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.binon 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)
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
- Metadata: pacPlusMetadata.zip
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.