VCF Montréal Retrospective of 6 years working on BlueRetro - Jacques Gagnon YouTube video by Vintage Computer Federation

My VCF Montréal talk on BlueRetro is online! check it out!
youtu.be/aGbMPsk8fW8?...

I love to design stuff and build things. I retired from maintaining BlueRetro which had become too much of a burden. So I guess the key here is to keep it simple and small.

Prototype Bluetooth adapter for Vectrex

Prototype Bluetooth adapter for Vectrex, close-up Vectrex controller port.

Prototype Bluetooth adapter for Vectrex, close-up PCB

Prototype Bluetooth adapter for Vectrex, close-up PCB, ESP32 Py QT Pico side

2nd prototype of my Vectrex Bluetooth adapter, I managed to delete a trace between a hundreds DRC pass and generate the gerber. 🤦 Finally time to design the shell for it!! First time I designed a flex PCB. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Wasn't hard to spec the PI and FR4 stiffeners.

FreeCAD 1.1 is released! YouTube video by FreeCAD

#FreeCAD 1.1 is out!
Transparent Part Design previews and draggers, Assembly and FEM animations, Sketcher Projection & Intersection, 3-point lighting and more!

Notes: wiki.freecad.org/Release_notes_1.1
Get it: freecad.org/downloads
Support the project: wiki.freecad.org/Donate

youtu.be/a9biWv_M8p8

Latest Virtual Boy custom controller print with stock buttons. :-)

KiCad Windows Dark Mode

KiCad schematic hop overs

KiCad Graphical Rule Editor

KiCad version 10 is out today! Lots of features, lots of speed. We hope you like it. www.kicad.org/blog/2026/03...

I'll design a shell for it and likely set up either an Etsy or Kofi store to sell them. It's going to be a kit to assemble. The MCU devkit will have to be purchased separately. More info once I finalize the design.

Example with a game that makes use of analog inputs

First working prototype of my Vectrex adapter!!

When Helios was made public it was mentioned IIRC that you were working on making the AMD firmware available in some way publicly. Is that still planned?

RetroOnyx Switch NSO VB Wireless Controller Overview YouTube video by mellott124

My new video as promised for a NSO Virtual Boy compatible wireless controller upgrade. This shows off the features and how it works with Switch. Also works with PC, BlueRetro, and VBGo on Meta Quest. PCBs arrive next week! #Virtualboy

youtu.be/LxFj4RjD3QI

BLE Shift 3D, NES BT, and SNES BT - Humble Bazooka Back in the workshop and sharing dev log updates on my BLE Shift 3D, NES BT, and SNES BT projects after a long development pause.

Trying something new - Dev logs.

I wrote about the current state of #BLEShift 3D, plus NES BT and SNES BT development after a long pause.

I hope to keep up with this as projects move forward!
www.humblebazooka.com/2026/03/07/b...

Updated my copy of Frank Zhao's HID descriptor parser to HUT 1.7 darthcloud.github.io/usbparser/

Nintendo Switch Virtual Boy Wireless Controller PCB | RetroOnyx Note: This is a preorder for the V2 hardware with Switch enabled firmware. Preorders will run about 2 weeks. A minimum amount of preorders is needed to trigger this batch. The intent is to have thi...

My Virtual Boy wireless controller PCBs that are compatible with the new NSO VB are on preorder. PCBs are in build now. www.retroonyx.com/product-page...

GitHub - loopj/libjoybus: An implementation of the Joybus protocol used by N64 and GameCube controllers, for 32-bit microcontrollers An implementation of the Joybus protocol used by N64 and GameCube controllers, for 32-bit microcontrollers - loopj/libjoybus

👋 just released the first public version of libjoybus, an open implementation of the Nintendo Joybus protocol used by N64 and GameCube controllers, with initial support for Pi Pico (1 and 2) and SiLabs Gecko microcontrollers: github.com/loopj/libjoy...

Times goes by fast 😅 Basically that Vectrex haven't been power on since that day I got it 🫠

😉

Dynamic switching of "virtual iQue cards" from NAND images off an SD card works :). The middle part with NAND chip is being reflashed is sped up by ca. 10x.
The first card image has some demo games (yellow square), whereas the second NAND image has only full games (red square).

Now they telling me I might want to wait for the unannounced ESP32-S31 😮

Sound like it’s doesn’t support custom FW development.
If they only offered the M.2 module that would make sense to me. But they showed a typical ESP devkit pcb too.

We are close to the 10 year anniversary of the original ESP32 and still no real successor with Dual-BT.

Espressif sales told me:

“Regarding the ESP32-E22, I’d like to clarify that it does include an I2C interface. However, please note that the E22 operates only in slave mode and is designed as a communication passthrough module that does not support secondary development.”

Will be available as a M.2 module too!

devkit

Espressif Introduces ESP32-E22, Its First Wi-Fi 6E Connectivity Co-Processor Espressif unveils the ESP32-E22, its first Wi-Fi 6E SoC, designed to power a new generation of high-performance wireless products.

Oh wow a new ESP with Classic BT !!! www.espressif.com/en/news/ESP3...

I never actually build/tested the 7800 schematic on the wiki, I know it work now 😅

I love randomly finding DIY BlueRetro in the wild like this 🥹

Oh no my finger slipped 😉

First steps in a new project starts working, yay 😊

It turned out to be a scam, more context here www.ataricompendium.com/archives/art...

Thought about this today 🫤