This PICO-8 Handheld Is No Fantasy

The PICO-8 is what is called a ‘fantasy console’– you may program it, and there are oodles of video games, but it surely’s not really the 8-bit console it pretends to be. It’s a digital machine, one that may run on high of any trendy OS. When [UncleStem] acquired into PICO-8, he determined that he preferred the PICO-8’s portability, he wished a unique type of portability– so he took the ‘fantasy’ out of ‘fantasy console’ together with his GameBoy-esqe handheld construct, the build/dev video of which is embedded under.

At its core, it’s a Raspberry Pi Zero2W. That’s moderately overkill for an 8-bit digital machine, but it surely’s what he had available, and it makes for a simple construct. The actual hero of the construct is the 720 by 720 pixel IPS show that matches the PICO-8’s sq. side ratio and takes up a lot of the actual property on the hand-held. Even higher, it has HDMI in and sound assist, so with some buttons and a battery the {hardware} is all there after [UncleStem] designs a good-looking 3D printed case, and likewise has a go milling it out of aluminum earlier than giving up and having a professional do it.

Since it’s really easy to do as of late, the whole lot lives on a customized PCB from his sponsor that provides the hand-held good mechanical stability. He’s additionally utilizing the full-colour silkscreen choice to make a really fairly PCB. If that a part of the undertaking appeals, we’ve coated guides to PCB art before. He’s shared the PCB and the whole lot else he can on a google drive, although word that the fantasy console itself is not open supply, and would want bought to complete the undertaking.

Oddly sufficient, this isn’t the primary handheld we’ve seen based mostly on the PICO-8. That could be this project that makes use of a single-button camcorder form-factor. As distinctive as that’s, this undertaking has the good thing about working with the entire library of PICO-8 video games.