Shaun Inman is not done stripping handheld UX down to the bone. The MinUI creator has kicked off a new project called DEDICATED OS, a line of hyper-focused, single-system launchers, and the first target is the MagicX Zero40, tuned specifically for Nintendo DS play. Check it out in the video below, conveniently timestamped.
The Zero40 build, hosted on GitHub, is brutally minimal by design. No options menu, a single save state, a fast game switcher, DraStic under the hood, auto-save on power-off, auto-resume on boot, and a little archive system so you can hide beaten or unstarted titles. Presentation-wise, it offers integer scaling and overscan cropping that chops eight pixels off each side of the DS image to get a larger, sharper output, plus a toggleable gap between the two screens. There’s even a faux-sleep mode with auto power-off, mimicking the “snap the lid shut and walk away” feel of a real DS.
If you’ve followed Shaun’s work, this all tracks. MinUI has become a go-to launcher for people who want their handhelds to behave more like appliances than tinkering projects. DEDICATED OS takes it one step further, not as a universal front end, but as bespoke images tailored to a single device and single system, starting with a handheld that already leans DS-first in its aspect ratio and marketing.
All of this is happening while Shaun is preparing to ship his next game, Ratcheteer DX, a full-color expansion of his Playdate hit. Published by Panic, it’s a top-down pixel adventure about a young underground mechanic trekking through 250 rooms and six dungeons across a frozen “Snowcean,” hitting Steam, Switch, Mac App Store, and itch on March 5 with a Steam demo whose progress carries into the full release.
Source: GitHub
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