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Releases: fhoedemakers/pico-pacPlus

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v0.1

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@github-actions github-actions released this 02 Jul 16:18
v0.1
c8429cb

CHANGELOG

First public release of pico-pacPlus.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration and PCB design are at the end of this page.

See setup section in readme how to install and wire up

Important

Both RP2040 (Pico 1) and RP2350 (Pico 2 and variants) boards are supported. RP2350 is recommended: a few games show minor visual glitches on RP2040.

v0.1

First public release. There will be bugs. Please register an issue when you encounter one.

Features

Odyssey 2 / VideoPac

  • Standard Odyssey 2 and Philips VideoPac cartridge ROMs (.bin) are loaded directly from the SD card.
  • Runs on RP2040 (Pico 1, Pico W, Waveshare RP2040 boards, and similar) and on RP2350 (Pico 2, Pico 2 W, Waveshare RP2350 boards, Adafruit Metro RP2350, Adafruit Fruit Jam, and similar).
  • On boards without PSRAM the ROM is written to flash on launch, which triggers a short reboot; on PSRAM boards the ROM loads straight into PSRAM and starts immediately.

BIOS

  • The Odyssey 2 BIOS is loaded from /bios/o2rom.bin on the SD card. Only this filename is recognised; the BIOS itself must be supplied by the user.

Controllers

  • USB controllers including Sony DualShock 4 / DualSense, 8BitDo, XInput (Xbox 360 / Xbox One), Sega Genesis Mini 1 and 2, PlayStation Classic, and USB keyboards.
  • Directly wired NES gamepads (one or two).
  • Wii Classic Controller over I²C.
  • Dual joystick ports with single-controller auto-mirroring: with one USB gamepad connected the emulator mirrors input to both emulated ports, so games that read port 1 (K.C. Munchkin!) and games that read port 2 (Alien Invaders) both work; with two USB gamepads connected each controls its own port for true two-player games.

USB keyboard

  • Keyboard passthrough to the Odyssey 2 keyboard matrix: letters A–Z, digits 0–9, Space, Enter, Minus, Equals, Period, Slash, and numpad + / *. Educational titles and other keyboard-driven games are fully playable.

Audio

  • Odyssey 2 / VideoPac+ sound emulation.
  • Optional I²S external audio output on supported boards (Pimoroni Pico DV Demo Base line-out, Fruit Jam speaker + jack, Adafruit Feather RP2350 + TLV320DAC3100).

Display

  • HDMI output via HSTX on RP2350 boards and via PicoDVI on RP2040 boards.
  • Screen mode switching, scanline effect, FPS overlay, VU meter (Fruit Jam).

Metadata

  • Box art and short text descriptions are displayed in the file browser when a metadata pack is installed under /metadata/O2E/. The screensaver shows random box art.

Known issues

  • A few titles show minor visual glitches on RP2040. RP2350 is recommended for best compatibility.
  • Not all games have been tested; please register an issue when you encounter one.

Use of AI

The Pico port of the O2EM emulator core and general code optimizations were developed with the help of Anthropic Claude Opus 4.6.

Downloads by configuration

Binaries for each configuration are listed below. For board-by-board wiring, supported display modes, PCB designs, 3D-printable cases, and which UF2 file to flash, refer to the pico-infonesPlus documentation. The set of supported boards and their pinouts is identical between the two projects.

Standalone boards

Board Binary
Adafruit Metro RP2350 picoPacPlus_AdafruitMetroRP2350_arm.uf2
Adafruit Fruit Jam picoPacPlus_AdafruitFruitJam_arm_piousb.uf2
Waveshare RP2350-PiZero picoPacPlus_WaveShareRP2350PiZero_arm_piousb.uf2
Adafruit Feather RP2040 DVI picoPacPlus_AdafruitFeatherDVI_arm.uf2
Waveshare RP2040-PiZero picoPacPlus_WaveShareRP2040PiZero_arm.uf2

Breadboard / Custom PCB

Adafruit DVI Breakout + MicroSD card breakout, or the custom PCB.

Board Binary
Pico picoPacPlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico_arm.uf2
Pico W picoPacPlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico_w_arm.uf2
Pico 2 / Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 picoPacPlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2

PCB Waveshare RP2040-Zero / RP2350-Zero (PCB required)

Board Binary
Waveshare RP2040-Zero picoPacPlus_WaveShareRP2040ZeroWithPCB_arm.uf2
Waveshare RP2350-Zero picoPacPlus_WaveShareRP2350ZeroWithPCB_arm.uf2

PCB Waveshare RP2350-USBA (PCB required)

Binary

Pimoroni Pico DV Demo Base

Board Binary
Pico picoPacPlus_PimoroniDVI_pico_arm.uf2
Pico 2 / Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 picoPacPlus_PimoroniDVI_pico2_arm.uf2

SpotPear HDMI

For more info about the SpotPear HDMI see https://spotpear.com/index/product/detail/id/1207.html and https://spotpear.com/index/study/detail/id/971.html.

Board Binary
Pico picoPacPlus_SpotpearHDMI_pico_arm.uf2
Pico 2 / Pico 2 W picoPacPlus_SpotpearHDMI_pico2_arm.uf2

Murmulator M1

For more info about the Murmulator see https://murmulator.ru/.

Board Binary
Pico picoPacPlus_MurmulatorM1_pico_arm.uf2
Pico 2 / Pico 2 W picoPacPlus_MurmulatorM1_pico2_arm.uf2

Murmulator M2

For more info about the Murmulator see https://murmulator.ru/.

Board Binary
Pico 2 / Pico 2 W picoPacPlus_MurmulatorM2_arm.uf2

Other downloads

Extract the zip file to the root folder of the SD card. Select a game in the menu and press START to show more information and box art. Works for most official released games. The screensaver shows floating random cover art.

Assets 21