A New Handheld Powered By The Same Raspberry Pi Pico Chip!

PicoSystem is a pocket-sized handheld gaming console, Powered by the Raspberry Pi's RP2040 chip the same CPU used In the Raspberry Pi Pico!
This thing is pretty cool and it's a hackable dev handheld gaming console that you can easily make your own games for. Hopefully, in the near future, we can see some emulators like NES PC engine and Gameboy running on the Pico System, and of course I’m waiting for a DOOM port!
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#RaspberryPi #PICO #RP2040 #etaprime DISCLAIMER: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. No Games Or Applications Are Included Or Added On Or To Any Device In This Video

[@jameslewis2635]

This thing could be quite good for emulating 8 bit consoles. Personally it is way too small for me in terms of the screen size and to hold. I do like the fact that it gives people getting into programming an aim that doesn't involve expensive dev kits and licensing agreements, this could be good for school projects.

[@Wedeemgaming]

I'd would get it just to learn Python and program a game!

[@retroman7331]

@@Wedeemgaming If you do...make a video!

[@Wedeemgaming]

@@retroman7331 will do I'll look into it!

[@shagstars]

Its not that much smaller than gamepi20 with pi zero WH inside.

[@wayland7150]

It's much more exciting that a bare bones Pico.

[@anthonynorton666]

That one game killed me. It ran in a tiny window bouncing around in a tiny screen. That must be fun playing in the back seat of car. "Here kids take your Dramamine."

[@jamesb.6177]

Really nice idea but ~$80 US is a bit steep for me. Maybe they can offer a plastic one at a cheaper price?

[@DFX2KX]

it's cheaper and more powerful then either of my Gamebuinos (original and META) where, considering the case that's not that bad considering the 'competition'

[@artemismeow]

I think you can just use a pico and a display it’s all open source

[@Wedeemgaming]

It is a little steep but when you think of the education you might get from it, I think it's worth it!

[@artemismeow]

@@jmsiener you don’t need to buy one. :/ the examples and libraries are free and if you need hardware to test it the schematics show what you need to run it on a pico including what kind of display and which gpios to use

[@someidiot4311]

i got it for $60

[@BillWinchester]

I got mine a couple of days ago, along with an Arduboy FX! Looking forward to playing around with them, and seeing what people do with them! I love the CNC'd aluminium case they have going on, it's nice and weighty despite its size! I have small hands anyway, so it's really nice for me! Can't wait to see what comes up for this system! :D

[@gustavomodoasalto5030]

If it has a CPU it can be a retroconsole An unquestionable universal law.

[@SRC267]

Link to download Super Square Bros: scorpion-games-uk.itch.io/super-square-bros

[@AlluringPegasu13]

Thensk

[@christiangalaz482]

Imagine this but with the pi zero

[@kalabash4952]

It does exist, it's called GamePi20

[@shlokshah5379]

@@kalabash4952 buying a 2ds might be better also the rdxa is more powerful then pi zero

[@kalabash4952]

@@shlokshah5379 yeah whatever

[@jonathanharding5103]

I feel like you may not be giving it enough credit. It's roughly 3x the clock speed of the PS1, and it's dual core. Even being entirely software driven graphics I'm sure you could pull off some halfway decent 3D games.

[@christopherdueck3680]

Spot on. I ran Quake 2 and Unreal on a 166MHz processor with 16 MB of RAM. Thing is, that was a full-fledged PC with all of the additional software-related overhead that accompanies that environment. This handheld isn't running an OS in the background.

[@markhaus]

Yes, but this is not a CISC CPU, this is a RISC microcontroller. The things this chip can accomplish in one clock cycle is not a whole lot by comparison. The fact it clocks so quickly makes up a lot of the difference and that's why it can emulate a NES, but it will never emulate a PS1. At best we might see SNES getting emulated on this thing but that might really be pushing it. Nonetheless, the fact a microcontroller can do this is very impressive, especially if you try to power a NES with a AA battery vs the pico.

[@christopherdueck3680]

@@markhaus While true, I'm referring largely to comments that I've seen stating that the best we could expect is 2600-style, or NES-era at best, original games. That's a laughable statement. Given the limited memory even after taking the flash into account, I wouldn't expect to see Quake 2 fully ported any time soon. Emulation is, of course, an entirely different beast.

[@asuasuasu]

bear in mind you can *easily* drive most RP2040 chips over 300MHz with some overvolting after reducing the flash frequency ratio. it will make power draw a lot crappier, but it should be stable. even if it is a relatively dumb M0+ (dual-)core CPU, overclocking it puts it between stock STM32F4/F7 in terms of coremark results *on one core*, if i'm correct. it's far from higher end ARM MCUs, but it's good value. i wouldn't be so definitive in the comparison with the PSX CPU. for one, you get plenty of SRAM on the pico. for some workloads, i wouldn't be surprised if the RP2040 outperformed the PSX CPU even in perf/MHz. but this is not really my area of expertise. :P of course emulation is a no-go, though.

[@natswii]

The gaming mechanic of slicing asteroids is pure genius! - Love to see more games use that mechanic 5:30

[@danmanx2]

@ETA Prime, I love how you said Aluminum in two different ways. I know you just wanted to say it the fancy way!

[@seanabsher5577]

not having start or select / l and r would almost limit emulation more than other issues tbh... less so the l and r, due to cpu performance, but, I guess using x/y as start and select is possible

[@diezgp]

I hope they can build a nice community around it.

[@GadgetoidUK]

Have a lot of halo effect from the awesome 32blit community so we’ve really hit the ground running. But - yes - this will live and die by community!

[@kjjustinXD]

Doom, Quake and NES run on the iPod classic which has a 80Mhz Dual ARM CPU so I would guess that stuff should run on there too.

[@quarteratom]

I love complete portable microcontroller systems full with batteries and quality cases. It lets you focus on programming, and not worry about building, really great platforms. And this one looks over the top with that custom board, aluminium case and great build quality. I hope it gains a following. Although it's a bit expensive, like twice the price of a TTGO T-Watch. Have you reviewed other similar (gaming or non-gaming) microcontroller platforms, with batteries and cases? I'd love to see more.

[@jonyak1221]

I wonder if it could be made to run pico8 games, that would be awesome. It kind of reminds me of the arduboy.

[@brianfoss1981]

This is what I'd want to see

[@joncollins7730]

I thought that's what this was?

[@jamesb.6177]

@@joncollins7730 yeah im kinda confused myself

[@CockroachSlidy]

If it can run micro python then it theoretically should be powerful enough to run pico8. But we'll need pico8 VM for Pi Pico of course.

[@PixelisedPaul]

The Pi Zero wasn’t quick enough for some Pico-8 games so I’d be surprised if this could, even with a dedicated build.

[@AvoKeinaste]

Seems like this could be perfect Pico8 handheld

[@mrksaccount123]

Not powerful enough

[@cybersosis]

Unfortunetly i dont have eyes of an eagle to enjoy such small screen

[@JessicaZane4realz]

Great now I'm going to need more money to buy this.

[@barryisanerd]

Looks really cool and I love unique things like this that aren't the usual "it plays roms" thing. Definitely seems like something I'd like to add to my collection. For clarification, does the unit hold multiple games that you can select from, or will it only hold one at a time and that game just starts whenever you hit a button? In other words, do you have to do the USB drag and drop to switch games every time?

[@shlokshah5379]

A sd card slot can held how ever buliding a project from scratch always helps also if you are building from strach them use rdxa pi zero killer , it can emulate n64 and other things

[@GadgetoidUK]

Multiple games is possible in MicroPython and CircuitPython environments but not currently supported in the C++ SDKs. You can always just bolt a bunch of games together in a single project with a launcher- but that’s messy. Someone smart will write a bootloader and figure out position-independent code and offset patching eventually.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

I see the big hurdle being how to code your own games. If this is geared towards coding classis, it is pretty rough. On the other hand it is not suitable as emulation station as well due to the lack of power. We love Pico-8 in school, but running those games on this is tough as well, as the screen has an awkward resolution for that. Running Pico-8 games is easier on the PyBadge/Kitronik Arcade. It would also help if Pimoroni teams up for inclusion into the MakeCode Arcade system.

[@alinaqirizvi1441]

Also one could just program games in Micropython, in my school scratch games were an enormous thing and python games wouldn't be an unimaginable stretch.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

@@alinaqirizvi1441 If you go Micropython, you could as well program C++. In our classroom the pybadge is programmed in C++, not a problem. Students are messy coders, and if they are hit with an error because they miss a } or ;, that is clear, but if code is wonky because the indentation is wrong, it gives me headaches to track faults.

[@somberrhombus]

Hopefully mine shows up soon. I want to try and build my own game for this.

[@Mike.Garcia]

get started now, you don't have to wait for it, you can target your OS and HTML without it, using the 32blit SDK

[@martinfamily2788]

That Aluminium Pronunciation.. Just loved that part.. 😂😂😂

[@marccaselle8108]

My good buddy Al.. Al luminum

[@carldavis5839]

Thanks for the translation, I was really worried I didn't know what you meant until you said aluminium 😂

[@Kumimono]

The packaging reminded me of a high-end C-cassette of times gone by. Probably not intentional.

[@NeoTechni]

Cute, I like that it auto-starts the game when you copy it over, that'd be convenient for development But it costs twice as much as I'm willing to pay given I preordered the Steam Deck and that'll be even easy to develop for I'm still waiting for the GBA HDMI kit though, I might get into GBA development

[@turle8645]

I’m pretty sure that battery is the same one that’s in a Nintendo switch controller lol

[@Hunter725R]

would make a perfect Pico-8 Handheld...

[@andrewcool4587]

I’m very interested in this

[@Maiska123]

HAC-06, Same battery like switch joy-cons and g&w, really good at tiny handhelds!

[@HaukePSN]

This thing looks perfect for Pico8 games, and not only by the name!

[@DFX2KX]

Considering several Pico8 games where ported to the less powerful Gamebuino META, yeah. This could do that with room to spare. If only it had an SD card port.

[@asuasuasu]

@@DFX2KX it's got 16MB worth of flash that can be written to by software, and you can emulate USB mass storage. pico-8 games are usually quite lightweight so you'd be able to fit a good amount on there.

[@hippopothomas1980]

OMG this is consider a mini dev programmable computer with that IO inside.

[@Dan1jel]

If this had "super crate box" i would have order it yesterday! Damn i miss that game.

[@Turtle_Shell]

Interesting to see them using a Joy-Con Controller battery

[@FoolsGould]

They take so long to die

[@shlokshah5379]

@@FoolsGould that is with joycon voltage but when you add a screen and a processer the voltage increases

[@oddgbmo3036]

@@shlokshah5379 true but without the gyro and rumble hopefully it evens out

[@ejpmonline]

This is cool.. i hope the next version would have 3.5mm headphone jack with mp3 software + sd card support that can be used a mass storage. 3 in 1 cool product XD

[@silversonic1]

X and Y can be Start and Select for GB and NES.

[@ricardojunior9729]

So charming this little unit

[@artemismeow]

Pimoroni and adafruit are god tier when they do hardware

[@leonbabic7185]

That battery looks like a knock-off joy-con battery.

[@MrFlashpan]

nah..... nah, everyone will need a magnifying lens or end up with headaches looking at that screen, It should be a concept and remain that way. I loved looking at your finger nails, compared to the screen size, It's a Diddi Kiddy finger-held console lol. Do you remember the Dingoo A320/A330, Kind of reminded me of those.

[@GadgetoidUK]

I had the Dingo A320 🤣 wish I’d kept that around for a size comparison.

[@robertpaulson8790]

"If you're from a country who spells things correctly, aluminium"

[@hernangundam]

That is awesome, I want to see more diy kits for the raspberry pi 4, I'm waiting for one with 2 analog sticks haven't find one yet

[@mlindholm]

Rather than strictly speaking, using a "Pi 4", what would make more sense would be to use a CM4 module. Same CPU, but much smaller form factor, and you can decide if you want WiFi or not, how much onboard eMMC storage to get, and how much RAM to get. Though surely, the base 1GB model should be fine, depending if they were to add an uSD reader to the board or not.

[@fred.chapman]

Very nice review of a truly admirable piece of work by Pimoroni, but the ODROID-GO Advance is on sale for half price from HardKernel for Black Friday, which makes it a ridiculously good value for the money!

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

Nice project. I hope it gets better so more people can be on this

[@DatBlueHusky]

Price is steep af for something so simple

[@averagegilo]

Not the first time a micro development console has been made

[@MCChubbyUnicorn]

This is really cool. Such power for such a chip.

[@jengelenm]

Ssso cute! 133 MHz...exactly what the first Pentiums were, running Quake etc. ....

[@microlinux]

That's just the frequency....

[@DigitalJedi]

This little guy's even a dual core! 2 whole threads of 133mHz processing power!

[@microlinux]

Yeah, but the thing is that frequency isn't a way to measure cpu raw power at all.

[@devjock]

Still no 256x256 pixel display for that perfect Pico8 playing experience..

[@-aexc-]

that battery looks like a joycon battery

[@anoopshankaran8706]

Nice review! thank you!

[@gvanderlee2703]

Hopefully it includes a list of binoculars on sale

[@TheRealAlpha2]

first mod: get a magnifying glass. 😆

[@Palestine-first]

Poor D: // drive 😂🤣🤣😂

[@caduceiz2155]

This is just straight up looks like a handheld from like early 2000's or something lmao (based on the specs number)

[@x7slim8x]

Yessir!

[@Paramonos]

Right .. fess up! who taught ETA PRIME British?

[@KorgmasterKlax]

Doom was originally built for 320x200 assets, even NES has a native res of 256x240, so stuff like that if possible is going to be cropped. Game Boy would be fine. There are some Doom-likes on the Pico 8 site.

[@J0ermungand]

Too bad it doesn't have a wireless chipset integrated, like a generic 2.4GHz radio would've sufficed, just for potential multiplayer.

[@GadgetoidUK]

It’s got a UART on the debug header- hack one in 🤣

[@user-eo7jm1cu3w]

ネットワークにつながってスマホのようにアプリを使えると面白くなりそうですね❤

[@jamesbeyify]

Well at least that joycon battery is getting a nice home.

[@Kumodot]

That would be amazing for pico8 games. Do you know if there's a way to run them ?

[@thanhclips]

I don't know why you wouldn't get the Powkiddy A66 instead. It's thinner, bigger screen 2", and more buttons.

[@PixelisedPaul]

Different development environment

[@Xoferif]

Thanks for the tip! I don't think ETA Prime reviewed that one, did he?

[@jasongooden917]

6:04 Metroid Dread...

[@frankgile1996]

2:11 is that a battery from the Nintendo Switch joycons? Why does its shape look so familiar?

[@murdock94]

For a little over $80USD, I feel like there are better machines.

[@fyfoh]

Those other machines don't have milled aluminum parts.

[@DFX2KX]

Compared to it's "open API write your own close-to-metal" console compition isn't not terrible. Gamebuinos are more expensive (and slower, by a lot) and even the PICO 8 costs more, too. most of the cheaper consoles aren't conducive to writing your own games (unless you already know how to write for Linux). That's why they're niche with prices to match.

[@AhCup]

I really like this and I love the Pimoroni guys, but the price is really too high for what it is.

[@baefuckingbeautifuljoohyun]

"Like always, thanks for the content"

[@joncollins7730]

It looks cool but is this not a pico8 handeld?

[@Mike.Garcia]

no, pico8 is a fantasy (software only) console Raspberry pico is like a Pi but with a embedded processor not a CPU.

[@arcaderacer586]

This thing is quite good to show to your buddies and everyone says “COOL”. Lol thats where it stops

[@atlaskaly]

Alliminum moment

[@Jibily1]

ETA PRIME must be a giant because he describes everything as little.

[@GustavoMsTrashCan]

You know when its time to stop when the button is 25% size of the screen.

[@chrisgardiner2215]

Oooh my little one, tiny one, little one. PI MORONI

[@matthewcb1970]

Interesting, yes. Do I want one? Nope.

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

When are you going to do a review on the Lenovo legion 5 pro?

[@AIex_Kidd]

ETA your videos are awesome as always but... no thanks :D

[@zh-weng]

Is that a joycon battery they are using? lol

[@BlackHawk2029]

Somebody get pico 8 working on it and I'll buy it right now.

[@stephendallasdraws2929]

Wish it was widescreen for GBA!

[@Sithhy]

*Super Square Bros* Be there or be square...

[@SethPinnock]

Good way to get my 10 year old in programing

[@DFX2KX]

I learned C programming for the Gamebuino META, which is less powerful but has a similar end goal. This is actually a bit cheaper then mine was.

[@ruxcooking]

There's the original odroid go as well

[@Mike.Garcia]

I just ordered one after seeing your vid, I already have the 32blit and VGA Board (which is like the console version of this). The price is a bit on the high side, but they make good quality hardware and software, their SDK is C++ and pretty powerful and simple, and can target 32blit, linux64, win64, HTML, mac, and the pico devices. It's better then the playdate in many ways :P

[@jasongooden917]

I'm from another country and its Aluminum here too 🇨🇦

[@scienceandmatter8739]

SHMUP HAELD?

[@ohmlord]

hi eta

[@tahustvedt]

That first game actually looks amazing. My kind of platformer.

[@abramthefighters]

I doubt this is going to emulate anything. Maybe remakes or source ports, but emulation of anything other than probably 2600 might be too much.

[@MohammedAmin53]

GAMEMAX ABYSS- TR M-908-MID TOWER TEMPERED GLASS ATX GAMING CASE Motherboard:MSI MPG X570 Gamong pro carbon wifi AMD Motherbord Processor: AMD RYZEN 5600G RAM: G-SKILL Trident Z NEO 16GB DDR4 3600MHZ Heatsink dekstop RAM. 2 pieces SSD: SAMSUNG 980PRO 500GB PCIe4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD Power supply: CORSAIR Rm750 750watt 80 plus gold certified Semi modular power supply...

[@MohammedAmin53]

প্রসেসর এর জন্য এয়ার কুলার বা লিকুইড কুলার কোনটাই সিলেক্ট করতেছিনা. আপাতত স্টক কুলার দিয়েই কাজ চালিয়ে যেতে চাই. আমি যে কম্পোনেন্টগুলো পিসি বিল্ড করার জন্য সাজিয়েছি. ভবিষ্যতে আপডেট করার কথা মাথায় রেখেই সাজিয়েছি. পিসি বিল্ড করতেছি মূলত গ্রাফিক্স ডিজাইনের জন্য. পরবর্তী কতটুকু রামের GPU . আপডেট করতে পারবো জানাবেন. আপনার কাছে প্রশ্ন ফিউচারে আপডেট করার আগ পর্যন্ত উক্ত কম্পোনেন্ট গুলো কিরকম আউটপুট পারফরম্যান্স পাবো .উক্ত কম্পোনেন্টগুলো কোত্থেকে নিলে ভালো হবে একটা ভেরিফাইড সোর্স দোকানের নাম জানাবেন আশা করি জাযাকাল্লাহু খাইরান..

[@robertomaximilianosilveira8768]

133mhz is like mi 1990's desk PC so good

[@ikeyasector]

As a kid, I never had a gameboy nor a gamegear because my family couldn't afford it. Now I can't have one because my eyes have gotten bad. So for me, a hand held game system would be a 30 inch monitor with a d-pad on the left and buttons on the right, and powered by a gas generator on wheels for me to play games on the go. lol.

[@tonysheerness2427]

Gadgets for the sake of gadgets.

[@parsantalive9346]

Hello ETA prime😁👋 I have Samsung s20 plus & does it also have Samsung dex? & Can I run as Desktop*on Monitor??

[@andrewcool4587]

Insanely affordable.

[@SHGames97]

"mod 7" I guess is fair considering all the little mods and tinkering you can do with the device.

[@adriancoleman2876]

I love that you pronounce aluminium correctly 😍

[@abdulhamza172]

Lmaooo I thought it was 3x the size until it was in your hand 😂😂

[@FM-fm2yq]

This thing seems to work really good!

[@nicholasyarnall4795]

Anyone know if you can purchase the custom pico board as a standalone?

[@shortymcsteve]

I really want to see Pokemon Yellow/Blue/Red running on the 2040, but I'm not sure if it's possible yet.

[@MrSpenceju]

very cool

[@zhongxina728]

So cool