A hardware hacker built the 'GlyphBlaster', a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W-based device that replaces the font ROM on an IBM CGA card to use it as a 1bpp framebuffer. By intercepting the CGA's regular font ROM reads and synchronizing with VSYNC, the device can display arbitrary graphics — including streaming 60fps video wirelessly over Wi-Fi using RLE-compressed UDP packets. The project also supports ROM passthrough via a mid-air socket, enabling graphics to be OR'd over normal text mode. Additional demos include a bouncing DVD logo, Bad Apple video playback, and a Neko-style cat that follows the text cursor or light pen around the screen. The firmware is written in Rust using the Embassy async framework, and a production PCB has been designed in KiCad.
