YOUR OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI MAGAZINE

Tutorial
The main indication that
something is different about
this controller, but it's a small
price to pay.
STEP BY STEP
ROB ZWETSLOOT
Tech writer, avid coder, and Raspberry
Pi enthusiast with a history of building
many things with Raspberry Pi.
raspberrypi.org/magpi
A standard knock-off USB
NES controller works
perfectly for what we
have planned
You’ll
Need
> USB NES
controller (check
eBay!)
> A Raspberry
Pi Zero -
raspberrypi.org
> RetroPie -
magpi.cc
/1HVgNba
> A rotary tool (like
a Dremel)
> An old micro USB
cable
> A screwdriver,
soldering iron
and a way to
strip wires
NES ZERO
We make last month’s project idea into reality with a NES controller
that’s been Zero-charged to be able to run NES games...
E
ver since first seeing the Raspberry Pi Zero a
few months ago at Pi HQ, we’ve spent a lot of
time since then thinking about the cool ways
that the Pi Zero can be used. One of our first ideas was
slipping a Pi Zero into a NES controller, taking a bit of
inspiration from Ben Heck’s great inventions to further
miniaturise the NES to its most core component.
We wrote about how you could do this last issue but
we have now finally had time to make a proof-ofconcept,
so we’re going to show you how to exactly
put a Pi Zero inside an NES controller.
>STEP-01
Set up RetroPie
This is really more for convenience than anything
else. Download the RetroPie image and write it to a
microSD card using your preferred method (check
the Raspberry Pi guide if you’ve not done this before:
magpi.cc/1XTmymk). Once it’s written, open it up in
your file explorer and navigate to home, pi, RetroPie
and put your NES ROMs into the nes folder.
Pop the micro SD card into the Pi Zero and hook the
USB NES controller up to it before turning it on. You can
then do the initial setup and configure the controller.
>STEP-02
Make some space
It seems that many USB NES controllers have roughly
the same internal structure (they may be using a mould
of the NES controllers, or just a generic one) and it is
therefore likely that you’ll need to make some space.
We used a rotary tool to trim the screw holes and a ring
on the edge. We wanted to use the original USB wire port
for our HDMI cable, so we suggest that you lay the Pi
Zero (with SD card inserted!) inside the back plate and
figure out where needs to be trimmed.
52 January 2016
raspberrypi.org/magpi