Throaty Mumbo built a scratch-designed retro game console, Game Console V2, that deliberately avoids modern shortcuts: real ROM cartridges on a parallel bus, composite AV output only, and N64-compatible controllers over 4-pin Bulgin SA2367 connectors.
The NTSC signal comes from a PGA2350 board housing an RP2350 MCU, pushed through a 6-bit R-2R resistor network for RGB332 color output over RCA. Audio runs through a PCM5102A I2S DAC. No SD cards, no VGA, no USB. The full hardware design and source are on GitHub.
The RP2350B is explicitly a placeholder. Version 3 targets a discrete 8-bit or 16-bit CPU, which is where this project gets genuinely interesting. Read the original for the wiring specifics and watch the build video to see the cartridge system in action.
[READ ORIGINAL →]