How many of you can remember the article we did on the original Thumby? It came from the genius minds over at TinyCircuits, a small team working out of Akron, Ohio. We loved the ingenuity of this thing, and now the team has created its successor, the Thumby Color, a device that takes inspiration from one of our favorite horizontal handhelds of all time, and it’s already live on Kickstarter!
Let’s talk dimensions. This handheld is minuscule, so much so that you can take it everywhere with you on your keychain. At 51.6 x 30.0 x 11.6mm with a 0.85″ 128 x 128 pixel 16-bit Color screen, it’s the smallest horizontal handheld I’ve ever seen! Powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2350 processor, it’s a bona fide portable powerhouse the same size as a standard matchstick. It even has a rumble feature and manages to squeeze 8 buttons onto it!
Compared to the Thumby which measured in at (30.5 mm × 17.8 mm × 7.6 mm), the Thumby Color is a little bit bigger, still, we’re talking millimeters, and nothing that takes away from how impressive it is. Gamers can play straight out of the box as well as playing community-based games and making their own titles using ToinyCircuit’s web-based code editor and game engine. Essentially, TinyCircuits has created the ultimate package for handheld fans and niche console lovers!
“We launched the original Thumby in 2011 and have sold over 50,000 of these ultra tiny game consoles to customers all over the world”, says TinyCircuits Founder and President Ken Burnd, “now we’re back with the Thumby Color – the next generation tiny game console with a color screen, more powerful graphics, and is easier to play.”
Writing on Kickstarter, Ken goes on to say that ‘Just like the original Thumby, Thumby Color games are free and open source, giving you the ability to modify them as you see fit. Games made for the original Thumby (and there are over 100 available) are still able to be played on the Thumby Color.’ The Thumby Color comes with Monstra, Thumbgeon 2, Tag, BustAThumb, and new games to be announced too!
Using the Raspberry Pi RP2350 processor has allowed the team to add way more power to their miniature creations, and I love the fact that they’ve listened to the community and taken on their feedback when creating their next product. Considering that their first product, the TinyDuino, received over 1000% of its funding back in 2011, the community clearly loves the products TinyCircuits creates, and it’s one that Ken and his team repay that love by making us, the gamers, feel somewhat involved in the whole process.
There’s a choice of Purple or Clear Plastic and a special edition Black variant, and you can even get a multiplayer link-up package! Head to Kickstarter to find out more and to grab a Thumby Color of your own – they’ve already surpassed their goal in less than 24 hours, so make sure you get your order so you don’t miss out on this epic piece of miniature gaming history!
