Tony Mamacos
Author of the BSides Cape Town 2019 making-of post, owner of the public firmware repository, and author of the later Hackster project that reused the badge.
SourceBSides Cape Town 2019 · South Africa · 2019
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge
ESP32 colour-screen game badge
BSides Cape Town 2019's badge was an ESP32 electronic badge with a 1.3-inch 240x240 IPS colour display, touch buttons, 18650 battery, custom PCB, 3D-printed case, Arduino/ESP32 firmware, local SDL debugging support, WiFi high-score sync, Bluetooth GamePad experiments, and a public GPL-3.0 firmware repository.
SeriesBSides Cape Town
LocationCape Town
CountrySouth Africa
People
Authors & Credits
Stephen Gillespie
Author of the 8bitresearch post identifying the 2019 badge core and reuse path.
SourceWhy It Mattered
It upgrades the African compendium from an archive-existence stub to a source-backed South African colour-screen badge with public firmware, a first-hand making-of post, and documented post-event hackability.
Hardware
The making-of post describes an ESP32 dual-core 240 MHz processor with Bluetooth and WiFi, 380 KB memory, 4 MB ROM, a 1.3-inch 240x240 IPS display driven with a 256-colour palette, custom PCB carrying charging, USB, battery power and touch-button circuits, a likely 2800 mAh 18650 battery, and a custom 3D-printed case. A later repurposing writeup identifies the module as ESP32-WROOM-32U.
Software & Apps
The public GPL-3.0 firmware repository preserves Arduino/ESP32 code, a prebuilt firmware binary, assets, platform abstraction, games and demos, OTA update code, WiFi scanner, Bluetooth keyboard/gamepad material, and local SDL build tooling. The making-of post documents a colour GameOn-derived framework, menu, high-score JSON/WiFi workflow, single-player game, raycaster, voxel landscape, setup/name/WiFi/rotation screens, about sine scroller, achievements, debug screens, and serial FPS output.
Lore
The badge followed from the 2016 BSides Cape Town badge lineage and was built to show off the ESP32, colour screen, touch input, and hackable game-console direction. The author explicitly wanted attendees to strip the software back and build their own badge apps, controllers, games, or mesh-network multiplayer experiments.
Lifecycle
Add-ons & Upgrades
archive-derived platform note
source-backed
ESP32 repurposing surface
Later writeups treated the 2019 badge as an ESP32-WROOM-32U board suitable for C# NanoFramework and ESP32 game/video experiments.
Source
badge app framework
source-backed
GameOn-derived badge game framework
The making-of post documents a colour GameOn-derived firmware with menu, single-player game, raycaster, voxel landscape, high-score JSON/WiFi workflow, setup screens, achievements, and debug screens.
Source
firmware source
source-backed
GPL-3.0 firmware archive
The public repository preserves the badge firmware, ESP32 binary, assets, Arduino build settings, TFT_eSPI configuration, SDL local-debug path, games, demos, OTA code, WiFi scanner, and Bluetooth material.
Source
hardware architecture
source-backed
Colour IPS ESP32 game badge core
The first-hand making-of post documents an ESP32 badge with 1.3-inch 240x240 IPS colour display, custom PCB, touch buttons, 18650 battery, and 3D-printed case.
SourceOperational history
Issues & Camp Impact
hardware-archive caveat
note
The original making-of post and GPL-3.0 firmware repository are recovered, but this pass still did not recover public schematic, PCB, BOM, manufacturing, case source, production-count, or image-rights material for the 2019 badge.
The entry can now describe the badge hardware and firmware from primary sources while avoiding unsupported board-layout, production-run, or image-reuse claims.
- Confidence
- source-backed but incomplete
- Status
- needs schematic, PCB, and BOM recovery
- Timeframe
- 2019 badge archive pass
- Source note
- Tony Mamacos making-of post, tonym128 firmware repository, 8bitresearch post, and Hackster project.
missing rights-cleared image
note
No local BSides Cape Town 2019 badge image has been added because public image rights and exact original photo provenance have not been verified.
The catalogue keeps the record image-free while preserving the source-backed badge existence and ESP32 core.
- Confidence
- local project policy
- Status
- needs licensed original replacement
- Timeframe
- current catalogue build
- Source note
- badge.gallery image policy and 8bitresearch source page.
Resources
Arduboy TV on ESP32
project page · Hackster project noting that the author ran the ESP32 TV-output experiment on a BSides Cape Town 2019 badge and pointing to the original badge software writeup.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Badge Firmware
firmware source · Public GPL-3.0 GitHub repository preserving the badge firmware, prebuilt ESP32 binary, assets, platform code, demos, games, OTA code, WiFi scanner, Bluetooth material, SDL tooling, and Arduino/ESP32 build instructions.
BSides Cape Town 2019 Making a badge
first-hand making-of writeup · Tony Mamacos first-hand post documenting the 2019 badge hardware, ESP32 processor, colour IPS display, touch buttons, 18650 battery, 3D-printed case, firmware architecture, game content, WiFi high-score flow, Bluetooth controller experiment, and post-event lessons.
Repurposed BSides Cape Town Badge
project page · Third-party writeup identifying the 2019 badge core as ESP32-WROOM-32U and explaining why it was suitable for C# NanoFramework experiments.
Sources
8bitresearch: Re-purposed BSides Cape Town Badge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Source for 2019 badge existence, ESP32-WROOM-32U core, C# NanoFramework reuse, and contrast with the 2016 ESP8266 badge.
GitHub / Tony Mamacos: tonym128/BSidesCPT2019-Firmware
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary GPL-3.0 firmware archive for the BSides Cape Town 2019 badge, including source files, firmware binary, assets, ESP32/Arduino build notes, TFT_eSPI pin configuration, SDL local-build path, games, demos, and support code.
Hackster.io: Arduboy TV on ESP32 with PS3 Remote Control
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Secondary project source for later ESP32 experimentation on a BSides Cape Town 2019 badge and original software-writeup pointer.
Tony Mamacos / ttech: BSides Cape Town 2019 Making a badge
Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary first-hand source for 2019 badge hardware, ESP32 and display details, custom PCB, touch buttons, battery and case, firmware framework, games, WiFi high-score sync, Bluetooth GamePad experiment, debugging screens, and design lessons.