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Geek Builds His Own NES Classic With A Raspberry Pi (arstechnica.com)
"It turns out that the NES Classic Edition is just a little Linux-powered board inside a cute case," writes Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica, "and it's totally possible to build your own tiny Linux-powered computer inside a cute case without spending much more than $60." An anonymous reader writes:
Andrew used a $42 Raspberry Pi 3 Model B -- "it's relatively cheap and relatively powerful, and it can easily handle anything from the original PlayStation on down" -- plus an $8 case, and a microSD card. He also purchased a pair of gamepads -- there's several options -- and reports that "Putting our little box together is ridiculously easy, and you ought to have no problem with it even if you've never opened up a PC tower in your life."
"Making retro game consoles is a fairly common use case for the Pi, so there are a few different operating system choices out there," Andrew reports, and he ultimately chose the Linux-based RetroPie OS, which includes a number of emulators. Basically the process boils down to dropping a RetroPie boot image onto the SD card, putting it into the Pi, and then plugging it into your display and connecting your controllers -- plus configuring some menus. "The default quality of the emulation looks just as good as it does on the NES Classic Edition," and "the emulators for these older systems are all advanced enough that things should mostly run just like they did on the original hardware... I've been having a ton of fun with mine now that it's all set up, and its flexibility (plus the quality of those USB gamepads) has made it my favorite way to play old games, outpacing my Apple TV, the pretty but not-living-room-friendly OpenEmu, and the old hacked Wii I still have sitting around."
The hardest part may just be finding a PC with an SD card slot -- and of course, the resulting system gives you lots of flexibility. "By using the Raspberry Pi and freely available software, you can build something capable of doing a whole heck of a lot more than playing the same 30 NES games over and over again."
"Making retro game consoles is a fairly common use case for the Pi, so there are a few different operating system choices out there," Andrew reports, and he ultimately chose the Linux-based RetroPie OS, which includes a number of emulators. Basically the process boils down to dropping a RetroPie boot image onto the SD card, putting it into the Pi, and then plugging it into your display and connecting your controllers -- plus configuring some menus. "The default quality of the emulation looks just as good as it does on the NES Classic Edition," and "the emulators for these older systems are all advanced enough that things should mostly run just like they did on the original hardware... I've been having a ton of fun with mine now that it's all set up, and its flexibility (plus the quality of those USB gamepads) has made it my favorite way to play old games, outpacing my Apple TV, the pretty but not-living-room-friendly OpenEmu, and the old hacked Wii I still have sitting around."
The hardest part may just be finding a PC with an SD card slot -- and of course, the resulting system gives you lots of flexibility. "By using the Raspberry Pi and freely available software, you can build something capable of doing a whole heck of a lot more than playing the same 30 NES games over and over again."
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Worse than that, you can actually just buy bundles that are 100% this.
RPi, Retropie card, controllers.
Raspberry Pi cases, just off the top of google...
https://www.google.com/#q=rasp...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Bugger: Missed off the link:
https://thepihut.com/collectio...
So long as you aren't selling ROMs, pretty much the law has decided that it's not a problem.
Some emulators are available - for money - on things like Google Play Store and have been for years. For example, Spectaculator, etc.
Emulating isn't breaking the law. Only providing copyright code (e.g. roms, software, etc.), or misappropriating trademarks (e.g. a picture of Pacman) is.
You stand more chance of being sued for drawing Pacman on a sticker than selling a system intended for emulation.
To be honest, from that kit, I'd be more worried about patents on the shape of the SNES controller (and why did the guy use SNES controllers on an NES console?), but that's the manufacturer's problem, not the end user.
(this is why I like articles like these, but he way, they might be "simple", but that means they're actually in reach of most of us here and so there's actually something meaningful to discuss).
I've built a few things professionally recently (some test kit) which are not all that much more than an RPi 3 in a box. I used these:
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/...
and some short USB cables internally for connection. They give a very solid, professional feel, and from my point of view, if a technician inexplicably whacks the connection with a hammer, then all I have to do is replace the bulkhead port, not anything more expensive inside. Not so important for home use, but they're still professional looking and robust. I believe that HDMI is available in the same series.
There's also quite a lot of other alternatives, and I expect you can get cheaper ones off aliexpress with all the usual caveats about variation in mileage.
They probably do panel mount micro USB connectors too, but you're better off sticking a proper IEC module on the box and having the PSU inside, becasue micro usb is utterly hateful in every possible way.
There are plenty of standard and less standard equipment boxes that'll fit all the necessary gubbins inside, or you can 3D print one, get the sides laser cut or craft it from fine hardwood if that's more your scene. Obviously, buying a ready made plastic box from a standard supplier is the easiest. I 3D printed mine since it had to be able to physically interface with an odd shaped piece of hardware.
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