About
This is a dream project of mine. I love everything retro, and an interactive decoration like this is something I’ve always wanted.
It runs on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with both RetroPie (for video games) and Ubuntu (for television) installed. To control everything using just a gamepad, I coded a Python-based interface that allows seamless switching between console emulation and simulated old television.
Despite many challenges, the toughest part was finding the right Jack-to-RCA cable to connect the TV—eventually, I had to solder my own.
Interface
The interface is minimalistic but functional, and I found it fitting for the theme.
First, I mapped all six buttons on my gamepad through trial and error to find the best layout, using the evdev library. The script then continuously checks for inputs in a loop.
Some parts of the script could be optimized further, ideally without relying so much on time and pyautogui, as seen in the power_tv() function, which is currently the main bottleneck. This is a temporary solution until I set up a local database for the simulated TV feature.
import pyautogui as gui
import os
import evdev
import webbrowser as web
import time
gui.FAILSAFE = False
X = 288
A = 289
B = 290
Y = 291
C = 296
S = 297
tv_era = False
tv_opt = False
def power_tv():
time.sleep(1.5)
gui.press('f11')
time.sleep(7.5)
gui.press('f')
gui.press('space')
gui.press('s')
def opts():
os.system('clear')
if tv_era:
print("X - 2000s\nA - 90s\nB - 80s\nY - 70s")
else:
print("X - TV\nA - Games\nB - Music\nY - Shutdown")
gui.move(800,-400)
opts()
device = evdev.InputDevice('/dev/input/event0')
for event in device.read_loop():
if event.type == evdev.ecodes.EV_KEY and event.value == 1:
if event.code == X:
if tv_opt:
gui.press('up')
elif tv_era:
web.open("https://www.my00stv.com")
tv_opt = True
power_tv()
else:
tv_era = True
opts()
elif event.code == A:
if tv_opt:
pass
elif tv_era:
web.open("https://www.my90stv.com")
tv_opt = True
power_tv()
else:
os.system('reboot')
elif event.code == B:
if tv_opt:
pass
elif tv_era:
web.open("https://www.my80stv.com")
tv_opt = True
power_tv()
else:
pass
elif event.code == Y:
if tv_opt:
gui.press('down')
elif tv_era:
web.open("https://www.my70stv.com")
tv_opt = True
power_tv()
else:
os.system('sudo shutdown now')
elif event.code == C:
if tv_opt:
tv_opt = False
opts()
gui.hotkey('alt','f4')
elif tv_era:
tv_era = False
opts()
elif event.code == S:
if tv_opt:
tv_opt = False
tv_era = False
opts()
gui.hotkey('alt','f4')
elif tv_era:
tv_era = False
opts()
I also coded a small shell code to launch the Python script on startup.
#!/bin/bash
xterm -hold -e "python3 /home/pi/Desktop/hello.py"
$SHELL