Cardputer Game Station

Powered by Nofrendo, Snes9x, Smsplus, Race, Gwenesis, Oswan, GnuBoy, Handy, PCE-GO, Stella, Pro-System, fMSX and Arnold.

All cores were optimized to run within a memory footprint of under 256 KB of RAM, with particular emphasis on minimizing both RAM and flash usage. All 13 cores are packed into just 2.5 MB of flash, and no RAM is allocated for a core until it is actualloy launched.

Console	Sound	Video	Save	Speed	All Games	Notes
NES	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Few mappers issues in some games
Game Boy	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Mono/Color support, Fully compatible
Master System	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Fully compatible
Game Gear	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Fully compatible
SG-1000	✅	✅	N/A	✅	✅	Fully compatible
Mega Drive	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Some slowdown and not accurate sound in heavy titles
Neo Geo Pocket	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Mono/color support. Some slowdown in heavy titles
ColecoVision	✅	✅	N/A	✅	✅	Fully compatible
PC Engine	✅	✅	N/A	✅	✅	Fully compatible
MSX	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Fully compatible (MSX1 games only)
Atari 2600	✅	✅	N/A	✅	✅	Few cart mappers not supported
Atari 7800	✅	✅	N/A	⚠️	✅	Not full speed in some games
Lynx	✅	✅	⚠️	✅	✅	Some slowdown in heavy titles, Sound issues in some games
GX4000	✅	✅	N/A	✅	⚠️	Some emulation issues in some games
WonderSwan	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	⚠️	Mono/color support, not fullspeed (75FPS) in most games
Super NES	⚠️	✅	✅	⚠️	⚠️	Experimental, not enough RAM for a full featured SNES

It runs .nes .gb .gbc .sms .gg .sg .md .ngc .ngp .col .pce .mx1 .rom .a26 .a78 .lnx .cpr .ws .wsc .sfc ROM files from the SD.

Make sure your ROMs are uncompressed (not .zip, .7z, or .rar).

Controls

The built-in Cardputer keyboard is used for all controls:

Function	Cardputer Key	Description
🕹️ Up	E	Move up
🕹️ Down	S	Move down
🕹️ Left	A	Move left
🕹️ Right	D	Move right
🅰️ Button A	K	Primary action / confirm
🅱️ Button B	L	Secondary action / cancel
▶️ Start	1	Start / pause
⏸️ Select	2	Select / menu
💡 Brightness +	]	Increase LCD brightness
💡 Brightness −	[	Decrease LCD brightness
🔊 Volume +	+	Increase audio volume
🔊 Volume −	-	Decrease audio volume
🖥️ Screen Mode	\	Toggle screen display mode
🔍 Zoom −	Fn + ←	Zoom out
🔍 Zoom +	Fn + →	Zoom in
🔘 Quit Game	G0 (hold 1 s)	Go back to menu

The j key is also bound as Button A to allow an alternative layout for player preference.

The z key is also bound as Arrow Down to allow the use of a D-PAD.

On the MSX emulator, press FN+key to type normal keyboard keys instead of joystick inputs.

M5Stack Joystick

You can alternatively use the M5Stack Joystick v1.1 (U024-C) or Joystick2 (U024-V2), just plug it in before launching a game and it will work automatically.

D-Pad 3D Model

Cardputer-Accessories repo to get the 3D model for D-Pad that you can put on the Cardputer's keys. (Thanks to @AndreiVladescu)

Zoom Mode

The Zoom Mode allows you to dynamically adjust the display scale of games on the Cardputer’s screen.

By pressing \ (above the OK key), you can toggle between multiple zoom levels (100 to 150%), fullscreen or 4/3. This flexibility ensures that each game looks its best on the Cardputer’s compact display.

In the SNES emulator, pressing \ toggles between adaptive interlaced and lower-resolution modes for better performance.

in the GameBoy (not color) emulator, pressing \ toggles between different color palettes.

You can precisely adjust the display zoom level with fn + arrows left/right.

About Games

You can place the ROM uncompressed files anywhere on your SD card and select them. The firmware allows running ROMs up to 5.5 MB.

⚠️ Avoid having more than 512 ROMs per folder to prevent loading times.

When browsing your game list, you can type the first few letters of a game’s name to jump directly to it. This makes it much faster to find a specific title, especially when your library contains dozens of entries.

About Saves

Save files are created automatically and organized into separate folders per console on your SD card. Each save is linked to the game’s filename.

⚠️ The autosave system writes to the SD card in the background at regular intervals.

The chance of corrupting a save by resetting the device exactly at the moment a write occurs is low. However, to completely eliminate this risk, it is recommended to exit games properly.

Hold the GO button for 1 second to quit safely and ensure no save corruption.

Launcher

For Launcher's users, you can now use the “Game Station” partition scheme to load ROMs larger than 1MB.

In the Launcher main menu, Go to CFG → Partition Change, and select Game Station.

The firmware can also automatically switch the device to the “Game Station” partition scheme in order to load ROMs larger than 1 MB.

When you try to run a ROM that needs more space (up to 4 MB):

• The firmware checks that it is running under the Launcher.
• If needed, it asks to flash the Game Station partition table.
• The device reboots once to apply the new layout.

After the reboot, you can load larger ROMs normally, without any extra steps.