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NES Emulator with SD card and menu support for the Raspberry PI Pico and other RP2040 based microcontrollers. Play your games from SD card on a HDMI display.

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.github/workflows
.github/workflows
 
 
assets
assets
 
 
drivers
drivers
 
 
include
include
 
 
infones
infones
 
 
pico_lib @ e881192
pico_lib @ e881192
 
 
tests/CatalexSDCard
tests/CatalexSDCard
 
 
.gitignore
.gitignore
 
 
.gitmodules
.gitmodules
 
 
CHANGELOG.md
CHANGELOG.md
 
 
CMakeLists.txt
CMakeLists.txt
 
 
FrensHelpers.cpp
FrensHelpers.cpp
 
 
FrensHelpers.h
FrensHelpers.h
 
 
LICENSE
LICENSE
 
 
README.md
README.md
 
 
RomLister.cpp
RomLister.cpp
 
 
RomLister.h
RomLister.h
 
 
build.sh
build.sh
 
 
buildAll.sh
buildAll.sh
 
 
build_alternate.sh
build_alternate.sh
 
 
build_alternate_debug.sh
build_alternate_debug.sh
 
 
build_debug.sh
build_debug.sh
 
 
build_feather_dvi.sh
build_feather_dvi.sh
 
 
build_feather_dvi_debug.sh
build_feather_dvi_debug.sh
 
 
build_ws_rp2040_pizero.sh
build_ws_rp2040_pizero.sh
 
 
build_ws_rp2040_pizero_debug.sh
build_ws_rp2040_pizero_debug.sh
 
 
checksdk.sh
checksdk.sh
 
 
gamepad.cpp
gamepad.cpp
 
 
gamepad.h
gamepad.h
 
 
hid_app.cpp
hid_app.cpp
 
 
main.cpp
main.cpp
 
 
menu.cpp
menu.cpp
 
 
menu.h
menu.h
 
 
nespad.cpp
nespad.cpp
 
 
nespad.h
nespad.h
 
 
nespad.pio
nespad.pio
 
 
pico_sdk_import.cmake
pico_sdk_import.cmake
 
 
removetmpsdk.sh
removetmpsdk.sh
 
 
rom_selector.h
rom_selector.h
 
 
settings.cpp
settings.cpp
 
 
settings.h
settings.h
 
 
tusb_config.h
tusb_config.h
 
 
wiipad.cpp
wiipad.cpp
 
 
wiipad.h
wiipad.h
 
 

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pico-infonesPlus.

Introduction

A NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) emulator for RP2040 based microcontrollers with SD card and menu support. Uses HDMI for display.

Supports two controllers for two player games. See "about two player games" below for specifics and limitations

The emulator used is Infones by Jay Kumogata which was ported to the Raspberry Pi Pico by Shuichi Takano with changes done by me to accomodate the SD card menu.

In stead of flashing a NES rom to the Pico using picotool, you create a FAT32 formatted SD card and copy your NES roms on to it. It is possible to organize your roms into different folders. Then insert the SD Card into the card slot. Needless to say you must own all the roms you put on the card.

A menu is added to the emulator, which reads the roms from the SD card and shows them on screen for the user to select, flash and play.

See also the Adafruit guide although it is somewhat outdated now. (No two player)

There is also an emulator port for the Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear. You can find it here https://github.com/fhoedemakers/pico-smsplus

Video

Click on image below to see a demo video.

Video

Possible configurations

You can use it with these RP2040 boards and configurations:

See below to see how to setup your specific configuration.

Gamecontroller support

Depending on the hardware configuration, the emulator supports these gamecontrollers:

  • Raspberry Pi Pico
    • USB controllers
      • Sony Dual Shock 4
      • Sony Dual Sense
      • BUFFALO BGC-FC801 connected to USB - not tested
    • Legacy Controllers
      • One or optional two original NES controllers. Requires soldering when using Pico DV Demo Base or Printed Circuit Board.
      • An original SNES controller. PCB Only. Connects to controller port 1.
      • WII-classic controller. Breadboard only. Not tested - should work
  • Adafruit Feather RP2040 with DVI (HDMI)
    • USB controllers
      • Sony Dual Shock 4
      • Sony Dual Sense
      • BUFFALO BGC-FC801 connected to USB - not tested
    • Legacy Controllers
      • One or optional two original NES controllers.
      • WII-classic controller.
  • Waveshare RP2040-PiZero Development Board
    • USB controllers
      • Sony Dual Shock 4
      • Sony Dual Sense
      • BUFFALO BGC-FC801 connected to USB - not tested
    • Legacy Controllers
      • One or optional two original NES controllers.

When using Legacy Controllers, you can choose between:

About two player games

The emulator supports two player games using two NES controllers or an USB gamecontroller and a NES controller connected to controller port of player 2. The USB controller is always player 1.

Note

You cannot use two USB controllers for two player mode. At the moment only one USB controller is recognized by the driver. The second controller must be a NES controller. In this config the NES controller port must be wired up to the GPIO pins of player 2. See configurations below.

Warning

Repeatedly flashing your Pico will eventually wear out the flash memory.

The emulator overclocks the Pico in order to get the emulator working fast enough. Overclocking can reduce the Pico's lifespan.

Use this software at your own risk! I will not be responsible in any way for any damage to your Pico and/or connected peripherals caused by using this software.

I also do not take responsability in any way when damage is caused to the Pico or display due to incorrect wiring or voltages.

Setup

Click on the link below for your specific board configuration:

Raspberry Pi Pico, setup for Pimoroni Pico DV Demo Base.

materials needed

flashing the Pico

  • Download piconesPlusPimoroniDV.uf2 from the releases page.
  • Push and hold the BOOTSEL button on the Pico, then connect to your computer using a micro usb cable. Release BOOTSEL once the drive RPI-RP2 appears on your computer.
  • Drag and drop the UF2 file on to the RPI-RP2 drive. The Raspberry Pi Pico will reboot and will now run the emulator.

Pinout

NES controller port(s) (if you want to use legacy NES controllers).

Port 1 Port 2 (optional) Note
GND GND (- on board)
VCC (Power) Connect to 3V3
NES Clock GPIO14 GPIO1
NES LATCH GPIO16 GPIO20
NES Data GPIO15 GPIO21

Note

Soldering is required. There is only one 3v3 pin header on the board, the other 3V3 must be soldered directly onto pin 36 (3V3 OUT) of the Pico. For GND there are two pin headers available on the board. Clock Data and Latch for controller one must be soldered directly onto the Pico. The Clock, Data and Latch for the second controller can be soldered on the available pin headers on the board, no need to solder them directly onto the Pico.

PinHeadersPimoroniDV

Image

setting up the hardware

  • Disconnect the Pico from your computer.
  • Attach the Pico to the DV Demo Base.
  • Connect the HDMI cable to the Demo base and your monitor.
  • Connect the usb OTG cable to the Pico's usb port.
  • Depending which controller you want to use:
    • Connect the controller to the other end of the usb OTG.
    • Connect legacy NES controller(s) to NES controller port(s).
  • Insert the SD card into the SD card slot.
  • Connect the usb power adapter to the usb port of the Demo base. (USB POWER)
  • Power on the monitor and the Pico

Image: Usb controller only

Image

Image: two player setup, usb controller and NES controller port

USB controller is player 1, NES controller is player two and must be wired to controller port 2.

Image

Image: Two player setup using NES controllers

(You can also connect an USB controller and a NES controller to port 2)

Controller Port 1 pins must be soldered directly onto the Pico

Controller Port 2 pins can be soldered to the available headers of the Pimoroni DV.

TODO

Raspberry Pi Pico, setup with Adafruit hardware and breadboard

materials needed

flashing the Pico

  • Download piconesPlusAdaFruitDVISD.uf2 from the releases page.
  • Push and hold the BOOTSEL button on the Pico, then connect to your computer using a micro usb cable. Release BOOTSEL once the drive RPI-RP2 appears on your computer. Or when already powered-on. Press and hold BOOTSEL, then press RUN on the board.
  • Drag and drop the UF2 file on to the RPI-RP2 drive. The Raspberry Pi Pico will reboot and will now run the emulator.

Pinout

See https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/microcontrollers/images/pico-pinout.svg for the pinout schema of the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Use the breadboard to connect all together:

  • Wire Pico Pin 38 to the breadboard ground column (-)
  • Wire the breadboard left ground column (-) with the breadboard right ground column (-)

Adafruit Micro-SD breakout board+

Breakout GPIO Note
CS GPIO5
CLK (SCK) GPIO2
DI (MOSI) GPIO3
DO (MISO) GPIO4
3V Pin 36 (3v3 OUT)
GND Ground on breadboard (-)

Adafruit DVI Breakout For HDMI Source Devices

Breakout GPIO Note
D0+ GPIO12
D0- GPIO13
CK+ GPIO14
CK- GPIO15
D2+ GPIO16
D2- GPIO17
D1+ GPIO18
D1- GPIO19
5 (*) VBUS Pin 40 (5volt)
GND (3x) Ground on breadboard (-)

(*) This is the via on the side of the board marked 5. (next to via D and C).

Image

NES controller port(s). (if you want to use legacy NES controllers).

Port1 Port 2 (optional) Note
GND
VCC (Power) (3v3 OUT)
NES Clock GPIO6 GPIO9
NES LATCH GPIO8 GPIO11
NES Data GPIO7 GPIO10

Image

setting up the hardware

  • Disconnect the Pico from your computer.
  • Attach the Pico to the breadboard.
  • Insert the SD card into the SD card slot.
  • Connect the HDMI cable to the Adafruit HDMI Breakout board and to your monitor.
  • Connect the usb OTG Y-cable to the Pico's usb port.
  • Connect the controller to the full size female usb port of the OTG Y-Cable.
  • Controllers (Depending on what you have)
    • Connect the Micro usb power adapter to the female Micro usb connecter of the OTG Y-Cable.
    • Connect your NES controller to the NES controller port.
  • Power on the monitor and the Pico

See image below.

Note

The Shotky Diode (VSYS - Pin 39 to breadboard + column) and the wire on breadboard left (+) to right (+) are not necessary, but recommended when powering the Pico from a Raspberry Pi. See Chapter 4.6 - Powering the Board of the Raspberry Pi Pico Getting Started guide

Image: One player setup only

USB controller and NES controller ar both player 1

Image

Image: Two player setup using NES controllers

(You can also connect an USB controller and a NES controller to port 2)

Note

The device on the left is a Pico Debug probe used for debugging. This is optional

Image

Adafruit Feather RP2040 with DVI (HDMI) Output Port setup

materials needed

When using a USB gamecontroller this is needed:

When using legacy controllers, this is needed:

flashing the Feather RP2040

  • Download piconesPlusFeatherDVI.uf2 from the releases page.
  • Connect the feather to a USB port on your computer using the USB-C data cable.
  • On the feather, push and hold the BOOTSEL button, then press RESET. Release the buttons, the drive RPI-RP2 should appear on your computer.
  • Drag and drop the UF2 file on to the RPI-RP2 drive. The Raspberry Pi Pico will reboot and will now run the emulator.

Pinout

See: https://learn.adafruit.com/assets/119662 for the Feather pin scheme.

Use the breadboard to connect all together:

  • Wire the 3.3V Pin to the breadboard + column.
  • Wire the GND Pin to the breadboard - column
  • Wire the breadboard left ground column (-) with the breadboard right ground column (-)
  • Optional: Attach a push button to the breadboard and connect a wire from this button to the Feather RST pin and breadboard ground column(-). This adds an extra easy to access Reset button.

Adafruit Micro-SD breakout board+

Breakout GPIO
CS GPIO10
CLK (SCK) GPIO14
DI (MOSI) GPIO15
DO (MISO) GPIO8
3V + column on breadboard connected to feather 3.3V pin
GND - column on breadboard connected to feather ground pin

WII nunchuck breakout adapter.

Connect the nunchuck breakout adapter to the Feather DVI using the STEMMA QT cable.

NES controller port(s). (if you want to use legacy NES controllers).

Port 1 Port 2 (optional) Note
GND - column on breadboard connected to feather ground pin
VCC (Power) + column on breadboard connected to feather 3.3V pin
NES Clock GPIO5 GPIO26
NES LATCH GPIO9 GPIO27
NES Data GPIO6 GPIO28

Image

setting up the hardware

  • Disconnect the Pico from your computer.
  • Attach the Adafruit Feather RP2040 DVI to the breadboard.
  • Insert the SD card into the SD card slot.
  • Connect the HDMI cable to the HDMI port of the Adafruit Feather and to your monitor.
  • Connect controllers depending on your setup:
    • Legacy controllers.
      • NES Controller to the NES controller port.
      • WII-Classic controller to the Nunchuck Breakout Adapter.
      • Connect USB-C power supply to USB-C connector.
    • USB game Controllers
      • Connect the USB C connector of the "male USB C to female micro usb cable" to the USB C port of the feather.
      • Connect the female micro USB port of the "male USB C to female micro usb cable" to the male micro USB port of the USB OTG Y cable.
      • Connect the Dual Sense or Dual Shock controller with the appropriate cable to the full size female usb port of the OTG Y-Cable.
      • Connect the Micro usb power adapter to the female Micro usb connecter of the OTG Y-Cable.
  • Power on the monitor and the Pico

Image: One player setup only

USB, NES and WII-Classic are player 1

Image

Image: Two player setup using NES controllers

(You can also connect an USB controller and a NES controller to port 2)

Image

Waveshare RP2040-PiZero Development Board

materials needed

Note

When using an USB controller, connect the controller and the power adapter to the Y cable. Connect the Y-cable to the port on the board labelled USB. I do not recommend powering the board via the PIO-USB port. This caused some weird behaviour.

NES controller port.

When using a original NES controller you need:

For two player games you need an extra NES controller port, controller and wire

Port 1 Port 2 (Optional) Note
GND Any ground pin
VCC (Power) 5Volt pin
NES Clock GPIO5 GPIO10
NES LATCH GPIO9 GPIO11
NES Data GPIO6 GPIO12

Note

Contrary to other configurations where VCC is connected to 3Volt, VCC should be connected to a 5Volt pin. Otherwise the NES controller could possibly not work.

Image

flashing the Waveshare RP2040-PiZero Development Board

  • Download piconesPlusWsRP2040PiZero.uf2 from the releases page.
  • Connect the USB-C port marked USB (not PIO-USB) to a USB port on your computer using the USB-C to USB-A data cable.
  • On the board, push and hold the BOOT button, then press RUN. Release the buttons, the drive RPI-RP2 should appear on your computer.
  • Drag and drop the UF2 file on to the RPI-RP2 drive. The board will reboot and will now run the emulator.

Note: When the emulator won't start and the screen shows "No signal", press the run button once again. The emulator will now boot.

Image: One player setup only

USB and NES are player 1

Image

Image

Image: Two player setup using NES controllers

(You can also connect an USB controller and a NES controller to port 2)

Image

PCB with Raspberry Pi Pico

Note: Soldering skills are required.

Create your own little Pico Based NES console and play with an orginal (S)NES controller. The PCB design files can be found in the assets/pcb folder. Several Companies can make these PCBs for you.

Note

The pcb is not designed for a second NES controller port for player 2, but the second port can be added without much hassle. You need to solder the gpio pins directly on to the Pico.

I personally recommend PCBWay. The boards i ordered from them are of excellent quality.

Image

Simply upload the design files packed as a zip archive when ordering. A zip file containing the design files can be found on the releases page.

Other materials needed:

For two player setup you need an extra NES controller port. You must solder the GPIO connections directly onto the pico.

Port 2 (Optional) Note
GND ground via on PCB
VCC (Power) VCC via on PCB
NES Clock GPIO9
NES LATCH GPIO11
NES Data GPIO10

Flash the Pico with piconesPlusAdaFruitDVISD.uf2 from the releases page.

Image: One player setup only

NES, SNES and USB controller are alle player 1

Image

Image: Two player setup using NES controllers

(You can also connect an USB controller and a NES controller to port 2)

clock, data and latch soldered directly on the Pico. Ground and vcc soldered on the pcb.

Todo

3D printed case (One player only)

DynaMight1124 designed a NES-like case you can 3d-print as enclosure for this pcb. This enclosure is suitable for one NES controller port. Click here for the design. Please contact the creator on his thingiverse page if you have any questions about this case.

image

image

Menu Usage

Gamepad buttons:

  • UP/DOWN: Next/previous item in the menu.
  • LEFT/RIGHT: next/previous page.
  • A (Circle): Open folder/flash and start game.
  • B (X): Back to parent folder.
  • START: Starts game currently loaded in flash.

Emulator (in game)

Gamepad buttons:

  • SELECT + START: Resets back to the SD Card menu. Game saves are saved to the SD card.
  • SELECT + UP/SELECT + DOWN: switches screen modes.
  • SELECT + A/B: toggle rapid-fire.
  • START + A : Toggle framerate display

Save games

For games which support it, saves will be stored in the /SAVES folder of the SD card. Caution: the save ram will only be saved back to the SD card when quitting the game via (START + SELECT)

Raspberry Pico W support

The emulator works with the Pico W, but without the onboard blinking led. In order for the led to work on the Pico W, the cyw43 driver needs to be initialised. This causes the emulator to stop with an out of memory panic.

USB game Controllers latency

Using a USB gamecontroller introduces some latency. The legacy controllers ((S)NES, WII-classic) have less latency.

Troubleshooting no image on TV or monitor

  • Make sure the board is directly connected to your display. Do not connect through a HDMI splitter.
  • Some displays need 5V in order to work:
    • When using the breadboard with HDMI and SD breakout, make sure VBUS (Pin 40) is connected to the 5 volt via on the board. (Marked 5 on the side)

Image

Known Issues and limitations

  • Pimoroni Pico DV: Audio through the audio out jack is not supported, audio only works over hdmi.
  • Due to the Pico's memory limitations, not all games will work. Games not working will show a "Mapper n is unsupported." (n is a number). For example starting Castlevania III will show the "Mapper 5 is unsupported." message.
  • tar file support is removed.
  • Pico W: The onboard led does not blink every 60 frames.

Building from source

Best is to use the included build script buildAll.sh. You can then copy the correct .uf2 to your Pico via the bootsel option. The script builds three .uf2 files and puts them in the releases folder.

git clone https://github.com/fhoedemakers/pico-infonesPlus.git
cd pico-infonesPlus
git submodule update --init
chmod +x build*.sh
./buildAll.sh

When using Visual Studio code, choose the Release or the RelWithDebuginfo build variant.

Credits

InfoNes is programmed by Jay Kumogata and ported to the Raspberry Pi Pico by Shuichi Takano.

I contributed by adding SD card and menu support. For this reasons I made code changes to the emulator for accommodating the menu and SD card.

PCB design by @johnedgarpark.

NES gamepad support contributed by PaintYourDragon & Adafruit. If using Pimoroni Pico DV Demo Base: NES controller clock, data and latch go to GPIO pins 14, 15 and 16, respectively. If Adafruit DVI Breakout build, it's GPIO pins 6, 7, 8 instead. FeatherDVI Gamepad should be powered from 3.3V when connected to Pico GPIO, not 5V as usual...seems to work OK regardless.

WII-Classic controller support by PaintYourDragon & Adafruit.

Adafruit Feather DVI - RP2040 support by PaintYourDragon & Adafruit.

Other versions

There is also a version available for the Pimoroni PicoSystem handheld.

Image

About

NES Emulator with SD card and menu support for the Raspberry PI Pico and other RP2040 based microcontrollers. Play your games from SD card on a HDMI display.

Topics

emulator adafruit nes pimoroni raspberry hdmi sdcard pico waveshare rp2040 raspberry-pi-pico adafruit-feather-dvi pimoroni-pico-dv waveshare-rp2040-pizero

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