Anemoia-ESP32 runs NES at 60 FPS on a microcontroller for under $20

Running the NES on a chip that costs a few dollars is no longer wishful thinking. Anemoia-ESP32, developed by Shim06, is a port of the Anemoia NES emulator specifically optimized for ESP32 microcontrollers. It reaches roughly 60.098 frames per second on NTSC with one frame skip and full audio emulation, an impressive result on a chip originally designed for embedded electronics rather than gaming.

An article published on Hackaday on July 22, 2026 highlighted a DIY handheld console built around this project. The build, based on a variant of the Anemoia-ESP32 code tuned by rkindustriesYT, pairs a dual-core ESP32 with a 320x240 SPI TFT screen, a microSD module for ROM storage and a small audio amplifier, for a total cost reportedly under $20. The project supports six major NES mappers, covering roughly 79% of the console's official library, enough to run classics like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda or Metroid.

The project is open source under the GPL v3 license. Code and hardware files are available on the official Anemoia-ESP32 GitHub repository, which also offers a browser-based flashing tool. For the full hardware build, the detailed build guide on Instructables covers every step, from wiring to flashing the firmware.

Source: Hackaday