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Projects<br />
SHOWCASE<br />
SPANNER SPENCER<br />
Spanner is the community manager<br />
for Element14, an online community<br />
for engineers.<br />
magpi.cc/1m75kk9<br />
<strong>PI</strong> ZERO RETRO<br />
GAMING SYSTEM<br />
Quick<br />
Facts<br />
Spanner Spencer wasted no time hooking up the Pi Zero’s RCA<br />
connection to a classic cathode ray tube television. The Pi Zero<br />
Retro Gaming system is the real deal…<br />
> It works like<br />
a dream with<br />
Xbox 360<br />
controllers<br />
> The whole<br />
project took<br />
only two hours<br />
to build<br />
> The Pi Zero can<br />
be overclocked<br />
to 1GHz<br />
for gaming<br />
> It uses<br />
RetroPie, part<br />
of the standard<br />
NOOBS<br />
installation<br />
> The Pi Zero<br />
can even play<br />
some original<br />
PlayStation<br />
games<br />
I<br />
t’s fair to say that the<br />
Pi Zero caused more<br />
than a bit of splash. Our<br />
new favourite smallest computer<br />
topped Twitter and caused chaos<br />
at British newsagents when it was<br />
cover-mounted on The MagPi. Even<br />
President Obama got a copy.<br />
Those lucky enough to get a<br />
Zero quickly created some great<br />
projects and discovered its nuances.<br />
That the Pi Zero has RCA output<br />
was not lost on Spanner Spencer,<br />
community manager at Element14,<br />
who realised it could be inserted<br />
inside an old television.<br />
“I picked up some crummy<br />
old Grundig for 20 quid at a<br />
charity shop in Huddersfield,”<br />
says Spanner. “It’s nice to think<br />
that the first ever Pi Zero games<br />
machine did its bit for charity.<br />
“Initially, I soldered a couple<br />
of flying leads to the back of<br />
the composite phono socket,”<br />
he continues, “but there was<br />
something skewey going on, and<br />
I didn’t get a picture.<br />
Instead, I<br />
switched to using the composite<br />
video in on the SCART socket and<br />
then soldering the wires onto<br />
the PCB underneath to avoid<br />
external wiring.<br />
“The video signal came from<br />
the Pi Zero’s composite output,<br />
which I soldered directly. It’s a<br />
tad permanent, and it would have<br />
been better to add some pins<br />
Using RetroPie on a classic<br />
CRT television is a great way<br />
to play old console games<br />
Attaching a USB joypad (like<br />
this Xbox 360 controller)<br />
enables you to play games<br />
with minimal setup<br />
A USB hub is placed on the side<br />
of the television. New games<br />
can be then added to RetroPie<br />
without opening the TV<br />
32 January 2016<br />
raspberrypi.org/magpi
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