It’s all been done with Raspberry Pi boards. These SBC (single board computer) have become very popular due to their great power and low price. It should be noted that, due to the pandemic, they have doubled their price due to lack of stock. They are going back to their price, but the process will be long.
The most negative part of all this is that we do not know anything about the Raspberry Pi 5. We must say that the Raspberry Pi 4 B, which has up to 8 GB of RAM, was released in June 2019. More than 4 years have passed and no they have released the SBC that comes to replace it.
This is the simple but powerful portable console
You should not expect a large portable console in this case, it is a simple and light solution, to pass the tedium. Count this console a little 2-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 320×240 pixels. Anything better is unfeasible due to the limitations of the board on which it has been built.
And it is that this portable console is based on the Raspberry Pi Pico that has a RP2040 processor. This processor has two ARM Cortex-M0+ cores working at 133 MHz. It has 264KB RAM integrated and supports up to 16MB memory. Also, this processor allows up to 30 GPIO pins.
We see that it is not a particularly powerful processor, it is logical. That does not mean that we can enjoy classic arcade games as it is PAC-MAN, Centipede, Space Invaders or Tetris, among others. But it is that, in addition, you can enjoy more modern games such as Flappy Biard or the mythical DOOM.
Includes a reader microSD cards to increase capacity and 500mAh battery for food. A speaker has been integrated and it has a rather geeky design. Basically, this console is a lasagna, where each layer is a specific plate and connected to each other.
The console only sells in the Czech Republic. Specifically, we have a basic version without wireless connectivity for around $39 and a version with WiFi and Bluetooth for around $42.
But, you can make it yourself, since all the specifications are public. The software, hardware schematics, and SDK files are available on GitHub. So you can take advantage, buy the components and assemble it this weekend.
The limit is in your imagination
As we can see, the possibilities of the Raspberry Pi and its different alternatives are endless. There are dozens of different projects on the net that we can replicate and improve. For most of these projects, having basic knowledge of electronics and programming is enough.
If we want to go a step further and customize it, we must have a little more knowledge. But hey, with work and exploration you can get anything. The important thing is to put in and never get frustrated, since mistakes only lead to success.
