Video Game Emulator
The Video Game Emulator is an emulator designed to imitate other video game consoles, and is capable of running games of those consoles. It is made using the Raspberry Pi 3, an SD card, game controllers, and a mini monitor. It can run many different systems, from the original Gameboy to the Nintendo DS.
Engineer
Alicia F
Area of Interest
Software Engineering
School
Lynbrook High School
Grade
Rising Junior
Final Milestone
I really enjoyed this experience at Bluestamps, as I was able to create a project of my own choosing from scratch. It was a really good learning experience for me as I got to work on both software and a little bit of hardware in the assembly of the Raspberry Pi. It was also a good refresher of Python when I was coding Snake, which was helpful. I also liked that I was able to combine a little bit of art into my project within the theme. I will definitely plan on going into the engineering field in the future, most likely something similar to game design!
Third Milestone
For my third milestone, I began programming snake using a tutorial. Most of the code was simple and easy to understand, however I had many issues with a draw command and also initializing pygame. After I sorted out the problems, I edited the code a little bit to change the colors of some elements, such as the snake itself and the snacks it was picking up. The keys don’t always register while pressed and small turns are difficult to make, but it works quite well for the most part.
Second Milestone
For my second milestone, I set up another microSD card, however instead of installing RetroPie I installed Raspbian, the standard setup for the Raspberry Pi. I thought I would have to install Python manually, however Raspbian came installed with multiple IDE’s for Python as well as Pygame, which saved me a lot of trouble. To deal with the small size of the monitor, I installed a program named VNC viewer on my laptop. I then found the IP of my Raspberry Pi, and I was able to mirror the Pi screen onto my laptop. After that, I added some code into an IDE as a test, and I was able to have a bouncing ball animation using a ball image from the internet.
First Milestone
For my first milestone, I set up the Raspberry Pi by attaching the heat sinks and installing RetroPie onto the SD card. I attached the monitor to the Pi as well, and configured the controllers to work with RetroPie. I also added a Nintendo DS emulator by installing a package from the RetroPie’s built in menu. I installed a custom splash screen, and added custom video screensavers. I then created my own theme by downloading a theme named ‘Spare’ and editing the .xml files and the included pngs. I drew custom console logos and installed a font for the help menu.