3 ms·
Nothing I'm aware of has nailed the form-factor/ergonomics and quality of the controls. It's a solid unit and has the feel of a finished product. Alternatives a
by detrites 3y ago
Nothing I'm aware of has nailed the form-factor/ergonomics and quality of the controls. It's a solid unit and has the feel of a finished product. Alternatives are typically bare circuit boards or lack quality input.
It seems like Pimoroni spent time to get those aspects right, and so while there aren't that many games (yet?) - the good quality ones are a joy to play feel-wise, eg Square Bros (which comes installed on a new unit).
The SDK is well thought-out and simple, and has a unified API - micropython or c/c++.
They are apparently working on a successor that plugs into a TV or monitor via HDMI. IIRC it will use two RP2040's.
EDIT: Yes, two chips:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pimoroni-stick-pi-gaming-console https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pimoroni-stick-pi-gaming-c...
- skybrian 3y agoHuh, I was going to suggest that! There're 80 cents each, so why not? But it seems there's a purpose for it: > The dual RP2040 chips on the DV Stick will allow it to have one CPU that does the software processing and another that just drives the display. Each of the chips has its own PS RAM chip, which means that there will be more memory than the 264K that comes standard with RP2040 chips / Raspberry Pi Picos. > "Each of the chips has a PS RAM chip for the frame buffer and, on VSync they swap," Williamson said. "So we have an analog mux that basically swaps the chips between the two so the application processor writes into the frame buffer in one RAM chip then, when VSync occurs in the display, it hands that RAM chip over to the display processor which hands its RAM chip back to the application processor so the display outputs on the screen." Thanks for the link!