Today I prepared a breadboard to see if I could  configure the software to accept control via the GPIO pins of the RasPi.

It looks daunting on the picture, but in fact the setup is really simple. Each button has one lead going to a GPIO pin, and a second one to the common ground.  That’s basically it for the hardware, the harder part was getting the software to recognize all buttons, but with Adafruit’s RetroGame application (and guide), it didn’t take too long to get it working. The button layout for the test is that of an original GameBoy, i.e. Select & Start, A & B and 4 directional buttons. But I can easily add more buttons if needed.

Here’s a video of me testing it out. Don’t mind the sloppy playing. Playing games with the index fingers is really awkward…

In the meantime I already got the battery + charger and audio circuit working.

I guess I am ready to design the case now.