Classic gaming fanatic Roger Braunstein has a deal with for individuals who nonetheless have a Casio Crazy mendacity round, within the type of a Raspberry Pi RP2040-powered improvement cartridge designed to unlock the system’s capabilities: the Floopy Drive.
“It is a flash cart for the Casio Crazy, a lesser-known sport console from the 16-bit period, with an built-in full-color sticker printer,” Braunstein explains of his creation. “The Crazy solely had a small library of 10 video games (plus Magical Store, a video seize accent), and a few of them are fairly uncommon and onerous to entry. With the Floopy Drive, you possibly can play any business sport, plus homebrew!”
When you’re one of many few on the planet with a working Casio Crazy, the Floopy Drive is the accent you’ve got been ready for. (📷: Roger Braunstein)
The Casio Crazy My Seal Laptop SV-100 launched in Japan in 1995 as an early entry within the 32-bit console period, powered by the Hitachi SuperH SH7021 CPU operating at 16MHz and with 1MB of reminiscence. Able to four-channel audio and 512 colours over its NTSC-M video output, the system was not a business success — however regardless of software program improvement ceasing in 1996 and {hardware} manufacturing ending in 1998, the bizarre function of a built-in thermal printer able to spitting out screenshots as colour stickers imply the Crazy nonetheless has a spot in followers’ hearts.
It is for these followers that Braunstein has developed the Floopy Drive. Constructed round a Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core microcontroller, the Floopy Drive consists of 4MB of flash storage — bigger than the 3MB required of the most important official Crazy sport, to supply room for expansive homebrew improvement — and 128kB of battery-backed static RAM (SRAM) for saves.
A USB Sort-C port permits new video games to be written to the cartridge over a easy USB Mass Storage drag-and-drop interface, with a companion software program device robotically backing up saves from the SRAM — which means that when switching between video games nothing is misplaced. If related to a PC and the Crazy on the identical time, the USB port switches to UART mode — offering bidirectional entry to the console’s serial port.
Braunstein has launched the {hardware} and software program for the Floopy Drive below a permissive license. (📷: Roger Braunstein)
Braunstein claims the Floopy Drive is totally appropriate with all ten video games launched commercially for the Crazy, although that declare comes with with trio of caveats: Wanwan Aijou Monogatari (Doggie Love Story) used a customized sound chip which isn’t current within the Floopy Drive, which means there are not any sound results; Magical Store, which lets the person seize stills from video sources, runs however does nothing except you may have the unique Magical Store video seize {hardware}; and Lupiton’s Surprise Palette’s Magical Store assist likewise requires the unique {hardware}.
Braunstein has launched the design information and supply code for the undertaking on GitHub below the permissive MIT license, and plans to do a small manufacturing run in early 2024 at $90 per cartridge — with events invited to enroll in the wait record on his Tindie retailer.
