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What the project puts on the device
In an article published September 30, 2026, Donato Maglie describes two games written in C for an ESP32-S3 digital multi-tool: a native Tetris clone and a vertical space shooter with roguelite progression. The shooter is described as having 30 enemy waves, three boss fights, an in-game shop, and upgrades for health, damage, multi-shot, and bullet bounce. Those are features of Maglie’s project, not independently verified performance or benchmark results. Read Maglie’s project article.
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The hardware is described at the platform level as an ESP32-S3 device with an LCD and two physical buttons. The available article details do not establish the exact board model used, so the project should not be identified as running on a particular ESP32-S3 product.
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How Tetris works with two buttons
Instead of relying on the directional pad and multiple action buttons typical of a game console, Maglie assigns actions to clicks, double-clicks, and holds. The mapping makes the limited controls do more, though it requires players to learn gestures and timing.
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| Control | Reported Tetris action |
|---|---|
| Side-button click | Rotate the piece |
| Side-button rapid double-click | Pause |
| Front-button hold | Soft-drop |
| Front-button quick double-click | Hard-drop |
These mappings illustrate a practical trade-off: gestures expand the number of available actions without adding hardware, but actions are less immediately visible than dedicated buttons. A quick double-click and a hold also need to feel distinct in play, or a player may trigger an unintended move.
Why button debouncing matters
A physical button does not always produce one clean electrical transition when pressed. Contact bounce can register as several rapid changes, which software may mistake for repeated clicks. Maglie says the project uses a 30-millisecond stable-state check to reduce accidental inputs. That delay is the author’s implementation detail, not a universal setting for every switch; the right value depends on the hardware and how responsive the controls need to feel.
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Gesture controls add another layer: the game must distinguish a single click from a double-click or hold. Debouncing helps establish a reliable button state before the game interprets the gesture, while gesture timing determines which action follows.
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Maglie identifies repeated dynamic allocation and freeing of bullets and enemies as a risk. If a game continually creates and destroys many small objects, the heap can become fragmented, making future allocations less predictable on a device with limited memory.
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The article says object pooling helped keep resource use stable: rather than repeatedly requesting and releasing memory for every transient object, a game can reuse a managed set of objects. Pooling can make allocation behavior more predictable, but it requires code to track which objects are active and available. Maglie also connects this approach to managing packet-sniffer queues, where predictable handling of many short-lived items can matter. These are the author’s design rationale and reported outcome, not independently measured results.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why use games as an embedded-systems test?
Maglie frames the games as a stress test for RTOS task management and UI rendering. A game combines frequent input handling, screen updates, and changing collections of objects, which gives the author a way to exercise several parts of an embedded application together. The article does not provide independent timing measurements or a hardware test report, so its stress-test framing should be understood as the author’s rationale rather than a quantified performance claim.
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- Capacitive Touch Display: Onboard 1.28inch capacitive touch display with 240×240 resolution and 65K color, featuring QMI8658 6-axis IMU with 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope for detecting motion gestures
- Memory and Storage: Built in 512KB of SRAM and 384KB ROM, with onboard 2MB PSRAM and an external 16MB Flash memory, featuring Type-C connector for easy connectivity and updates
- Dual-Core Processor: Equipped with 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor operating up to 240MHz main frequency, supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 5 (LE) with onboard antenna
- Battery and Connectivity: Onboard 3.7V lithium battery recharge and discharge header with 6 GPIO pins via SH1.0 connector for flexible project integration
- Low Power Consumption: Supports flexible clock and module power supply independent setting with various controls to realize low power consumption in different scenarios, integrated with USB serial port full-speed controller and GPIO pins for flexible pin function configuration
The project’s broader lesson is that small games can expose practical design questions for embedded software: whether controls remain understandable with few inputs, whether button events are interpreted reliably, and whether memory use stays manageable as objects appear and disappear.
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- ESP32-S3-DEV-KIT-N16R8 development board adopts ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 series module with 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor, capable of running at 240 MH. Integrated 512KB SRAM, 384KB ROM, 8MB PSRAM, 16MB FLASH memory
- ESP32-S3 Microcontroller 2.4GHz Wi-Fi Development Board integrated 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE dual-mode wireless communication
- Type-C connector, easier to use. Onboard CH343 and CH334 chips can meet the needs of USB and UART development via a Type-C interface
- Rich peripheral interfaces, compatible with the pinout of ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 development board, offers strong compatibility and expandability
- Supports ESP-IDF, Arduino, MicroPython, can easily and quickly get started and apply it to the product
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