History
Legacy
The evolution of Emberware hardware
What we know about Emberware's hardware — pieced together from recovered documentation, collector archives, and surviving prototypes. Some details are confirmed. Others remain speculation. The full picture is still emerging.
One
1-bit Handheld
References to a 1-bit handheld appear in early Emberware documentation — what collectors call "the One." A screen that could display two colors. Two buttons. No backlight. If it existed, it predates everything else we've found.
Some collectors claim to have seen units. Others believe it was a prototype that never shipped. What's clear from the fragments we've recovered: this was where Emberware started. Simple hardware. Clear limits. A foundation for everything that came after.
Documentation being recovered
Chroma
2D Handheld
Color arrives — but not the way anyone expected. Instead of chasing the largest palette, Emberware locked Chroma to a curated set of colors. Sixty-four hues chosen to work together. No gradients. No dithering tricks. Just clean pixel art.
The locked palette simplified development. One set of colors to work with. One resolution to target. Games shipped faster when developers weren't second-guessing every color choice. Chroma moved units — enough for Emberware to keep going.
View specs · Coming Soon
ChroMAX
2D Home Console
Internal documents reference a home console codenamed "ChroMAX" — Chroma with the constraints lifted. A larger canvas. Expanded palette. Four-player support. What happens when you give Chroma more room to work.
We've recovered partial specifications and what appear to be development notes. Whether ChroMAX shipped as a consumer product or remained internal is unclear. The documentation suggests it reached at least the prototype stage.
View specs · Planned
z
3D Handheld
The leap into three dimensions. When the z launched, texture mapping was still emerging — too expensive for portable hardware. So Emberware built around vertex colors and hardware dithering: limited colors, but smooth gradients achieved through pixel patterns. Every surface defined by geometry.
The dithering gave z games a distinctive look — geometric shapes with smooth color transitions despite the limited palette. More sculpture than rendering. The aesthetic held up even after texture mapping became standard elsewhere.
View specs · In Development
ZX
3D Home Console
The flagship. Everything Emberware had learned, brought together. Full 3D rendering with texture support — the cutting edge had finally arrived on home hardware. Fixed 960×540 resolution. Four fixed-function rendering pipelines. Enough power for the fighting games and platformers that defined the era.
The ZX sold better than any previous Emberware console. The expanded constraints and standard controller opened up new genres — the library grew steadily. Most surviving units come from this era.
View specs · Playable Now
What Else?
More to discover
Internal documents reference additional projects — codenames we haven't been able to match to hardware. Experimental consoles. Cancelled prototypes. Hardware that may have existed only on paper.
The full extent of Emberware's catalog remains unknown. If you have documentation, hardware, or information about Emberware systems not listed here, we want to hear from you.
Philosophy
Developer-First Hardware
Emberware punched above their weight technically — the ZX shipped with per-pixel lighting that rivaled larger competitors. But they lacked the marketing reach of major manufacturers. What they could do was court developers directly. Every console shipped with thorough technical documentation. Fixed specs meant no guesswork about target hardware.
It was a practical business decision: make hardware that developers actually wanted to build for. Smaller studios and hobbyists who couldn't afford the licensing fees of major platforms found a home here. The library grew because the barrier to entry was low.
Portable First
Emberware's handhelds often reached market before their home consoles. The z brought 3D graphics to a portable years before competitors. Lower production costs meant faster iteration.
Complete Documentation
Every console shipped with technical manuals that explained the full system. No NDAs required. No devkit fees. If you could write code, you could ship a game.
Present
The Archive Continues
At some point, Emberware stopped making consoles. What happened to the company remains unclear. Hardware aged. Documentation was lost, recovered, lost again. Games survived on cartridges in private archives. We're still piecing together the full picture — and building emulators to keep what we've found alive.
This isn't just preservation. New games are being made for this hardware. The libraries are growing. The story continues.