The Process of Making a Homemade Game Console - A Brief Story

Originally, it was after a class reunion that a classmate asked me, "Didn't you say you wanted to make a game console before? How's it going?"

That's when I realized I had abandoned that idea for a long time. So I started the process of making a homemade game console.

I began with a Raspberry Pi 3, paired with an LCD screen and a few buttons as the game controller, essentially creating a handheld game console. I figured out a way to run Scratch on it and named it the "ScratchBoy".

However, I was constantly troubled by the power consumption issues and slow boot-up speed, which resulted in a poor user experience. In order to address these problems, the progress on the Raspberry Pi version was quite slow.

Until one day, a friend suggested, "Let's make a MakeCode Arcade handheld console."

The MakeCode Arcade console is part of the Microsoft MakeCode platform. I referenced the structure and specifications from the official website. Coincidentally, the Raspberry Pi Pico had just been released, and the MakeCode Arcade website had also included support for it. Everything just fell into place.

So I developed a handheld console that could run MakeCode Arcade games, using a Raspberry Pi Pico, an LCD screen, some buttons, and a buzzer. The prototype was up and running quickly.

However, I soon felt that the functionality was too limited. Then, I found some online friends who had developed NES and DOOM emulators on the Raspberry Pi Pico. They had originally used the Pico's computer screen interface as the base, but I modified the source code to use an LCD screen instead.

That's how the Multi Arcade Gaming Console, or maGc, was born, with the Raspberry Pi Pico as its core.

自製遊戲機的過程小傳
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一開始是在某年同學會之後
同學說你以前不是說想做遊戲機
做得怎樣了呢?
自己才意識到
我已經放掉這個想法很久
於是就開始這個自製遊戲機的過程

一開始我是用樹莓派3
搭配一個LCD螢幕與幾個按鍵當作遊戲手把
也就是一部遊戲掌機
然後我想了一個辦法在上面遊玩scratch
並且把這部掌機命名為ScratchBoy

後來一直覺得耗電問題以及開機速度無法改善
這樣的使用者體驗很糟糕
為了趕善這些問題
導致在這個樹莓派版本的進展很慢

直到有一天有位朋友說
來做makecode arcade掌機吧
這部掌機的架構是微軟makecode平台的一部份
於是我從官網參考架構與規範
同時剛好這時候樹莓派Pico出現
而makecode arcade官網也把樹莓派pico納入
就是這麼剛好 一切水到渠成
於是我就開發一款可以遊玩makecode arcade的掌機

使用樹莓派pico 找個LCD螢幕 幾個按鍵 和 蜂鳴器
很快原型機就會動了
馬上又覺得這樣功能太單一
於是又再網路上找到網友在樹莓派Pico上開發的...