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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."
I've running emulators since... I don't know, AGES. Why is this "news for nerds"?
I was expecting something that at least looked like a NES. But no, it's just a Raspberry Pi stuck in a case with a couple of gamepads. That's a really common use for a Raspberry Pi.
Is there anything new or innovative about this?
Perhaps I should write an article about how I installed Linux on a PC and use it to browse the internet and work on spreadsheets.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Next up... geek upgrades his own workstation's RAM!
I mean "pack a Pi into a Game Boy"
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
People have been doing this since the Raspberry Pi existed.
before even a fraction of people who wanted them had them. It's a massive dick move on their part, btw. Any other company (except maybe Apple & Blizzard) would have been crucified by their fans.
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Funny there is an article about this guy who just threw together some already built packages, and nothing about the developers who actually wrote all the software. Millennials.
Trom the TFA:
We wrote this article on Dec 2016 [...] We reposted it today with updated prices...
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Horrified to discover that less than 50% of NES Classic Pi builders are female. How can womyn succeed in STEM if their emulator building is suppressed by the patriarchy. Also, womyn-built emulators cost 40% less according to study by SJW Dynamix Consulting Group.
Emulators are a crime.
U.S. courts disagreed with you in the cases of Connectix Virtual Game Station and Bleem!.
That's what I gave my boys for Christmas.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
$80 and build it yourself. For 99% of people out there pre built will do just fine.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
This quite reminds me of the local news section on other website, celebrating the highs of daily life. Following is a recent article (continued on web site, so I avoid pasting it entirely)
"Man Tries Using Pink 6-Pound Bowling Ball To Great Amusement"
WEST ORANGE, NJ—Seemingly knowing full well that the relatively small and light ball was not designed for someone of his size, sources confirmed Tuesday that 25-year-old Darren Foerstner tried using a pink 6-pound bowling ball for one frame, all to the incredible amusement of friends and onlookers at Eagle Rock Lanes bowling alley. “When Darren walked up to the lane holding that little pink ball, we were all thinking, ‘Wait a minute, that ball is meant for children,’ but then we realized what he was doing, and everyone just started cracking up,” said friend Kelly Lingard, adding that, as part of his lighthearted and exceptionally entertaining display, Foerstner demonstrated that his thumb and fingers were unable to fit into the smaller holes of the pink ball, forcing him to palm it with his entire hand.
(...)
http://www.theonion.com/articl...
it's April. 8 months is a long time to go without producing a highly in demand product unless you have a good reason to.
Fact is they just use the NES classic to remind folks the brand exists in between the Wii U dying and the Switch launching. It worked, but they got a lot of ill will from all the scalping. But not nearly as much as they deserved. Like I said, it's a dick move. Collectors, fan boys and just plain 'ole guys & gals in their 30s and 40s couldn't get one without paying 2x-5x retail to a scalper or winning a lottery day 1. Nasty business all around.
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I saw that movie!
3D-printed mini NES with small NFC cartridges.
Seriously why is this thing article even on Slashdot? It's so common these days that you need something taken to the next step as shown in this video to even get mentioned on hackaday.
#DeleteFacebook
how easy it is. If you want to read the details about how emulators are built most are open source and there's forums galore. It's ridiculously technical and most wouldn't be able to follow it. Ars is a more general tech site.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
You gonna write about that kid that made a clock by buying a clock and taking the case off next time? No, because I'm pretty sure you milked that cow already.
Surfuckingprise.
You don't "download more RAM" you idiot.
But you can download software to make more efficient use of the RAM you have. About two decades ago, Connectix made an installable module for classic Mac OS that overhauled its virtual memory manager, setting up what amounted to a compressed swap file in a RAM disk. It was called RAM Doubler, and in an era of 16 MB RAM, it worked. Years later, the Linux developers reinvented it as zram. (Or were they waiting for Connectix's patent to expire?)
Or you can download 4 GB of DDR using a BitTorrent tracker and play it in StepMania.
Using RP's for emulation has been done since the RP has been released, so how is this actual news?
Why yes it can actually: https://github.com/raspberrypi.... It works really well for snes and nes emulation but you have to tweak settings a bit in the retroarch config to get it pixel perfect. I'm really enjoying 240p on my Trinitron CRT using the zune av cables. I've preordered a Retrotink-C hat for component output but the composite output is just fine if you're feeling nostalgic.
Is installing software on a computer now newsworthy in the new society that embraces mediocrity?
why would you output 240p instead of 480i, I don't get it
So basically, "Yet another customer buys Raspberry Pi + recommended components and installs RetroPi"?
There's nothing new here. A significant portion of the people buying the Raspberry Pi are doing this.
Classic consoles originally output 240p, so it gets the output of the pi looking extremely close to the actual console output. Also gets rid of flickering from an interlaced resolution. It's kind of impressive how much better 240p looks.
Now there's a /. article.
Yes - and you can actually have accurate emulation.
I use Higan for NES and SNES, Gambatte for Gameboy, Mupen64Plus for N64 running at 1080p, Fusion for Genesis, and Mednafen for Playstation. My next build will hopefully be powerful enough to run Wii games, but I currently have those games on a hard drive connected to my Wii U so I don't have to deal with discs anymore.
I can also do Dosbox for DOS or Win3.1/95 games. I can enter/exit most games using the IR remote. With Steam in-home streaming, I can remotely run modern Windows games on my Linux HTPC fairly well too.
While I have a bluetooth PS3 controller available, I actually use two dualshock-style Logitech wireless controllers most of the time. This is the perfect setup for PSX, SNES, Genesis, and Gameboy alike. I hate both the NES and N64 controller layouts, so this is an acceptable substitute.
Since you asked, analog video standard contain "useless" lines that won't be displayed, since some time is needed for the deflector thing on the Y axis to go back from the bottom to the top of its range. Thus, NTSC (or PAL 60, used for consoles, computers but not broadcast) have an effective 480i resolution not 525i.
Then, classic console have some hackish way to "cancel" the display of each other line (while getting rid of the 1-line offset between two fields) and so achieve a real 240p. A broadcast station might not have approved a messed up signal like that, but for the cable between a console and TV, it did the job and that's we had anyway.
On e.g. a SNES or Megadrive connected through RGB SCART ("PAL", but not really, just PAL res and refresh, and straight RGB signal) you would see how convincing the display is, not unlike 320x200 VGA on monitors of that age. It might be 288p at 50Hz though, with small black bars on top and bottom.
Maybe the console's or computer's vertical resolution was 192, 200, 224, 240 sometimes so I guess there's letterboxing or overscan or something. Later consoles moved to straight 480i60 and 576i50 it seems (and less common 480p options, or 1080i on original Xbox)
I'm very disappointed in this article and the fact that slashdot would even post it.
Oops! Can he make a DS/DSi for me too? I found NES games are all drill/rot and impossible to play, but DS games are superplayable, even old GBA titles.