{"id":2853,"date":"2022-01-28T16:55:30","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T15:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quantum-bits.org\/?p=2853"},"modified":"2022-08-24T10:23:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T09:23:08","slug":"on-retro-computing-retro-gaming-with-recalbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quantum-bits.org\/?p=2853","title":{"rendered":"On retro-computing : retro-gaming with Recalbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 pandemic had (and, unfortunately still has) a strong impact on us all. We all tried our best to cope with it, our own ways. Somehow, lock-downs triggered a bit of nostalgia for me, and, to my surprise, new geeky side projects emerged … populated with Lego bricks and old-school computers. Maybe I’m weird, I don’t know. But it helped me discover new communities of fun and talented techno-nerds.<\/p>\n

In the next posts, I’ll try to describe what had been going on for these matters in the last year and a half.<\/p>\n

First things first, let’s speak about how I jumped into retro-gaming and emulation software.<\/p>\n

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First project: Recalbox on a Raspberry Pi 3<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of building a small box able to play old games had actually been on my mind for a long time, before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s, I wasn’t really a console player, but I had quite some fun gaming and hacking on 8-bit and 16-bit computers. So I hunted for something that could by a solid basis for emulating old school computers like Sinclair’s ZX81 and Spectrum, Amstrad CPCs, Atari ST’s or DOS machines, but also classic consoles like Atari’s, Sony’s, Sega’s or Nintendo’s.<\/p>\n

After a few researches, I settled for RecalBox<\/a> (version 6 at the time). I was mature, and could run on the spare Raspberry Pi’s I had (one Raspberry Pi 3 and an old Raspberry Pi Zero). The setup process<\/a> is pretty easy, well documented<\/a> and there is a strong and active community<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the hardware side, I re-purposed an used Raspberry Pi 3 and a SD Card:<\/p>\n

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Then I went on shopping for a standard Raspberry Pi 7″ inch touchscreen and a case for it from an electronic shop around the corner:<\/p>\n

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To complete the hardware setup, I purchased online a black QWERTY USB keyboard:<\/p>\n

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I bought a set of (very) nice gamepads from 8bitdo<\/a> :<\/p>\n

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Sound was a little trickier. I tried a bluetooth speaker, then a spare little cubic speaker that I could connect via a jack connector. But it didn’t feel right for the setup I had in mind. Too much cables with their power supplies. After a while, I found online this ultra-cheapo speaker, that did the trick: stereo, jack connector, running on AAA batteries, could be fitted at the back of the case. It sound not great, but good enough for a first learning project:<\/p>\n

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I powered the system with a 5V\/3000mA micro USB power supply, enough to power both the Raspberry Pi and the screen:<\/p>\n

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… and well, with this hardware setup, I could go ahead, install and configure the system, load bioses and tons of roms\/games, then customize the user interface and add layouts.<\/p>\n

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There you go ! I could quite easily setup a small box emulating:<\/p>\n