Adorable ASCII Aquarium Lives On Your Desk
Kert Gartner's ASCII Aquarium transforms a cheap yellow display into a miniature simulated aquarium featuring ASCII sea creatures. Each creature exhibits unique behaviors and can respond to user interactions, such as feeding. The project also includes various configuration options and can serve as a desk clock.
- ▪The ASCII Aquarium uses a CYD display, which is an ESP32-based development board.
- ▪Each sea creature in the aquarium has its own behaviors and responses.
- ▪Users can interact with the aquarium by tapping on the screen to feed the creatures.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Adorable ASCII Aquarium Lives On Your Desk No comments by: Donald Papp May 24, 2026 Title: Copy Short Link: Copy [Kert Gartner]’s ASCII Aquarium turns a cheap yellow display (CYD) into a tiny simulated aquarium, complete with ASCII sea creatures each with their own behaviors. There’s all kinds of options and even timekeeping functionality, so the miniature water world can also pull its weight as a desk clock. The fish and other animal movements are not a series of canned animations; each creature has its own behaviors and responses to things like feeding, which is accomplished by tapping on the screen. A hidden menu offers a wide range of configuration and display options, and there’s even an option to export screen contents as bitmaps.
…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Hackaday.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from Hackaday
