Have you ever woken up and asked if running Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Vice City on a TP-Link router is possible? No? Well, one hardware hacker in Germany apparently did and made it a reality.
The individual, who goes by the handle Manawyrm on YouTube, posted a video of his achievement on the site. Using a TP-Link WDR4900 and an AMD Radeon HD 7470 as an eGPU, he shows off his success getting GTA Vice City up and running with a wink and a kiss.
If you’re wondering why that particular 2013 router model, there’s a pretty interesting reason. As Tom’s Hardware explains, the TP-Link WDR4900 was a favourite amongst hardware modders and hackers, primarily because it is powered by a PowerPC-based CPU, made by NXP. Specifically, a PowerPC e500v2 32-bit processor.
Of course, getting the TP-Link to run with an eGPU was one of the challenges, to which the modder had to custom design a mini PCIe breakout PCB, attach it to the router leading to the router’s CPU, therefore connecting a spare PCIe 2.0 interface to it. If you’re also wondering why a Radeon HD 7470, it’s simple: the hacker initially tried using a more powerful RX 570 but ran into compatibility issues with the card.
On the software side, the hacker used a bootstrap version of Debian Linux, along with additional kernel modules enabled. Enough module that allowed it to run the game on the TP-Link router and eGPU combo.
(Source: KittenLabs, Tom’s Hardware, Videocardz)
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