It could be tempting to consider a Wi-Fi router as a glorified community change, simply with radio waves as an alternative of cables. However they’re much more complicated than that and have had a stunning degree of functionality for a few years now. Some are primarily computer systems in their very own proper and energetic hacking communities use that to their benefit. The OpenWRT open supply mission, for instance, can unlock the complete potential of many various router fashions. However KittenLabs took issues to a complete different degree when they acquired Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis working on a decade-old Wi-Fi router.

The router in query is a TP-LINK TL-WDR4900 v1, which hit the market in 2013. Most routers like this use ARM processors, just like what we see throughout the embedded expertise business. However the TL-WDR4900 v1 is considerably distinctive in that it has a PowerPC e500v2 processor. When you’ve heard of PowerPC in any respect, it was in all probability within the context of Apple computer systems. Earlier than they transitioned to Intel starting in 2006, Apple famously used PowerPC processors of their Macintosh computer systems. The PowerPC e500v2 is expounded to these, however distinct in that it’s an SPE (Singal Processing Engine) mannequin.

This distinctive processor introduces some challenges, however it was comparatively highly effective for its time and gives PCIe compatibility. That meant that, in principle, KittenLabs may join a PCIe graphics card and achieve the facility to run a online game. Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis was the right selection of sport to check that concept.

Step one was to attach a graphics card. The processor can interface with a PCIe card, however the router’s PCB didn’t have the required slot. So KittenLabs added a miniPCIe slot wired into contacts and traces on the board. That permit them connect a graphics card. First they tried a contemporary AMD Radeon RX570, however that wouldn’t work on any 32-bit system. So that they resorted to an AMD Radeon HD 7470, which did work with a port of Debian Linux constructed for PowerPCSPE processors.

The most important problem was getting a port of Vice Metropolis to run on the {hardware} and that took months. KittenLabs began with reVC, which is a reverse-engineered open supply port of Vice Metropolis that may be compiled for a lot of completely different techniques. They did an enormous quantity of labor to patching that to work with this {hardware}, however nonetheless skilled glitches associated to character mannequin rendering that appeared unsolvable. They even tried modifying a Wii U port, with related outcomes.