Gaming PCs are usually about power and size, but every now and then, someone tries the opposite. A recent experiment shows just how far things have come, with a setup that is small enough to fit in your pocket and still capable of running actual games.
YouTuber Lecctron set out to build the world’s smallest gaming PC, with one simple goal. It should be able to run Minecraft. That already rules out some of the tiniest boards out there, since many of them cannot easily connect to a display. In the end, he went with the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, which can be found for as little as $15.
The board itself is tiny, measuring just 65 x 30 mm. It runs on a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 chip at 1GHz, paired with VideoCore IV graphics and 512MB of RAM. It is not much on paper, but it is enough to run a full operating system and connect basic peripherals.
The results are better than you might expect. Minecraft Pi Edition runs at around 60FPS in Creative Mode with reduced settings, which is impressive for something this small. PlayStation 1 emulation works even better, with games like Doom, Wipeout XL, Silent Hill, Tomb Raider Chronicles, and Final Fantasy IX running smoothly.
Things start to get a bit inconsistent with Nintendo 64 games. Titles like Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask are playable, but there are occasional frame drops. PSP emulation depends heavily on the game. Simpler titles like LocoRoco run well, while more demanding ones such as Wipeout Pulse struggle to maintain smooth performance.
Of course, this is not here to replace a proper gaming PC. Modern games need far more power than what a board like this can offer. Still, that is not really the point here.
For retro gaming, emulation, or just experimenting, the Pi Zero 2 W turns out to be surprisingly capable. It is cheap, easy to work with, and small enough to fit almost anywhere, which makes it a fun little platform to play around with.
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(Source: Lecctron)
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