“The Incredible Gaming Hack: GTA: Vice City Running on a Router Like You’ve Never Seen Before”
A German hardware guru, KittenLabs, has amazed the tech world with their latest blog post showcasing their ability to make the classic game GTA: Vice City run seamlessly on a mere router. By ingeniously utilizing a TP-Link TL-WDR4900 and an AMD Radeon HD 7470 as an eGPU, KittenLabs was able to successfully install Debian Linux and run the game with incredible precision, as demonstrated in the jaw-dropping video below.
But the story behind this mind-blowing hack is even more fascinating. The chosen Wi-Fi router, TP-Link TL-WDR4900, is renowned for its exceptional performance (especially considering its release date in 2013). With a powerful NXP/Freescale QorIQ P1014 CPU that is actually a 32-bit PowerPC e500v2 processor, the router is the perfect choice for this gaming endeavor.
However, with no PC-compatible PCIe slot, KittenLabs had to get crafty and create a custom miniPCIe breakout PCB to attach the eGPU to the router. This worked like a charm after cutting the PCIe traces leading from the CPU to one of the Atheros chipsets. With a spare PCIe 2.0 interface now available, it was time for some software tinkering.
First, KittenLabs installed OpenWrt on the router but quickly realized its limitations as a general-purpose OS. So they decided to bootstrap a version of Debian Linux, with additional kernel modules enabled, to create a gaming platform with support for the AMD graphics driver.
Initially, there were compatibility issues with an AMD Radeon RX 570 GPU, but KittenLabs quickly switched to a legacy AMD Radeon HD 7470 card with an older driver, and the system finally started working flawlessly.
But this was just the beginning of the journey. To truly test the limits of the TL-WDR4900, KittenLabs had to find a version of GTA: Vice City that could run smoothly on their Debian/PowerPC system. The answer: reVC (a reverse-engineered version of the game with publicly available source code) was compiled for the router platform. However, it still had some glitches when NPCs were involved, causing the project to hit a standstill for several months.
Then came the breakthrough, thanks to a Wii U port of reVC and the help of its author. But there were still some graphical corruption issues that needed to be addressed. Finally, after updating the Mesa 3D graphics library used by the router and its Linux installation, the project was a resounding success. Player rendering was now working flawlessly with hardware acceleration.
Overall, the KittenLabs blog is a goldmine for tech enthusiasts, featuring not only this groundbreaking hack but also a plethora of other impressive hacks, retro computing, and art-focused posts. One notable mention is the Analog floppy synthesizer, which uses 3.5-inch floppy drive hardware to play musical compositions. Stay tuned for more astounding innovations from KittenLabs.