ESP32-S3 DOOM Console Fits Inside a TV Antenna Plug
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RayTriangle has built a miniature TV game console that runs DOOM and fits, including its battery, inside a screw-terminal antenna plug originally used to match balanced feeder to coaxial cable. The device uses an ESP32-S3 and connects to a controller over Bluetooth. To produce video, it generates phase-shifted chroma waveforms from a lookup table, combines them through a resistor-ladder DAC, and modulates the resulting composite signal onto a carrier from the chip’s clock generator. The two circuit boards sit on opposite sides of the battery and are linked by a flexible PCB. In the demonstration, the picture is noisy, and the design targets PAL televisions with VHF tuners; support for UHF or NTSC is only suggested as a possible extension, not demonstrated. The project’s notable achievement is its compact packaging and unusual signal-generation approach, rather than a broadly usable modern console.
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We’ve seen plenty of game console projects here, many of them that seek to produce a miniature game console. But this one from [RayTriangle] may break a new barrier entirely — it fits an entire TV game console that plays DOOM, including the battery, into a TV antenna plug.
There’s a type of antenna plug with screw terminals, originally intended for matching 300 ohm balanced feeder to 75 ohm co-ax. It provides a tiny project box if you look at it that way, and it’s in here that the console sits. It’s an ESP32-S3 that talks to a controller via Bluetooth, and he’s gone into some detail on how the RF for the TV is made. Some clever tricks such as a look-up table for the phase shifted chroma waveforms for each color allow the creation of a good quality composite signal through a resistor-ladder DAC, and this is modulated in a surprisingly old-fashioned way onto a carrier provided by the ESP’s clock generator.
The result as can be seen in the video below is a bit noisy, but we think that might be fixable with a little filter magic. It’s designed for PAL TVs with a VHF tuner, but we’re guessing some ingenuity could be brought into play to make it happen for UHF or NTSC. The hardware meanwhile is put on two boards either side of the battery, with a flexible PCB joining the two.
It’s true that gaming though an analogue RF input to a TV is probably less common in 2026, but we applaud the ingenuity in getting this into such a small space. For some reason it reminds us of the world’s smallest MIDI synthesizer.
Source: Jenny List ·Hackaday · 2026-10-08T11:00:01.000Z · Read the original article
Why read this
A specific, unusually compact ESP32-S3 build demonstrates DOOM over analog TV RF, but the displayed image is noisy and PAL/VHF is the stated target; other formats are unverified.
AI score 55 · View scoring rationale
Two-model scores assess source reading value, not factual accuracy. Check this editorial article against the original.
- gpt-6-luna-2026-09-22 · 49
A specific, unusually compact ESP32-S3 build demonstrates DOOM over analog TV RF, but the displayed image is noisy and PAL/VHF is the stated target; other formats are unverified.
- deepseek-flash · 62
Evidence is limited to a single detailed build report: ESP32-S3 console in an antenna plug, composite RF via resistor-ladder DAC and chroma lookup table, PAL VHF only, noisy output, no independent verification or benchmarks.
Analyzed: 2026.10.10 03:44 UTC
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