back to article Brit geeks craft bijou Pi Zero gaming controller

A group of Brit geeks has hit Kickstarter with the R-Kade Zero - a diminutive piece of gaming kit based on the Raspberry Pi Zero. Described as "one of the smallest and minimalist gaming controllers around", DTronixs' R-Kade Zero comes in two flavours - the JS/4 (joystick plus four control buttons), and the 2STIK (two joysticks …

  1. Matthew Smith

    DK'Tronics is back! Oh :(

    For a moment there, I thought it was DK'Tronics from my Spectrum days, makers of Speccy killing joystick interfaces and crap lightpens. (An 3D Tanx!). I really am showing my age now.

    1. Richard Wharram

      Re: DK'Tronics is back! Oh :(

      I had a DK Tronics Keyboard that I re-housed my previously rubber speccy in. It was quite nice.

    2. Dabooka

      Re: DK'Tronics is back! Oh :(

      Same here, first thing I thought of too and had to do a double take.

      I had Amstrads, but Didn't they do speech synths too, and RAM packs?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: DK'Tronics is back! Oh :(

        I had the DK'Tronics Speech synthesiser.

        out &FBFE, 5

  2. GeezaGaz

    Quite neat but too small as a joystick.

  3. DrXym

    Emulation on the Pi

    Generally speaking the Pi 1 (and Zero I assume) are able to emulate most 8-bit and 16-bit platforms (classic arcade games, SNES, Sega Megadrive etc.) but performance gets a bit iffy at the edges. e.g. there is an N64 emulator but games are unplayable because it's too slow. I haven't tried emulation on my Pi 2 but I assume the higher clock and cores might help tip some platforms into playable territory.

    The best dist I've seen for emulation on the Pi is called EmulationStation. It's pretty easy to set up.

    1. Anonymous Custard

      Re: Emulation on the Pi

      Retro Pie is better I'd say, as it includes that plus a few other emulators and options too. And a nice simple SD card image download and burn, if you don't even want the hassle of installing it yourself.

      1. James Hughes 1

        Re: Emulation on the Pi

        I use Retro Pi in a Picade, using a Pi2, awesomeness.

  4. Anonymous Custard

    Life in the slow lane?

    This one's been around on there for a few weeks now, and so far they've managed a spectacular 11% funding of their target. Must say I'm a bit surprised about how slow it's gone, given how popular this kind of thing tends to be .

    I'm already one of the 30 or so who have got it that far, but I think sadly even with the sterling promotional support of el reg they might struggle to hit their target, let alone that crazy stretch goal target.

    1. Dabooka
      Go

      Re: Life in the slow lane?

      Well they'll be a +1 towards the target when I get home :-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Life in the slow lane?

      Well, there's a problem with their £38 option in their kickstarter campaign. They can't ship assembled units including a Pi Zero, because unless things have changed, there is no way for them to purchase a Pi Zero except one unit per order through the same 4 retailers as everyone else...

      I believe their estimated delivery date of August 2016 for the supply problems of the Pi zero to be sorted out is a bit optimistic.

      1. James Hughes 1

        Re: Life in the slow lane?

        I think August sounds about right. Pi3 production has filled the lines and should have died off by then.

        1. Anonymous Custard

          Re: Life in the slow lane?

          I would tend to agree, although in my case I just want the board, as I have two Zero's at home.

          From what I've seen in interviews with Ebon Upton, the Zero's are being "fitted in" around the production of the Pi3 (and Pi2), but as they're much simpler boards and only single sided, the Pi3 isn't actually causing any significant delays that weren't there already with the Pi2.

          There are plans to up production of the Zero too, and so he said they are catching up quite well with the backlog, so who knows they may be lucky? Apparently the key point is that Farnell aren't involved with the manufacture of the Zero, only with the larger boards. Hence why it's being "fitted in" rather than mainstream productioned (and of course the popularity of it took everyone by surprise).

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Life in the slow lane?

          RE: James Hughes:- (I assume you're the famous JamesH?)

          I take back my comment about the £38 option and I'll be aiming to buy a second Zero in august then. By then I might actually have managed to fry one of my other Pis to justify the purchase, although in the last 4 years I haven't managed to do anything that couldn't be solved with a soldering iron and a replacement polyfuse, despite several sloppy pin counting incidents...

          :-)

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