ROM files onto an ESP32 emulator

## When to choose
- you want a cheap, single-chip retro gaming console
- you have ESP32 hardware and old game ROMs
- you need composite video output for a CRT TV
- you want Bluetooth or IR controller support in an emulator

## When to avoid
- you need high-accuracy cycle-exact emulation
- you want HDMI or modern video output
- you need 128k RAM Atari machine support
- you require an actively maintained project with a formal license

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: game, graphics, audio-processing
- domain: gaming-tools, embedded-systems
- platform: iot, embedded
- tags: esp32, emulator, retro-gaming, composite-video, atari, nes, sms, arduino, emulation, retro-computing

## Member repositories
- rossumur/esp_8_bit (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:56.192406+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:22:43.305417+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rossumur/esp_8_bit (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:56.192406+00:00, sha 66786b1b6638)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.