Retro Game Console powered by the Arduino Q

Waveshare UPS Module 3S

18650 Battery

Adafruit mono enclosed speaker - 3 W 4 Ω

USB-C 2-in-1 PD + data adapter

Modulino™ Buttons

Arduino® UNO™ Q 4GB

Arduino UNO Media Carrier

Modulino™ Joystick

Waveshare 8″ DSI touch display (8-DSI-TOUCH-A)

Arduino App Lab

<html><body><h3>Retro Game Console powered by the Arduino Q</h3>Turn the Arduino UNO Q into a self-contained retro gaming console: an 8″ DSI touchscreen on the UNO Media Carrier, RetroArch for emulation, and a gamepad made of Modulino nodes daisy-chained over a single Qwiic cable. Boot it, and it goes straight into the game menu - no keyboard, no desktop, no HDMI dongle. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/26737dcb-773a-4c46-9b55-c3db90b8c9bd.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure><h3>Intro</h3>The Arduino UNO Q is the first UNO with a split personality: a Qualcomm QRB2210 (quad-core Cortex-A53, 2 GHz) running Debian Linux alongside an STM32U585 microcontroller on a single UNO-sized board. That combination is exactly what a game console needs: Linux is great at running an emulator and driving a display, while the MCU is great at polling physical controls with steady, real-time timing. This project uses both sides for what they do best. The MCU reads a Modulino Joystick and three Modulino Buttons modules over I2C at 60 Hz and streams their state to Linux through the Arduino Bridge. A small Python daemon turns that stream into a standard Linux virtual gamepad, and RetroArch, the emulator frontend, picks it up like any USB controller. The UNO Media Carrier adds what the bare board lacks: a DSI connector for the touchscreen and 3.5 mm audio jacks. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/ddb8cd5c-e8e3-40d5-971c-e27fd2292767.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The result is a kiosk-grade console that survives reboots, power cuts, and curious fingers: it powers on directly into RetroArch, fullscreen, with working sound and controls. 🕹️ Throwback in history : Sometimes around 2013, we built another arcade that, at the time, used the Arduino Nano for keys and the first-edition Raspberry Pi. It's cool to see how much Arduino has evolved and become a solid embedded Linux solution. <h3>Project description</h3>Architecture Input travels: Modulinos → MCU (I2C) → Bridge → Python daemon → virtual gamepad ( <code class="code">/dev/input/ </code>) → RetroArch. The Qwiic bus belongs to the MCU, not Linux (Linux never touches I2C). The Media Carrier stacks on the UNO Q and breaks out the DSI display and 3.5 mm audio; power comes in over USB-C from a wall supply or a battery pack. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f822d6f0-aeb5-404f-8a9a-01d3c1c3981e.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The controls All Modulino Buttons ship at the same I2C address (0x3E), so before the chain works, modules #2 and #3 get renumbered to 0x3F and 0x40 with a one-shot App Lab utility included in the repo. The MCU sketch then polls the joystick and all three button modules every 16 ms and fires a single Bridge.notify("gamepad_state", …) - fire-and-forget, ~8 ms overhead, so input lag stays imperceptible. As a bonus, each button's LED lights while it's held. On the Linux side, gamepad_daemon.py subscribes to those notifications and drives a python-uinput virtual device called Modulino Gamepad (D-pad, A/B/X/Y, Start/Select, L1). A RetroArch udev autoconfig file maps it automatically - plug-free "plug and play." Select + Start quits the game back to the menu. The Escape key is disabled as a quit key, so a stray keyboard press can't kill the kiosk. The display and the tearing problem The 8″ Touch A panel is natively portrait 800×1280, but the console is used in landscape. Rotating in Xorg ( Rotate "left" ) adds a per-frame copy that races the panel scanout and produces a visible tear line during horizontal scrolling, unacceptable for a game console. The fix is a dynamic rotation strategy: in the menu, Xorg rotates (menus don't scroll, no tear); the moment a game loads, a watcher service flips Xorg back to normal and lets RetroArch rotate the game inside its Vulkan swapchain ( video_rotation = 1 ), which is tear-free. The watcher polls RetroArch's network command interface (UDP 55355) to know when content starts and stops. Combined with Vulkan + vsync + hard sync + auto frame delay and a disabled compositor, scrolling is glass-smooth. Enabling the panel itself takes exactly one command on the current OS image, no device-tree surgery, and setup.sh runs it for you: <pre>bash </pre><pre>sudo arduino-linux-config carrier enable media-carrier display=8-dsi-touch-a </pre>Audio Game audio drives the enclosed speaker from the Media Carrier's earpiece jack (Class-AB amp), routed by PipeWire/WirePlumber with a stereo→mono downmix sink; this is the default output mode. A small audio-tune service re-applies the codec tuning (amp mode, digital gain, routing) every time WirePlumber starts. For bench builds there's an alternate headphones mode on the MIC-IN/Headphones combo jack - stereo, with its own tuning (power mode, harmonic-distortion compensation, L/R balance), selected by one flag at provision time. Kiosk hardening The console must behave like an appliance. setup.sh installs: auto-login + fullscreen RetroArch autostart, a session watchdog that restarts RetroArch if it ever dies, a boot service that flips the USB-C port to host mode (so a keyboard or hub works), touchscreen calibration for the rotated panel, and Magic-SysRq disabled. Power cycling at any moment is safe. <h3>Build</h3>1. Print all components We split the enclosure into multiple parts so it can fit on the Prusa Mk4 that we have and used threaded inserts on the mount points. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/7904acec-5331-40b2-8037-e32c0a75117b.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>2. Mount the threaded inserts We used M3 threaded inserts matching hex M3 screws. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/d9cbd666-c752-407c-a7c1-e6d6e51a016d.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>3. Assemble the enclosure Once the threaded inserts are mounted, we recommend assembling the display with the two front parts first and then assembling the back part as a separate piece. Next, you can mount the electronics and close the lid from the back. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/dfa7fecd-b2c3-4230-807a-fd59c9738e4a.jpg"/><figcaption>Front piece</figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/a170edd1-f2d9-4e9b-88dd-08661223452f.jpg"/><figcaption>Front piece + display</figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/68c02235-397d-48dd-8e0f-1a00cd00aec1.jpg"/><figcaption>Front piece + display + electronics mounting piece</figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/31f16505-0d05-40fd-aa0a-25b856b124f0.jpg"/><figcaption>Back piece</figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/7eb538b8-0ea1-4c5e-867b-6fd570487379.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>We printed the button labels separately so you can tweak your key bindings as you want by changing them in code and gluing the labels as you please. There is already a holy war between factions of old school gamers and the positions of A B X Y, so we picked our own favorite way, but hey, you do you! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f80cd035-db11-4408-98df-14f1362c88ba.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure><h3>Code</h3>Everything is in the repo: https://github.com/Zalmotek/retroconsole <pre>3d # the enclosure files both sources and exported STLs for printing </pre><pre>setup.sh # one idempotent script installs the whole Linux side </pre><pre>game-console/ # App Lab project - the gameplay MCU sketch </pre><pre>modulino-i2c-changer/ # App Lab project - renumber Buttons #2/#3 </pre><pre>bus-scanner/ # App Lab project - verify the Qwiic chain </pre><pre>button-checker/ # App Lab project - end-to-end input test </pre><pre>modulino-gamepad/ # gamepad_daemon.py + systemd unit </pre><pre>retroarch/ # udev autoconfig (button → RetroArch mapping) </pre><pre>kiosk/ # rotation watcher, audio tuning, watchdog, autostart </pre><pre>setup/ # step-by-step guides (OS, display, audio, RetroArch) </pre><h3>Arduino App Lab</h3>App Lab is the on-ramp for the MCU side. This article's downloads section carries five pre-built bundles (also in the repo's dist/ folder) that import straight into App Lab (via File → Import): <ol><li>game-console.zip - the gameplay sketch. One deploy flashes the STM32; tick Run at startup in the project settings so the sketch runs on every boot without a PC attached. </li><li>modulino-i2c-changer.zip - renumbers the extra Buttons modules (run once per module, one module attached at a time). </li><li>bus-scanner.zip - prints every ACKing Qwiic address to the Monitor; use it to confirm the chain reads `0x2C, 0x3E, 0x3F, 0x40`. </li><li>button-checker.zip -prints each press/release with its gamepad role; a full input test before flashing the gameplay sketch. </li><li>recovery-changer.zip - rescues an address collision if two modules ever end up on the same address. </li></ol>The first App Lab deploy also provisions the Bridge runtime on the Linux side; after that, the workstation can be disconnected for good. Software setup With the hardware assembled and the latest Arduino App Lab on your workstation or laptop, the whole software side takes about half an hour. The order matters, each step leans on the one before it. 1. First boot in App Lab Connect the UNO Q to the workstation over USB-C and let App Lab walk you through first-time setup: device name, password, Wi-Fi. Enable SSH in the App Lab device settings, the Linux install (step 5) happens over SSH. If App Lab offers an OS update, take it: the current image already includes the 8-DSI-TOUCH-A panel drivers, so there is no manual image flashing anywhere in this build. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/e5bcd105-ed1b-439e-a1f5-4db0699bcf00.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/8e34adf0-f47a-417a-bee7-9e3a951b2293.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/5e910ebe-4c2f-444f-bdc7-ed86314b76bd.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/87b797ec-a8ce-406f-b86b-203e56f62080.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>2. Renumber Buttons #2 and #3 All Modulino Buttons ship at the same I2C address ( 0x3E ), so two of the three must be renumbered before the chain can work. Do this before final assembly - the changer needs exactly one module on the bus at a time. Import modulino-i2c-changer.zip into App Lab ( File → Import ) and run it twice: once with only Buttons #2 attached (target 0x3F ), once with only Buttons #3 attached (target 0x40 ), editing NEW_ADDR between runs. Unplug and replug each module afterwards: if its LED blinking resumes, the new address persisted. If two modules ever end up on the same address, recovery-changer.zip untangles them one module at a time. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f793567c-c2ce-4647-b82b-959d0da6ec68.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>3. Verify the chain Daisy-chain everything: UNO Q → Joystick → Buttons #1 → Buttons #2 → Buttons #3 and run bus-scanner.zip. The App Lab Monitor must list: 0x2C, 0x3E, 0x3F, 0x40 . Running the scanner also disarms the address changer, so this step is not optional. For a full end-to-end input test, run button-checker.zip : every press prints its gamepad role ( A/B/X/Y, Start/Select, D-pad, L1 ) to the Monitor. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/0dbf91cf-2721-448f-851f-a74f828a903e.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>4. Flash the gameplay sketch Import game-console.zip and press Run . This one deploy does two jobs: it flashes the sketch into the STM32's flash (it runs on every boot from now on), and it provisions the Bridge runtime container on the Linux side, which the next step depends on. In the project settings, tick Run at startup ; without it the sketch stays silent on boot and the gamepad daemon receives no input. After this, the workstation can be disconnected for good. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/855d18f1-c489-484c-849c-aabf75b28359.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f6ed04d7-61b3-400f-9abf-7170c96ae648.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>5. Install the Linux side SSH into the board and run the provisioner: <pre>bash </pre><pre>ssh arduino@&lt;your-device-name&gt;.local </pre><pre>git clone https://github.com/Zalmotek/retroconsole.git </pre><pre>cd retroconsole </pre><pre>sudo bash setup.sh </pre><pre>sudo reboot </pre>setup.sh is idempotent, safe to re-run at any time. It installs RetroArch and the libretro cores, the gamepad daemon, the rotation watcher, audio tuning, and all the kiosk hardening as systemd services and it enables the Media Carrier + 8″ DSI panel (via arduino-linux-config ), which takes effect on the reboot. A fresh OS image ships with the carrier disabled, so the panel stays dark until this first reboot; after it, the console auto-logs in and boots straight into fullscreen RetroArch with working controls and sound. Note: enabling the carrier reroutes the DSI lanes, so HDMI-over-USB-C stops working, that's by design, not a fault. Two knobs, both set at provision time: KIOSK_AUDIO_OUTPUT=headphones sudo bash setup.sh if you want audio on the MIC-IN/Headphones combo jack instead of the enclosed build's earpiece-amp speaker (the default), and `KIOSK_DISPLAY=none` to skip the carrier/panel step for bench setups on HDMI. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/7ce21c3d-8f43-4fa8-a89a-2cfeea09ef32.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/d91332c3-3364-4f10-856f-ed68449ee1dd.png"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>6. Add games <pre>bash </pre><pre>scp my_game.smc arduino@&lt;your-device-name&gt;.local:~/roms/snes/ </pre>ROMs go in ~/roms/{gb,gbc,gba,nes,snes,genesis}/ ; RetroArch's Load Content browser starts there. If anything misbehaves, three commands on the board tell you where the problem lies: systemctl status modulino-gamepad (is the daemon up?) jstest /dev/input/js0 (does the raw gamepad see your presses?) cat /sys/class/drm/card0-DSI-1/status (is the panel connected?) <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/1134d4f0-17a8-4219-969d-a04866e08ce0.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/3d10ca9f-3583-4a06-9b6d-d2a67a68ab91.jpg"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure> You can go outside and play now! (since it's portable! :D) 👾 </body></html>

Retro Game Console powered by the Arduino Q

Turn the Arduino UNO Q into a self-contained retro gaming console 🎮👾