Prototypes in production · founding reservations open

Why does a fightstick have an ethernet port?

Because 1000 Hz USB isn’t fast enough. The ethernet jack runs a LAN mode we’re targeting at 40,000 Hz, cutting the delay between your press and the game by up to 40x. It’s a target on pre-prototype hardware, and every number goes to inputlag.science before we claim it.

That’s one corner of the most over-engineered fightstick PCB ever designed.

Founding price $150. The price of a Brook Ultimate Plus, at up to 16x the polling.

The Founding 100 lock $150 · $199 after

No payment now · non-binding · founders always pay the lowest

loading model…

drag to rotate · NOBD-ZERO pre-prototype

No shipping product combines these

Four moats, one board.

Up to 16 kHz USB

Two MCUs in parallel: an RP2040 scans your buttons, an STM32F723 talks USB High-Speed. 8 kHz standard, up to 16 kHz with the companion. Every open board everyone else runs is stuck at 1000 Hz. This is 8 to 16 times past that wall.

40× faster on LAN

25 microseconds from press to game. The fastest fightstick ever tested still takes about 1,000. That is 975 microseconds sooner, 40 times faster, the equivalent of 40,000 Hz polling. A real Ethernet jack and a companion app hand your inputs straight to the game, for lower and more consistent latency than USB polling can reach. Theoretical and pre-prototype: real numbers go to inputlag.science before we claim them.

Native retro

Dreamcast is native in silicon over Maple Bus, with VMU save emulation. No adapter, no dongle. The retro jack is Brook-cable ready, and the same console lineup rolls out in firmware.

Which consoles?

Dreamcast is native today. Planned in firmware to match the Brook Retro Board lineup: NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, PC Engine / TG16, PlayStation, PS2, Xbox, PS3, and PC.

Fully open · Sync and Raw

A public fork of GP2040-CE. Read every line and fork it. Run the tunable Sync window that groups your presses, or Raw for full-speed passthrough. You tune it, you own it.

Specs are targets · prototype stage · building in public

Same money, more board

Priced like a Brook Ultimate Plus. Built past it.

NOBD-ZERO
Brook Ultimate Plus Retro
USB polling
Up to 16 kHz*
~1 kHz
LAN latency mode
~40,000 Hz target*
None
Simultaneous-press sync
Built in, tunable
None
Firmware
Closed
Retro consoles
Dreamcast now, more in firmware
Broad, shipping today
Founding price
$150 (retail $199)
~$140

* Targets on pre-prototype hardware. Every number goes to inputlag.science before we claim it. Brook ships a broader console list today.

Giving back, not walling off: the GP2040-CE-NOBD firmware and NOBD Desktop are open source and free to run on a stick you already own. You never pay us a cent to fix your inputs.

How far past the wall

Faster, drawn to scale.

Bar = speed vs 1000 Hz wall

NOBD-ZERO · LAN ModeTarget0.025 ms
40×

Our target. Over Ethernet, event-driven.

NOBD-ZERO · USB-HS + companionTarget0.0625 ms
16×

Our target with the NOBD companion. 16 kHz, same board.

NOBD-ZERO · USB-HSTarget0.125 ms

Our target out of the box. 8 kHz over USB High-Speed.

Brook UFBMeasured1.0 ms

The fastest fightstick ever measured. Right on the wall.

GP2040-CE open boards1000 Hz cap~1 ms

The firmware we forked. Stuck at the 1000 Hz USB cap.

Hori Fighting Commander 4Measured8.0 ms
0.13×
DualShock 4 (wired)Measured10.3 ms
0.10×

A stock PS4 pad.

PS360+ (Xbox 360)Measured18.2 ms
0.05×
Madcatz TE (Soul Calibur V)Measured24.2 ms
0.04×

Slowest on the board.

Every grey bar is a real measurement from inputlag.science , drawn as speed relative to the 1000 Hz wall (1 ms = 1×). The fastest fightstick ever tested (Brook UFB) sits right on that wall, and the open RP2040 boards GP2040-CE runs on are capped there too. Our targets aim 8× past it on USB out of the box, 16× with the companion, and 40× on LAN.

* NOBD figures are design targets on pre-prototype hardware, not yet measured. GP2040 is the 1000 Hz USB cap, not an inputlag.science entry. We will submit ours before we claim a number.

Don't trust it. Test it.

Every claim is checkable before it even ships.

It also fixes a decades-old dropped-input bug. See the fix

Get it first.

The first boards are being manufactured now. The first 100 reservations lock the $150founding price, a founding serial, and a hand in the firmware. No money now, nothing binding, and we’ll tell you the final price before you owe a cent.

The Founding 100 lock $150 · $199 after

No payment now · non-binding · we tell you the final price before you owe a cent