retro News - Page 5 of 8 - CNX Software

August 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Using an Old Cassette Tape to Enclose a Battery-powered Raspberry Pi Zero

Raspberry Pi Zero Cassette Tape Enclosure

If you’re old enough you may have a stock of old cassette tapes that may or may not work anymore. The good news is that if you have time on your hands, you could recycle those as a Raspberry Pi Zero enclosure, including even other components like a small battery, battery charging board, and display. That’s exactly what Martin Mander did with his Cassete Pi IoT scroller project that receives notifications via IFTTT service and displays them as scrolling text on a small display connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Here’s the detailed list of components used in this project: Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless Pimoroni LiPo SHIM LiPo/LiIon power supply shim for Raspberry Pi boards Adafruit Micro Lipo charger board with micro USB port Pimoroni 11×7 LED Matrix 150 mAh Li-Polymer Battery Cassette Tape DPDT Slide Switch Vibration motor Once assembly is done, you can flash a Micro SD […]

July 31, 2020August 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit Review – Part 1 – Unboxing and First Boot

Last month, we wrote about Elecrow introducing CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and electronics learning kit for its launch on Kickstarter crowdfunding website. The company has now sent one of its kits to CNX Software for evaluation and review. I’ll start by checking out the content of the package, and boot it up, before publishing a more detailed review in a few weeks. The package is fairly big and highlights it’s made for kids over 8 years old with close to 100 course resources and over 20 electronics modules. The back of the package list the main features and package contents with for example a 11.6″ Full HD display, Raspberry Pi 4 4GB board running a customized (Linux) system or Retropie for game emulation, electronics components and modules like servos and motors, as well as some resources for gaming including two USB gamepads. The first things we get when opening […]

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Powkiddy X2 is a Low-End Nintendo Switch Lookalike

Powkiddy specializes in handheld gaming consoles, and if their latest Powkiddy X2 portable game console looks familiar, it’s because it looks just like a Nintendo Switch. But the comparison stops there. The NVIDIA processor is replaced by a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor, the display has a lower resolution, the controllers aren’t detachable, and unsurprisingly you can’t play any Nintendo Switch games. Powkiddy X2 specification: SoC – Quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.3 GHz (possibly Rockchip RK3128) System Memory – TBD Storage – TBD flash storage, MicroSD card slot Display – 7″ IPS display with 1024×600 resolution Video Output – Mini HDMI output Audio – 3.5mm audio jack; speaker(s); MP3/MP4 audio playback USB – 2x Micro USB port to connect external gamepads User input – 2x rockers, 2x D-PADs, select and start keys, function key, L&R; power & reset keys, volume control Battery – 3,000 mAh The console is said to come with […]

May 3, 2020May 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

ODROID-Go Advance Black Edition Gets WiFi, R2/L2 Button, and USB-C Power Input

At the end of last year, Hardkernel launched ODROID-GO Advance portable Linux retro game console powered by a Rockchip RK3326 processor with 1GB RAM, and a 3.5″ color display. While it was fairly well-received, people wished it would not come with a large power barrel jack and included WiFi among a few other requests. COVID-19 also delayed mass-production of the device, but the silver lining is that the company decided to make a new revision 1.1 PCB with a USB-C port for power input, a WiFi module, and R2 and L2 buttons that’s planned to launch soon under the name ODROID-Go Advance Black Edition. ODROID-Go Advance Black Edition specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3326 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.3GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3L @ 786Mhz, 32 Bits bus width Storage – 16MB SPI Flash for bootloader, Micro SD Card slot (UHS-1 Capable interface) Display – […]

December 28, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

$55 ODROID-GO Advance Linux based Retro Game Console is Powered by Rockchip RK3326 Processor

Last year, Hardkernel took some time away from Arm and x86 Linux SBCs with the launch of ODROID-GO retro game console powered by Espressif Systems ESP32 processor. The console could be programmed with the Arduino IDE, and the $32 price tag made it a popular item despite the limited processing power fo the ESP32 dual-core processor. The good news is that the console got an upgrade with ODROID-Go Advance equipped with a Rockchip RK3326 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor coupled with 1GB RAM to run Linux, and featuring an upgraded 3.5″ wide-viewing angle color display. ODROID-GO Advance specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3326 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.3GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3L @ 786Mhz, 32 Bits bus width Storage – 16MB SPI Flash for bootloader, Micro SD Card slot (UHS-1 Capable interface) Display – 3.5″ 320×480 TFT LCD (Wide-viewing angle display, MIPI-DSI interface) Audio – 3.5mm earphone […]

September 9, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Rikomagic R6 Mini Android Projector Looks Like a Vintage Radio

Rikomagic has been releasing Android TV boxes at least since 2012, but in recent years the company has also started to work on Android projectors, and a couple of years ago I reviewed Rikomagic RKM R1 mini projector, and I was fairly satisfied despite the system using an entry-level quad-core Cortex-A7 processor (Rockchip RK3128). Based on the same industrial design, Rikomagic R5 projector launched in 2018 is more up-to-date to today’s user’s requirements with Rockchip RK3328 and 2GB RAM. But with Rikomagic R6 mini Android projector, the company is trying something different, at least in terms of appearance, as the projector looks like a vintage radio. Rikomagic R6 specifications: SoC – Rockchip quad-core processor System memory – 1 or 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8 or 16GB eMMC flash, microSD slot Projector 4000 lumens (real 70 ANSI lumens) Resolution – 720p physical lense; up to 1920×1080 output Contrast ratio – 2000:1 […]

June 28, 2019January 3, 2020 by Stephen Vicinanza - 4 Comments

THEC64 a Retro Functional Commodore 64

Retro Games has set December 2019 as the release date for their reimagined full-size fully functional C64, named THEC64. This somewhat smaller version of the original Commodore 64 comes with 64 games, a joystick and may include a handheld game console. THEC64 computing power is limited, but Basic is still functioning and can be booted, as well as Vic20 Basic. The original replica was a small keyboard facsimile of the original keyboard, called the C64 mini. The keyboard was just for “show” but did have 64 games included, which many people suspect are the same games that will be available on the “full-size” reissue. There are quite a few people willing to help out with the launch of the THEC64, offering video tutorials of how to program the fully functioning retro computer. There is a website called 64Bites, devoted to the Commodore 64 and it’s Basic programming, and this leads […]

June 12, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

Fullfill your Nostalgia with Development Kits based on Intel 8080, Motorola 6802, Z80… Processors

Intel 8080 processor was released in April 1974, Motorola 6802 in 1976, and people in their late 40’s, 50’s or older may have experimented with those more than 40 years. People may still have those at home, but surely it’s not possible to purchase those in 2019 if suddenly you’ve got that nostalgia feeling getting at you, right? Apparently, it is, as Wichit Sirichote, an associated professor at the Department of Applied Physics in King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, in Bangkok, Thailand has designed a few development kits based on those older processors. Let’s take the 8080 devkit as an example to check out the features of such kits: CPU – NEC 8080 CPU clocked at 2.048MHz Memory & Storage – 32KB RAM, 32KB EPROM Memory and I/O decoder chip – GAL16V8D PLD Oscillator – 8224 chip with Xtal frequency of 18.432MHz Bus controller – 8228 chip with RST 7 […]