Let's build a Game Boy Emulator on a Breadboard!

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In today’s episode, we’re building  a Game Boy emulator on a breadboard! All you need is a Raspberry Pi Pico  micro-controller, an ILI9225 LCD   display, an SD card and a couple of  micro-push buttons to get started! The Game Boy emulator used is Peanut-GB  by deltabeard. Peanut-GB has been specially   optimized to run at full speed on low  specs computers or microcontrollers.  It runs at 60 frames per second on the  Pico, at the expense of some emulation   accuracy. It can play most of the  1000+ original Game Boy DMG games! It’s easier to flash the firmware  before starting the assembly so   you can test that everything is working  as expected at every stage of the build: Download the latest .UF2  file from the release page.  Push and hold the BOOTSEL button on the Pico, then  connect to your computer using a micro USB cable.  Drag and drop the UF2 file onto  the RPI-RP2 drive. The Raspberry   Pi Pico will reboot and will now run the emulator. In order to run the emulator, you will also  need a Micro SD card with roms you legally own.  Insert your SD card in a Windows  computer and format it as FAT 32.  Copy your .GB files to the SD card root folder  Insert the SD card into the LCD  display using a Micro SD adapter. We will start the assembly by connecting the  screen and the SD card to the Pico.  To make the connections, we use Dupont wires.  Pico has 2 Serial Peripheral Interfaces  to communicate with digital peripherals.   We use SPI0 for the LCD display  and SPI1 for the SD card reader. If everything works correctly, you  should see the game selection menu. Now let’s add some buttons.  There are 8 micro-push buttons in total:  4 for the Dpad + 4 action buttons.  They are connected to ground on one side  and to GPIO pins 2 to 9 on the other side.  The buttons are positioned on the breadboard   to mimic their positions on the Game Boy.  When a button is pressed, the  associated pin will be grounded,   and Pico will read a logical zero. We’re now ready to play our first game! When you select a game with the Dpad and press A   or B, the emulator copies the selected ROM file  to Pico’s flash memory and starts the game.  Start + select returns to the game selection menu. It's great but we miss the sound. The sound is   provided by a MAX98357 amplifier  and a small 2 watts speaker.  Pico sends a 44.1kHz stereo digital audio stream  to the amplifier using the I2S protocol. First connect the speaker to the amplifier.   Then connect the amplifier to GPIO pins 26 to 28. This completes the assembly…   In the next episode, we will use 3d  printing to build a fully functional   handheld Game Boy console. Thanks for watching!
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Channel: YouMakeTech
Views: 33,886
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Length: 3min 39sec (219 seconds)
Published: Wed Mar 08 2023
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