World’s smallest video games console is the size of your thumb and plays Tetris

Making the PS5 look even bigger (pic: TinyCircuits/Solent News)

A Kickstarter has just begun for what claims to be the smallest games console ever made, at just 3cm long and with five built-in games.

The era of the dedicated portable console ended with the success of the hybrid Nintendo Switch but that doesn’t mean other companies won’t continue to make new hardware, with American firm TinyCircuits providing a record-breaking reason to get their new Thumby system.

Nintendo’s Game Boy Micro is one of the smallest mass-produced handhelds ever, at 5cm x 10.1cm x 1.7cm. The Thumby manages to make that look oversized though, as it’s a mere 3cm x 1.8cm x 0.9cm.

You can see in these photos and videos what that means in practical terms but it’s a fully functioning device, with action buttons, a buzzer, a micro-USB port, and five built-in games.

The games are TinyBlocks (basically Tetris), Space Debris (Asteroids), and Annelid (Snake), plus a 2D platformer called Saur Run and a role-playing game named Thumgeon.

At last, a console for ants… and bees (pic: TinyCircuits/Solent News)

You can add more yourself though, as the Thumby supports homebrew games and multiplayer via a link cable.

The best thing is it’s only £14, although there’s still a few days to go on the Kickstarter, which initially only asked for £10,895 but at time of writing is already over £120,000.

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TinyCircuits has a considerable amount of experience with similar miniaturised games devices, with products like the self-explanatory Tiny Arcade and the Pocket Arcade – which now seems giant-sized compared to the Thumby.

‘When people see tiny, they think cheap. We designed a high-quality product with a powerful processor that defies its size’, says principal engineer Ben Rose.

‘Thumby started out as my personal project, but as we saw people’s reactions to the prototype, we knew we wanted to make it into a new TinyCircuits product so that more people can put it on their keychain, enjoy playing it, or even create their own games.’

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