Someone coded a game of Snake that’s smaller than a pixel

We like our small games here at XDA. For example, we reported that

someone made a handheld console the size of a coin
, which was impressive by itself. However, what if you could squeeze a game into a single pixel? That’s exactly what one person did, and while it’s really impressive, you do need a microscope just to see what’s going on.

Subpixel Snake is a game that fits within a pixel

In a video by Patrick Gillespie (thanks, Tom’s Hardware), Subpixel Snake is a game that’s played within a pixel. If you’re wondering how a game can fit on a single pixel, it’s because there are little subpixels that make up each individual pixel on a device. These subpixels are what Patrick controlled to create a game of Snake, where you control a subpixel to eat other subpixels.

Patrick made some very interesting discoveries during their development, including the fact that just because a monitor is displaying a block of solid green does not essentially mean that only the green subpixels activate; in fact, in his example, he showed that displaying green also required some red and blue subpixels for the perfect tone. With some external hope from a subpixel enthusiast, Patrick managed to crack the code behind subpixel technology and created a snake game that requires a microscope to see properly.

If you want to learn more about how subpixels play a part in displaying what’s on-screen, check out our piece on the reasons why you should pass on an OLED monitor and stick with IPS for now. Part of the reason includes how OLED and IPS monitors handle text via subpixels, with text looking a little harder to read on the OLED.