Although the Ogre has had many platforms and thousands of games over the years, I still have not tapped into the mighty potential of the little computer known as the Raspberry Pi. At first glance, you would not see many possibilities with a credit card sized computer that retails for around $35. It around $35 because some retailers such as Amazon charge a little more than that. They charge more because they can as these little computers have sold in the millions.
The $35 or close to it is also a great hook for getting purchase because nothing other than small tablets come even close in price. However, please keep in mind that price is just the base unit. You will need many accessories just to get started which is also what gives so many possibilities to this powerful device. I have quite a bit of computer components around from taking part in auctions for years, so I was able to make due with only buying the Raspberry Pi 3 case, the mini SD card with Noobs, and the HDMI to VGA adapter for an older monitor. The monitor adapter ended up being the biggest expense by far.
As can be seen in the screenshot above, quite a few device can be plugged into unit with the case on or off. There are 8 total plugin possibilities. However some, including myself, will never use the Ethernet port. The four USB slots will provide the most customization options as far as hardware is concerned while the HDMI port could be the most challenging. Most older monitors do not have that option. Instead, you will need to hunt down an adapter for the best price possible. I was surprised to find most of these for about the same price as the Raspberry Pi, if not more! Ended up with buying one on sale at Walmart for about $25 to finish getting all the components need to get Raspberry Pi running! Will provide more details in the next blog post.
Here are the components I already had to set up the Raspberry Pi 3:
- Monitor for the HDMI slot above.
- USB Keyboard.
- USB Mouse.
- USB Gamepad.
- USB Wall Charger for the mini USB slot.
More options for customization! But not everyone is willing to learn as others jusr want to play. I personally would love to try this but I do not have the means and resources to do so. I hope you complete your build and cover that motherboard. 🙂
Maybe you could get one someday?
Yeah there’s a definitely learning curve with the setup process of this, you definitely have to be in tune with computer technology
You can do so much with Raspberry Pi and this is just one of those things you can do with it.
Raspberry Pi sure is capable of many things and this is just one of those possibilities. I have used one myself in more basic ways like using it to light up LEDs or just use it as a computer with it’s own operating system.
What was your computer specs ? I owned i7 Acer and still upgradable
Raspberry Pi is a neat piece of technology. Personally, I don’t think it can replace a gaming PC, but it’s a fun do-it-yourself project and I’ve seen some interesting things like portable handhelds using a Raspberry Pi. It can be quite versatile, because it pretty much is a computer.