--- title: Someone spent a year building a sci-fi starship... description: A maker spent a year building a hand-crafted sci-fi starship bridge simulator featuring 152 physical buttons, six screens, and custom ESP32-S3-based USB... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/someone-spent-a-year-building-a-sci-fi-starship-simulator-with-152-physical-controls-using-esp32-s3s-kohxcs7gj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Someone spent a year building a sci-fi starship simulator with 152 physical controls using ESP32-S3s | daily.dev og:description: A maker spent a year building a hand-crafted sci-fi starship bridge simulator featuring 152 physical buttons, six screens, and custom ESP32-S3-based USB... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/someone-spent-a-year-building-a-sci-fi-starship-simulator-with-152-physical-controls-using-esp32-s3s-kohxcs7gj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/KoHxCS7gj.png og:image:alt: Someone spent a year building a sci-fi starship simulator with 152 physical controls using ESP32-S3s og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Someone spent a year building a sci-fi starship simulator with 152 physical controls using ESP32-S3s **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A maker spent a year building a hand-crafted sci-fi starship bridge simulator featuring 152 physical buttons, six screens, and custom ESP32-S3-based USB interface boards called 'Enigma.' The project includes a Python infrastructure library to handle all hardware interactions and a fanfic game called 'Halcyon Dawn' set in John Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. The Enigma boards are designed for general-purpose reuse, making them adaptable for future projects like escape room puzzles. Both the hardware designs and software are open source. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Behold The Most Beautifully Ambitious Starship Simulator Yet](https://daily.dev/posts/behold-the-most-beautifully-ambitious-starship-simulator-yet-tfa0ye84p) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [You, too, can make this ESP32 handheld console that can play retro games](https://daily.dev/posts/you-too-can-make-this-esp32-handheld-console-that-can-play-retro-games-qky4fonpb) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Mini Multi-Arcade Game Cabinets With An ESP32 And Galagino](https://daily.dev/posts/mini-multi-arcade-game-cabinets-with-an-esp32-and-galagino-lao5e6muq) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building A Headless Game Boy Emulator](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-headless-game-boy-emulator-ioostemwi) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot), [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-spent-a-year-building-a-sci-fi-starship-simulator-with-152-physical-controls-using-esp32-s3s-kohxcs7gj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Someone spent a year building a sci-fi starship simulator with 152 physical controls using ESP32-S3s","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/someone-spent-a-year-building-a-sci-fi-starship-simulator-with-152-physical-controls-using-esp32-s3s-kohxcs7gj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/someone-spent-a-year-building-a-sci-fi-starship-simulator-with-152-physical-controls-using-esp32-s3s-kohxcs7gj"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T07:21:48.342Z","dateModified":"2026-07-28T07:22:13.823Z","description":"A maker spent a year building a hand-crafted sci-fi starship bridge simulator featuring 152 physical buttons, six screens, and custom ESP32-S3-based USB...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2fd64fe543cac9fd9abcd8c84fbb5b35?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2fd64fe543cac9fd9abcd8c84fbb5b35?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/someone-spent-a-year-building-a-sci-fi-starship-simulator-with-152-physical-controls-using-esp32-s3s-kohxcs7gj","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"python,open-source,hardware,iot,embedded","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Someone spent a year building a sci-fi starship simulator with 152 physical controls using ESP32-S3s"}]} ```