Lilka is a small DIY... handheld console? Devboard? Learning kit? It's all at the same time. It's a Ukrainian project aiming at creating a kit that anyone slightly familiar with soldering can assemble and either use it to play old-school games, or continue tinkering, learning and programming. The strengths of Lilka are both in its hardware design and software. It is made using cheap readily available and novice-friendly modules. The software library is well-thought-out and thoroughly documented. And from the start you receive fully working OS with a couple of built-in programs and built-in NES emulator. And yes, it can play DOOM.
I was waiting for the kit for a very long time since its announce. The launch was delayed due to ongoing war in Ukraine. The main designer and guru is now serving in the military. But, finally it arrived and we had a great time, assembling the device with a kid. Just look at this beauty:
Just soldering the device and playing Mario is not enough for me. And after a couple sleepless night, I can be proud of myself for being the first person who played Bad Apple on Lilka :)
To achieve this, I had to code the videoplayer for Lilka - Li'l Video. It is based on a MiniTV project from moononournation, that was rewritten to support Lilka's hardware and software library. The player can play mjpeg video files with audio from separate file.
Sources and prebuilt binary are available on my github: https://github.com/noisedsn/lilvideo