A big fan spinning lots of LEDs

Ventilastation is an open source electromechanical game console with an odd display, built for creating and playing circular video games.
Fully designed, published and built in Argentina.

The evolution of Super Ventilagon (2015), it builds on its predecessor's circular display by adding sprite based 8-bit like graphics, and super easy programmability with Micropython.

An ESP32 chip plus 107 leds,
spinning at 600RPM

The code for the games is bolted to the propeller of a big-ass fan.

Slip Ring

Power supply and data signals go thru a Slip Ring towards the base, that uses a Raspberry Pi to play back the game music and sound effects.

Open Source
and Open Hardware

If you have a washing machine or a fan you are no longer using, you can build your own Ventilastation. Find out more in our Github repository.

Talks, interviews and press

Get to know the project through interviews, talks and articles. The three featured items are in Spanish.

  • TNTecno

    A television interview about Ventilastation. The link starts at 6:38.

    Watch the interview

  • Página/12

    An article about the video game console built from a standing fan.

    Read the article

  • Nerdearla Buenos Aires 2025

    Alejandro Cura's talk at Nerdearla Buenos Aires 2025.

    Watch the talk

More coverage

Making games for Ventilastation

Make your first circular game in MicroPython with VS2, the current game API. You can develop and test it on your computer without building a console.

You can also play in the web emulator without installing anything. For a guided game-making demonstration, see the English presentation.

  1. Set up the desktop emulator.
  2. Create your first game and steer a ship.
  3. Follow the complete tutorial to add enemies, a score and sound.

Use the desktop emulator to develop and test your game with local files. Look up a class or method in the API reference.

After the tutorial, Vyruss VS2 is a complete example game. The older ventilastation.sprites API is obsolete for new development; its maintenance guide lives in a separate section.

Build your own Ventilastation

All the source code, the electronic schematics, and the mechanical blueprints to build your own Ventilastation console are open source and open hardware.

Get started in the GitHub repository. And if you ever get stuck, don't hesitate to contact us, we are happy to help more folks build their own.

A game console made by alecu

With the help of plenty of friends:

  • Tecnoestructuras
  • Python Argentina
  • GameOn!
  • ArsGames
  • EspacioTec
  • Cybercirujas
  • FlashParty

Some previous games: