And it’s only about half an inch wide.
Inspired by LEGO’s space-themed sets from the 1980s, graphics engineer James Brown has spent almost a full year turning LEGO slope bricks into tiny “computer monitors.” But Brown’s latest invention takes this concept into meme territory—yeah, it’s a LEGO brick that plays DOOM.
Brown’s earliest LEGO monitors are impressive on their own. They display small images using an OLED panel and a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, and in my opinion, they look like miniature versions of the computers you might see in a 1960s NASA control room. (For reference, the LEGO slope 2 x 2 brick is just over half an inch wide. This is meticulous work, and the OLED panels utilized by Brown are only about 0.4 inches.)
While designing these sci-fi-themed electric bricks, Brown created several LEGO DOOM machines (including a LEGO watch that runs DOOM). But because none of these LEGO bricks have controls, they simply run DOOM in demo mode. The latest DOOM brick takes things a step further with capacitive buttons and gyro controls—you can actually, genuinely play DOOM on this tiny thing.
But to me, the most interesting part of this project is the assembly. James Brown uploaded a video showing how these custom bricks are made, and the process is ingenious. It’s so cool that I don’t want to spoil it.
In case you’re wondering, James Brown works at Weta Workshop, a special effects and prop company. These creative skills go toward more than just LEGOs. You can find more cool projects on Brown’s YouTube channel.
Source: Ancient / James Brown via Gizmodo
