If you’re going to build a retro gaming device, why not do it with a little style? The TurtlePi starts with a 1989 Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LCD handheld with a bad board and replaces the internals using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and Adafruit PiTFT screen to build a TMNT-themed handheld like no other! This video is the grand-prize-winning entry in Element14’s “Hack Like Heck” competition. Special thanks to Element14 and all of my friends, family, and subscribers who supported me in the contest!
Music by Anders Enger Jensen, available at http://eox.no
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TRANSCRIPT:
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why don’t we have people send in short
audition videos and put them on the Element
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00:00:09,590 –> 00:00:14,690
14 community saying hey here’s Who I am
here’s what I do and here’s how I would
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00:00:14,690 –> 00:00:22,359
approach a raspberry pi affordable okay
and the ten best videos that we oh yeah
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what are you doing here we were battling
the shredder and old metal face
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destroyed my favorite video game ever I
need your help to fix it well why don’t
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00:00:33,019 –> 00:00:37,370
you get it Donatello to do it nah he’s
busy working on some project for some
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00:00:37,370 –> 00:00:42,140
Ben Heck guy whoever that is you think
you can look at it oh yeah this is a
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00:00:42,140 –> 00:00:51,320
crush a I’ll see what I can do so
apparently Raphael is entrusted me with
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00:00:51,320 –> 00:00:56,629
this vintage 1989 Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles handheld game and well it’s kind
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00:00:56,629 –> 00:01:01,119
of a one-trick pony though it’s a
rudimentary graphics rudimentary sound
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rudimentary gameplay but what if we can
take these design cues and upgrade the
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internals we’ll say a Raspberry Pi new
screen etc and we can build something
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00:01:14,149 –> 00:01:19,939
that celebrates not only a beloved
franchise but retro gaming in general
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00:01:19,939 –> 00:01:26,299
much the way that the SNES classic or
the NES classic does so here’s my idea
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we take said TMNT game which is very
poor part and should be able to fit a
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new TFT screen right here we’ll use the
original buttons if I can get some
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replacements we use the original buttons
here we use these function buttons we
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put a power switch here for the on/off
button and then we’ll just use some tax
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switches up underneath we’ll build a new
control set so the screen and a
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Raspberry Pi should just fit right here
may have to take much of this out just
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to fit everything in but we should be
able to have plenty of room here since
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we’re not
gonna use double A’s I should be able to
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get a lipo big lipo battery stick it
right in here and use this room for some
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extra eternals so this looks like it’s a
very viable project so let me order some
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parts and we will start fitting
everything together and see where it
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goes so I think my biggest concern here
is the way that the pie and the screen
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are gonna fit together inside the case
now of course it looks like they’re
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gonna fit so it should be okay but we’ll
know for certain once we get rid of all
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this extra plastic here so I’m gonna
mark off all these areas that we’re
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gonna cut and then once I have all that
now it’s time to dremel yes I actually I
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was afraid of this so the buttons don’t
fit right the screen and they don’t even
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line up right so we’re gonna have to
take those
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so here are the buttons that we removed
and of course you got a uh can actually
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see in here that they just they just
don’t line up right so we’re gonna
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actually create a new pad a new
controller to go in here now before we
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get building this thing we should
probably at least set up the operating
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system on the Raspberry Pi and since
this is a PI based gaming system we’re
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gonna use the tried-and-true retro PI so
we’re just gonna jump over to the retro
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pie website and grab the image once
that’s finished downloading use an app
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like etcher to flash it onto a bootable
SD drive disco now I’ve got to
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reconfigure this workstation with the
HDMI monitor the OTG cable and the power
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00:04:21,520 –> 00:04:27,700
supply in order to set up the Raspberry
Pi for the first boot okay we’ve got a
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splash screen this is a good sign so
from here let’s go into the
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configuration menu and set up the Wi-Fi
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now we need to enable SSH so we’re gonna
go into raspy config then to interface
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options SSH and 1/8 now back in the main
retro PI interface I’ll go ahead and
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shut down the pi so that I can clear all
the stuff off my workstation now back on
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the Mac I’ll just fire around terminal
and ssh into hi now I haven’t changed
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00:04:58,120 –> 00:05:01,450
the knee of the credentials yet but you
absolutely should do that as soon as
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00:05:01,450 –> 00:05:08,320
possible now I’m gonna be using a two
fruits 2.2 inch pie TFT hat as the
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00:05:08,320 –> 00:05:12,730
primary display so I need to enable
support using the script that they were
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00:05:12,730 –> 00:05:20,320
so good to provide I’ll use option 6 for
the manual configuration and give it a
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00:05:20,320 –> 00:05:25,990
few minutes for everything to install I
also need to set up a two fruits from
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00:05:25,990 –> 00:05:29,890
retro game scripts so I can quickly
assign the GPIO breakout pins from the
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00:05:29,890 –> 00:05:35,330
screen module
we’ll use the hi girls zero settings for
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00:05:35,330 –> 00:05:42,910
simplicity okay the initial setup is
complete and it’s time to do
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okay so I’ve picked up some bakelite
perfboard so I could build a custom
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controller without having to roll my own
PCB besides it’s quicker and easier if I
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00:05:54,620 –> 00:06:00,140
just hand wire everything and I’m gonna
be better able to make adjustments and
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00:06:00,140 –> 00:06:06,590
changes as necessary if so to start I
just need to lay out my buttons and make
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00:06:06,590 –> 00:06:10,130
sure I have the correct spacing by using
the front panel of the game then I’ll
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00:06:10,130 –> 00:06:14,560
press fit my pack switches in the board
and double check the spacing as I go
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once everything is lined up right it’s
time to solder
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now that all the buttons are soldered
place I’ll go ahead and trim off the
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00:06:35,150 –> 00:06:39,980
excess bakelite so that the whole board
fits in the case nicely of course this
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00:06:39,980 –> 00:06:44,090
is why I’m using bakelite instead of
fiberglass because well it’s I can cut
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00:06:44,090 –> 00:06:47,330
it with scissors I don’t have to get out
the dremel and all the safety equipment
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00:06:47,330 –> 00:06:51,650
so you know just to make a simple trail
I’m also gonna need to cut out a notch
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00:06:51,650 –> 00:06:56,690
here to fit this big beefy power button
that I’m gonna install separately now
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let’s start working on this screen
assembly
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00:07:03,590 –> 00:07:09,020
so the PI TFT hat actually comes with a
separate GPIO breakout right here below
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00:07:09,020 –> 00:07:13,940
the 40 thin connector so that you can
easily attach control wires the cell I’m
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00:07:13,940 –> 00:07:17,389
going to connect the buttons and I’m
just gonna use a two fruits default
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00:07:17,389 –> 00:07:25,610
layout for their retro game script to
wire everything for now okay just a
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00:07:25,610 –> 00:07:29,960
quick orientation check let’s get these
wires soldered to their Horace ponding
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buttons
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00:07:39,690 –> 00:07:47,670
okay now moment of truth it’s time to
solder the pie to the screen module with
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00:07:47,670 –> 00:07:51,470
all the wires sandwiched in between
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now the screen module and the PI are
married I need to ground all these
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00:08:02,370 –> 00:08:07,560
buttons to a common line so I’ll just
run some ground lines create a couple of
81
00:08:07,560 –> 00:08:13,590
buses and connect all of that to one of
the ground pants on the GPIO now I need
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00:08:13,590 –> 00:08:18,480
a couple of shoulder buttons and so I’m
going to use these little candy colored
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00:08:18,480 –> 00:08:24,330
text witches because they’re going to
fit right into the top of these little
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00:08:24,330 –> 00:08:29,820
shoulders here on the bottom of the case
appropriately enough so I’m going to
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00:08:29,820 –> 00:08:34,830
need to measure the button cap okay
looks be about 11 millimeters give or
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00:08:34,830 –> 00:08:45,999
take so now my stepper bit and you get
to chewing through this plastic
87
00:08:56,220 –> 00:09:07,259
looking good so now we need some onboard
audio okay let’s take our USB audio
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00:09:07,259 –> 00:09:12,120
adapter and and tear off these three and
a half millimeter Jaxx’s we’re not going
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00:09:12,120 –> 00:09:18,360
to need them instead we’ll just solder
the leads to our speaker directly to the
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00:09:18,360 –> 00:09:22,920
pads where the headphone jack was it
doesn’t really matter which channel we
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00:09:22,920 –> 00:09:27,209
use because we’re only going to output
mono sound all these old games did just
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00:09:27,209 –> 00:09:31,019
fine with mono sound anyway I mean it’s
not like a lot of TVs back in the day
93
00:09:31,019 –> 00:09:36,629
had stereo capabilities anyway
kind of reminds me of the Etta reminds
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00:09:36,629 –> 00:09:41,730
me of the old game boys you know
dot-matrix with stereo sound but only
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00:09:41,730 –> 00:09:55,079
one speaker whatever now we should at
least make sure it works now comes the
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00:09:55,079 –> 00:09:57,660
fun
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00:09:57,660 –> 00:10:06,810
I need to desolder these wires leading
to the USB plug because well this just
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00:10:06,810 –> 00:10:11,280
isn’t gonna work
oh yeah and you might want to take note
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00:10:11,280 –> 00:10:16,590
of where each wire is connected to
logistics anyway with the USB
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disconnected I’ll just cut a micro USB
cable that I have lying around and leave
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00:10:22,530 –> 00:10:28,140
a micro plug and just a few inches worth
of cable strip it down and solder the
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00:10:28,140 –> 00:10:33,390
individual wires onto the appropriate
pads add a little dab of hot glue to
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00:10:33,390 –> 00:10:39,840
reinforce the connections and then we’ve
got as a micro USB audio adapter that
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00:10:39,840 –> 00:10:49,860
should fit just like so now the last
component I have to build before we put
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this whole thing together is the power
supply now I’m going to use a two
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00:10:53,280 –> 00:10:57,810
thousand milliamp power lipo battery to
power the thing with but I’m gonna need
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00:10:57,810 –> 00:11:02,910
a way to charge it and to distribute
that power so for that I’m gonna use
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00:11:02,910 –> 00:11:09,720
this a power boost 1000 from Adafruit
it’s actually pretty simple to wire the
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00:11:09,720 –> 00:11:16,230
battery plugs into this little jack
right here and we just have to run a
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couple of wires from these terminals one
goes to a 5 volt pin and the other goes
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to the ground pin on the PI I’m also
gonna wire this little clicky button
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switch that I have that I’ll use to talk
with power now let’s get these things
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soldered up and that’ll be time to put
this bad boy together
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so I’ve run into a little bit of a snag
on assembling the speaker that I’m using
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is just too big to fit inside the shell
so I’m gonna have to find a smaller
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speaker driver to use now fortunately
the fine folks over at Ben Heck show
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happened to send me another speaker as
part of the build materials for Ben’s
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original bill okay let’s get this bad
boy put together we’re gonna start with
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the power boost unit wire that up to the
five volt in and the ground pin on the
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00:12:14,449 –> 00:12:21,500
Raspberry Pi then we want a route ours
power switch into its appropriate
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position all right looking good now we
need to connect the shoulder buttons to
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the main controls we’re gonna start by
running ground lines from the ground bus
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on the controller out to the shoulder
buttons which I’ve attached to these
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small little pieces of perfboard that
I’ve glued into place then we’re going
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to connect our signal wires that we
soldered on to the screen module earlier
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all right everything’s fitting great now
we just need to add a little hot glue to
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hold everything in place and to insulate
our wires okay the last thing we have to
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00:12:57,769 –> 00:13:02,110
do is Mount our USB audio so we got to
run the cable right around through here
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00:13:02,110 –> 00:13:07,699
plug it in and cut a little piece of
mounting square we’re gonna tack the
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00:13:07,699 –> 00:13:15,800
speaker right down on to the battery and
I think we’re actually finished let’s
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give it a shot
it works I’ve works it works okay one
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more thing I’ve got to do and always got
to sign our work perfect now I just got
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00:13:40,320 –> 00:13:44,340
to get this back over to Raphael and
we’re good to go okay so the games
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00:13:44,340 –> 00:13:47,940
intact but I’ve made a few modifications
that I think you’re gonna enjoy let’s
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check it out wow this is radical this is
way better than the game I used to play
