Now that those of us that grew up playing classic consoles such as the NES or Genesis, or arcade games have grown up, we (hopefully) have actual jobs that pay actual money. This, combined with technology that has increased astronomically, means options for easily playing these classic games have increased as well. These vary from simple systems with the games built into a joystick, to the newly announced SNES Classic. People also put together custom consoles, from full-sized arcade cabinets, to an entire retro system built into a single game’s cartridge.
Though the legality of such homebrew retro systems is questionable at best, it’s still amazing what can be done with an inexpensive computer such as the Rasberry Pi. One of the most important aspects of a system like this is the controls setup. Playing NES games on a keyboard lacks the classic feel of a classic controller, and playing a true arcade game like Mortal Kombat or Metal Slug seems like a shame without a properly configured joystick.
To help with configuration challenges, Tindie seller Leafcutter came up with this breakout for the Arduino Pro-Micro, a dev board that can act as a human input device (HID). The breakout features screw terminals, which, as seen on this rant post, are far superior to soldering options.* Though meant for joystick use, there’s no reason it couldn’t be used as part of a keyboard shortcut device, or as a way to break out the Arduino Pro-Micro for whatever minimally soldered project you envision!
*If you disagree, feel free to let us know on Twitter @Tindie or me personally @JeremySCook!
