After realizing that that LCD display is way too slow for games, I quickly designed a version with an OLED display, re-using the designs and the parts from the #Micro:Boy project — I didn't get the display to work there, but now that I knew about the reset requirements, I was confident it will work. Surprise! It doesn't. I now suspect that the whole batch of displays I got might be faulty, or simply using a different chip than advertised. In any case, here are some photos of the assembled device:

Note how few components are required!

I decided to not pursue that direction much, and instead focus on the e-ink display. Right now I'm exploring the different possible shapes the badge could have — more about it in a separate log.