Why read books on an e-reader when you can just play video games on it instead. That’s exactly the energy redditor u/achilleswing is bringing when running games like Grand Theft Auto III, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and even the more recent Halo Infinite on an e-reader.
This is definitely more of an experiment in why not rather than why, but gamers have been trying to run Doom on far stranger things for a while. As for u/achilleswing’s trials, the e-reader is able to hit roughly 8 to 10 frames per second, sometimes 12, when playing certain video games.
How-to guide —
In a long post detailing his process, u/achilleswing says that he’s using an Onyx Boox Nova Pro, which was discontinued in 2019 and replaced by the Onyx Boox Nova Air, to run these games. The redditor added that you can use any Android-powered e-reader with decent specs though. For example, the Boox Nova Pro that u/achilleswing used has a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of LPDDR3 memory, and 32GB of eMMC storage, which he says is, “pretty much a toaster with good ink software optimization.”
The process to play games on an Android-powered e-reader requires getting Google Play Services, which gives you access to Google Play Store, onto your device. Afterwards, you can download .apk games from the Play Store or anywhere else you can find them. The redditor posted step-by-step instructions for each individual game he’s gotten the Boox Nova Pro to run so far, including a very convoluted process to run The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.
u/achilleswing wrote: “Also important to note is that your device is probably not stock Android, it will have a UI layer that's more conducive to reading for some reason!” Imagine that.
Does it run Doom? —
If you want to follow the journey, the redditor has made a subreddit called r/einkgames to document video gaming on an e-reader. The redditor has also ported much more suitable games, like Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon Crystal, but there’s nothing quite like seeing that latest triple-A video game run at a horrific frame rate on an e-reader.
u/achilleswing said in recent Reddit comments that they’re planning to next test out Fallout 2, Half-Life, Return of the Obra Dinn, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and of course, Doom. And when asked if he would read books with his e-reader, u/achilleswing hilariously responded, “reading books? Not heard of that game.”
There’s probably still a number of you asking why. But you have to admire u/achilleswing’s dedication to the cause. After all, what other reason is there to climb Mount Everest other than the fact that it’s there?
