Raspberry Pi Pico Keyboard and Gamepad HID with an NES Controller! 

Actually really really cool! can't wait to see more

Yes!!! The keyboard mapping is **exactly** what I was hoping for!

Such a great video James! I actually feel like I can do this now.

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

Fantastic :) can’t wait to give this a try :)

awesome guide helped me figure a few things out

Love this, building my own retropie handheld and the teensy lc is hard to find nowadays

HID option on the pico make it great. I wish the standard micropython had better support than the circuitpython version. I'm sure more support and libraries will come to the pico.

Cool implementation.

standby dopamine hit! Awesome job thanks.

've already installed CircuitPython on my Raspberry Pico. I'm encountering an error where Thonny can't find the digitalio module. It also happens with the board module. I've tried using Visual Studio Code (VSC) as well, but it didn't work either.

hey can i use respberry pi pico as a usb to ttl converter for upgrade other device firmware

Nice project. I may try this myself. Also, bit off topic, a thought crossed my mind of would it be possible to enhance an actual NES console with a Raspberry Pi Pico though the expansion port for a plug and play upgrade? If so, maybe it could be used for homebrew developers to rid of problems like sprite flicker and slowdown on actual hardware. Mind you the games would have to have a patch library to take advantage of the enhancements. With the added horsepower, it may be possible to port Shovel Knight little to no compromise outside of widescreen support.

New Sub!! Dryden, MI Excellent Job! I was looking into this yesterday & now this popped up as a Suggestion... Creepy In the Early 2000s, I figured out with some Help Online how to Wire OEM controllers to the Parallel Port on a Win 9x Machine. In Particular up to 5 NES controllers: Using a DirectX 5 Driver.

would you like to adapt the code for snes and being for two controls ?

Helpme when executing the code I get this error: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'digitalio'

Hi, got a little problem. I tried and did the same moves as you and it turned out that... my raspberry pi couldn't find adafruit_hid.gamepad. Can someone help me please ?

Nice video, but is it possible to have a gamepad and keyboard at the same time?

What would be the easiest way to connect the nes controller wires to a pico on a breadboard? I don't have a soldering kit so I can't solder it. Could I strip the wires and then plug it in to a breadboard directly?

How about doing same for using a USB mouse with an Atari ST or Commodore Amiga? MANY people would love a cheap alt to those crazy overpriced adapters ($20-30) that ONLY work on USB mice that use the PS2 protocol over USB....

Wishing I still had some of my old controllers... but I wonder if I should consider a custom keyboard?

Would this work on a Nintendo Switch?

Is there any benefit / disadvantage to use a pico over an arduino for this type of implementation - in particular in regards to latency, presenting multiple gamepads, and other devices like arcade spinners etc?

the file is missing adafruit_hid.gamepad, pleas help

Hi, love your videos mate! I'm not sure if this is a silly request but i'd love to see a video on using an sd card with the pico. I'm currently building a self watering garden and want to create csv files for making graphs but cannot find anything online!

hola... es posible utilizar 2 controles NES con esa Raspi Pico?? Excelente Video!!!

Amazing job. Keep up the good work. I am working on a project and need your expert opinion on that. I am trying to use pico/raspberry pi zero (w) with a barcode scanner to build a stand-only system that can be linked with the app using a smartphone. I am not sure whether I can use raspberry pi pico for that or not? Can you please share your thoughts on that.

I am trying to do this with a Xbox duke controller. Im not sure how to wire the USB wires to the pico. The wires are similar to yours in the video but still unsure. I want to make it bluetooth. I already have the Bluetooth part working

First off, AWESOME video my dude! I want to make a portable retropie handheld and I wanted to use this pico to be its buttons. How can I hook this up to a pi 4 use the pico as the butttons and joysticks. Could you tell me how?

how much of this information is applicable to an atari controller and can i use a normal raspberry pi to do that?

Forgive my ignorance, but is the pico connected to the raspberry pi/computer/etc via usb?

This has been a super frustrating experience for me. It seems that none of the later CircuitPython libraries contain the Gamepad class. I found some source code from an older library and added that into my adafruit_hid folder. That solved the compilation problem I was seeing in Repl. Okay, I thought, maybe I need to downgrade. I'm not bleeding edge, but I do have latest which is 7.x. Maybe they took the library out of 7 for whatever reason? Okay, so I downgrade to 6.3 which is the last version 6 that was released before 7 was released, so it should be latest and greatest with all bug fixes and everything for version 6. The UF2 installed just fine, but again, the Gamepad class is missing from the 6.x library files. I had to go pull them from the S3 bucket, since they aren't available on the download site any longer. Still the class is missing! I tried adding the class manually, and like before it compiled just fine, but my computer is not recognizing it as a gamepad. Is this a linux only HID device? I'm fairly certain that there are HID reports on Windows. When I plug in my joystick I see it as a game controller. I'm not seen the Pico as a game controller. I'm seeing it as a keyboard (and looking at the device list just about every HID device the pico supports), but no gamepad descriptor anywhere. I'm trying to use the Pico so I can use a game controller built for the Pi on my computer. I want to use it with MAME. It's just an old school joystick with microswitches, and a bunch of arcade buttons. It's the Pimoroni Arcade box if you are familiar with it. I can make this work in 2 seconds with my Teensy, but I'm stubborn and I want to make use of these new fangled RP2040s ;). I have a Pico, an Adafruit Feather (which is essentially a Pico), and a Nano. I struggled with Platform IO to get the HID drivers to work correctly, and I found some promising stuff in Python, but alas, no luck for me yet. I'm half tempted to just wire up my Teensy and be done with it, but I see videos like this and other people have shown similar results, so I know it's possible.

MacGyver: Give me a N64 controller, Nes Controller, and a Raspberry Pico. lol

Awesome video but I have a question. Could I use 2 Picos for 2 controllers on the same PC for 2 player games??

Amazing!11111

tried this with the SNES 2 player console port, matching the Clock, latch, 5v, Ground, and Data.. hoping they'd be enough alike....spoiler alert, it didnt work... the red light lit up tho... Also by the way, where would I start if i was trying to make this into a "dedicated adapter"?

Is it possible to connect multiple gamepads (at least 2) with 1 Raspberry Pi Pico?

Found out last week I get to wait another month or more for my Pico board! Ohh well. Keep the printers melting!

can you do this with a ps/2 keyboard?

Cool concept or use nes controller with USB adapter to pc instead?

hello. can this be done with raspberry pi pico?

What is your favorite nes game?

thanks for your answer... would the code be the same as the one used in this tutorial?

Snes controller?

Print n play

this is sicccccck! is it possible to do this with other console pads? ...up to ps2/n64?

i wonder how 2 player gamepad works

hi... ill try your code.. line to line... but Thonny show this error warning.. "Traceback (ultima llamada reciente): Archivo "", línea 5, en ImportError: ningún módulo se llama 'adafruit_hid.gamepad'

I dont have a Controller any alternative pls?

USB adapter? But I thought this could emulate NES and play full resolution Doom. Unless... no, those other couple videos couldn't be fake? Huh? No!

Kid n Play