James Brown loves gathering weird displays. Like animatronic skulls, oregon mechanical bit-flipping cellular automatons. Or, successful this case, an full machine wrong a mock Lego brick.

Not conscionable immoderate brick, either. I’m talking astir the classical sloped Lego computers from our puerility spaceships, present brilliantly brought to life. They show fake radar scans, scrolling text, adjacent an interactive homage to the Death Star trench tally targeting machine that moves erstwhile you interaction the exposed Lego studs.

Incredibly, the full happening is powered by existent Lego bricks, excessively — the vintage 9V artillery box and bricks with electrical contacts that Lego discontinued backmost successful the ‘90s. It’s capable to powerfulness a 72 x 40-pixel OLED surface and an STM32 microcontroller with a 48MHz Arm Cortex-M0 processor and 16K of flash. And those graphics you see? Apart from Doom, which was a unrecorded video watercourse to the brick, they’re each procedurally generated. He wrote the programs for this tiny machine himself.

None of this was Brown’s archetypal plan, but successful an interrogation with The Verge, helium makes it dependable similar it came unneurotic truthful good that it’s astir begging to beryllium manufactured. Yes, I’m telling you there’s a chance you mightiness really interaction 1 of these someday.

James Brown, successful his office, with his tiny computers. Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Last year, the Weta Workshop graphics technologist (yes, that Weta Workshop) was conscionable browsing AliExpress erstwhile helium spotted immoderate incredibly tiny and inexpensive 0.42-inch OLED screens. “That’s astir the size of a keycap,” helium thought. He’d physique a mechanical keyboard with a surface nether each key, helium told himself, but the task was dilatory going. “I benignant of ordered a batch of screens conscionable to person them sitting determination making maine consciousness guilty,” helium says.

But erstwhile a Game Boy for ants arrived connected his doorstep this May, helium began to ponder: what if each cardinal had a processor inside, too? Later that aforesaid day, helium abruptly realized he’d already seen a machine that size. Not a moving 1 — a portion of Lego.

So helium sketched it out, and was amazed to spot his thought mightiness really work. “I spent a small spot of clip successful Fusion, conscionable benignant of looking astatine wherever things would acceptable wrong a brick, conscionable making definite it was really feasible and it lone just... you cognize that surface is truly crammed successful there, right?” There’s lone 0.1mm betwixt the surface and the beforehand aboveground of the brick.

He drafted up a circuit committee of the maximum size that would acceptable and, successful a azygous day, placed each the basal components and sent his plan to a committee shaper connected a whim. He paid conscionable $40, including shipping, for 5 tiny boards.

“It was meant to beryllium benignant of a throwaway gag; I wasn’t expecting to person to marque it peculiarly manufacturable,” helium says.

But erstwhile the boards arrived, helium couldn’t judge however good they came out. “It’s perfectly insane however inexpensive and casual this worldly is, you know, to custom-design a caller computer,” helium says. The hardest portion was simply soldering connected a brace of artillery contacts to the bottom.

Stick it wrong a translucent Lego ceramic and you’re done, right? No — Brown decided to formed his ain bricks retired of translucent resin, too.

Originally, they were beauteous crude: “It was virtually a Lego ceramic successful a Lego cookware that I poured silicone connected to marque the mould and past I conscionable benignant of shoved it successful there, poured the resin in, enactment thing connected apical to clasp it down, and hoped for the best.” He besides had to capable the brick’s cavity with brushed silicone, truthful resin wouldn’t capable the spot wherever the electronics needed to go.

After his archetypal video went viral, though, helium didn’t permission it astatine that. He ran a brace of wires up to the insides of each stud arsenic a crude interaction sensor — “the processor counts however agelong it takes to propulsion precocious via a resistor,” helium says — and coded the X-Wing targeting machine and an Elite vessel renderer successful C to show their array of mesmerizing low-poly wireframes with a press.

He painted connected a achromatic lacquer to get escaped of immoderate of the glow, too, though he’s really rather blessed with Lego’s stippled finish. “The texturing connected the Lego ceramic does a truly bully occupation of antialiasing.”

And then, helium got serious.

Brown shows disconnected the caller 3D committee with USB larboard and artillery contacts. Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

On Zoom, Brown shows maine the 2nd procreation — a caller three-dimensional circuit committee assembly designed to usage all the abstraction wrong the brick. It’s got built-in artillery contacts, a USB larboard for programming alternatively of the aged serial debugging pins, and capacitive interaction hardware baked into the committee itself. He says it tin reliably observe a digit moving astir an full portion supra the brick.

And due to the fact that he’s not satisfied with simply streaming Doom to the STM32 processor arsenic a video implicit those debugging wires, helium conscionable precocious redesigned the full committee to acceptable a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, which could really play Doom too. And helium says determination whitethorn still beryllium capable abstraction to acceptable an IMU for question controls. Me, I can’t hold to spot Lego airplanes flying astir a country with a moving attitude gyro.

Hi, Pi! The RP2040, present ensconced successful Brown’s board. Photo: James Brown

And now, the reply to the question you’ve each been waiting for: volition helium instrumentality your wealth successful speech for 1 of these bricks?

He isn’t ruling it retired — but decidedly not yet.

“This is truly not successful immoderate authorities to suggest that this is going to beryllium a product; I would not privation radical to get successful interaction with maine suggesting wealth for a pre-order, due to the fact that that is not going to happen,” helium says.

Brown present has a 3D-printed mould. It lets him determination resin to signifier the brick-computer without archetypal filling the cavity with silicone. Photo: James Brown

He does program to nutrient immoderate of them for friends to tinker with, but he’s conscionable not yet definite astir manufacturing, certification, licensing, and supra all, the blessing oregon disfavor of The Lego Group itself. Clearing it with Lego, oregon astatine slightest “making definite that I’m not going to get the value of Lego connected apical of me” is the hardest problem, helium says. “There’s a quality betwixt doing thing that is acceptable and being capable to really combat if they determine to propulsion their value around.” Obviously, helium doesn’t program to merchantability immoderate bricks that virtually accidental “Lego” connected their studs — his Friday tweet shows a ceramic that ditches the logo.

He besides wants to find and acceptable a rechargeable artillery earlier he’d see manufacturing, due to the fact that not everyone has precocious ‘80s / aboriginal ‘90s Lego electronics boards conscionable sitting successful a bin.

“I’m seeing however acold I tin spell with it,” helium says.

If you’re speechmaking this, Lego, I sincerely anticipation you’ll fto him spell each the way. When you enactment with the community, the results are among the champion products you’ve ever made.