I've seen Magazine Cover DVDs, but Cover Computers?

eXeler0 · 26 November 2015, 22:27

So apparently, the MagPi Magazine will give away a Raspberry Pi Zero as a "Cover Freebie". This $5 computer apparently comes with a 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, HDMI out and Micro SD card slot. (Ye, its a lot like the first Raspberry Pi).
Most of us here are old timers.. remembering paying $300 for 8MB RAM or something like that.. Did you ever expect to see a $5 computer Magazine Cover freebie?

Edit:
Link:
http://www.techspot.com/news/62930-r...5-dollars.html

Quazar · 26 November 2015, 23:17

It's quite an interesting concept - a cover computer!

As MagPi #40 is available in major shops, I trailed around quite a few shops this afternoon but ASDA, WH Smiths etc didn't have it. I had tinkered briefly with the original Raspberry Pi, and with the magazine being £5.99 with the free Pi Zero it's worth a look I think so my search will continue!

Steve · 26 November 2015, 23:40

I've bought one for £10 with the neccessary adapters from The Pi Hut: http://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero

Should be receiving it sometime tomorrow.

Looks like I was lucky to get one as they've now sold out everywhere. Can't wait to have a play with it.

Amiga1992 · 27 November 2015, 05:25

Stock is going out at real crazy rates!
There's a local shop in my area that says online that has stock, I will try to go tomorrow and see what's up. Hopefuly I go back home with a shiny new $5 computer!
I really can't believe it, I love the Raspberry Pi, this makes it even more awesome.

Devlin · 27 November 2015, 12:54

I wasn't so lucky. Everywhere I went in bradford was out of stock

jbenam · 27 November 2015, 13:55

I went to my local WH Smith and it seems they're sold out everywhere

Looks like they had 20 copies which just vanished after an hour or so. I should've gone there yesterday...

alexh · 27 November 2015, 16:24

I'm curious to know why they are so interesting? If they were Pi2 silicon then maybe I could understand the interest. But a Pi1 with no ethernet and a custom HDMI connector?

Is everyone planning to put one inside their 8-bit computer shells?

Steve · 27 November 2015, 16:30

Well mine arrived this afternoon. It's absolutely tiny. Powers up ok and I booted up Raspbian no probs. I have attached my mouse to the other USB port but how are you supposed to attach a keyboard as well with only one USB port??

Baboon · 27 November 2015, 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve

Well mine arrived this afternoon. It's absolutely tiny. Powers up ok and I booted up Raspbian no probs. I have attached my mouse to the other USB port but how are you supposed to attach a keyboard as well with only one USB port??

Same problem as the Ouya - I guess use a USB hub?

Steve · 27 November 2015, 17:19

Here it is:

Baboon · 27 November 2015, 17:26

Looking at your link of what you purchased you just have a standard USB OTG cable but you actually would need to buy a micro USB Hub

s2325 · 27 November 2015, 17:35

What about these keyboards wit built-in touch pad?

Steve · 27 November 2015, 21:00

I've decided to go for this impressive looking ultra slim USB hub made by Anker. I won't be receiving it till early December though unfortunately. Here it is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Release-Anke...ywords=USB+hub

dreamkatcha · 27 November 2015, 21:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

I'm curious to know why they are so interesting? If they were Pi2 silicon then maybe I could understand the interest. But a Pi1 with no ethernet and a custom HDMI connector?

Is everyone planning to put one inside their 8-bit computer shells?

Me too. I love the novelty factor, but would struggle to find a use for one of these.

rare_j · 27 November 2015, 23:05

Looks neat but once you have a USB and HDMI adapters hanging off it, it doesn't seem quite so cute somehow.
Now if they put the faster chip in the a+, that would work.

Amiga1992 · 28 November 2015, 17:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

I'm curious to know why they are so interesting? If they were Pi2 silicon then maybe I could understand the interest. But a Pi1 with no ethernet and a custom HDMI connector?

Well I bought one at Micro Center, the last place on Earth that had stock yesterday (and probably ran out now, they only had few left when I got mine). I have to say I am very impressed with this little thing.

The first thing is the price point. FIVE dollars man, does that not make it interesting to you? Even at Pi 1 speeds this would be a steal. For the price of one Pi 2 you can make a cluster of these and surpass a Pi 2 in raw processing power.
Second is the form factor of course. More suited to be embedded into things, wearables and all that. Clearly not as suited to be a "desktop computer" as a Pi 2 is, but very, very useful for other types of projects. The HDMI connector isn't custom, Mini HDMI is a standard and you can find plenty of adapters. Lack of network connectivity can be of course solved by a USB dongle or your custom GPIO interface.
Third, it is actually faster than a Pi 1, so it puts it a bit closer to the Pi 2.

I installed RetroPie yesterday on it and messed about all night until I got it right. At first the latest Retropie (I got the Pi 1 version) seems configured for A+/B+ models so the speed is a bit shit, as soon as I ramped up the overclocking (TURBO option worked with the Zero, Pi2 option didn't), almost every damn game that had slowdowns before worked fine. I hope they make a version optimized for Pi Zero.

I was playing F-Zero and Super Mario World 2, my SNES benchmarks, with a pretty much constant 60fps on SMW2 except when Super FX type shit happens and you notice a slowdown. F-Zero ran flawlessly.

Amiga emulation was AMAZING on ARMUAE. I didn't know it worked so well, compared to UAE4ALL. I ran full speed pretty much every game I threw at it except usual suspects: Lionheart slowed down, and so did parts of Brian The Lion. Turrican 2 and 3 ran just great. AGA games locked up the emulator (perhaps it isn't supported? Dunno).

Arcade emulation was smooth. Neo Geo and Capcom CPS2 machines all running super smooth!

I spent 5 dollars on the machine, then 4 on a cheap hub and 3 on a USB OTG cable, that's all. I had keyboard and mouse at home and also used a 1A phone charger to power all this that I had lying around. At first I thought it wouldn't give enough juice but everything worked, even when I plugged a USB stick!

So in total I spent like 12 dollars to build a very respectable retrogaming console. To me that's worth it a lot!

Now I gotta figure out in what kinda box I want to put this to make it a proper emulation console. I thought about building a mini arcade cabinet, but it feels gimmicky. Perhaps I'll just build a full size one at some point and power it wit this to begin with then progress to better hardware. This unit is perfect in my opinion to build handheld devices. The extra speed, small size and super reduced power consumption make it ideal for portable applications.

Anyway, that's my report on it. I really recommend anyone to get as many of these as they possibly can, they surely will come handy in many situations. This is the perfect unit for the Raspberry Pi floppy emulator project. Now I am considering building one. See how much price would be reduced on that project with this unit and realize that's the main selling point of this device.

Steve · 28 November 2015, 21:37

Nice report Akira! Thank you.

Can I ask, did you try out Retropie for Pi2 at all? I wonder what the difference is between the Pi1 version and Pi2.

I wasn't sure which to download so I'm downloading them both at the moment. Its a bit shit that you have to wipe over the operating system to install these emulators. I was hoping they could be installed individually like on Windows but there isn't a lot of info on how to go about doing that. I'm really only interested in Megadrive, SNES, Amiga and MAME emulation so I don't want the other emulators that Retropie provides.

Anyway I'd love to fit it into some kind of GBA sized case and retro game on the go. Now that would be awesome!

Amiga1992 · 29 November 2015, 00:36

NOpe, I didn't try the Pi 2 version at all. What I did try is setting overclocking at Pi2 settings and Retropie refused to boot anymore.

If I have a spare card I can try the Pi 2 version but isn't it a different processor? I don't think it will run properly or at all.

You can definitely install Retropie on top of Raspbian. The Retropie image is just for those who, like me, don't care about the OS. Look for "manual installation" of Retropie, you will find links with tutorials. You don't even need Emulation Station if you don't want the frontend and commandline is your thing.

I just spent the day trying to get games into the thing. Since it has no network connectivity, you have to copy from a USB stick to the internal SD card. Of course, with more fidgeting, eventually, I will just make it boot off a USB device like I did with my rPi media server. I want to get a 128GB USB stick or cheap hard drive so I can fit all the games I have on my Wii and more. This little thing surely outperforms my Wii using Retroarch in every aspect.

locksmith · 02 December 2015, 13:37

I was thinking of getting one as I thought you had to have a epom of something like that
but its looking like a good thing to have I take it runs on Linux based stuff im not sure as im very new to this many thanks good to read more about theses raspberry like to get involved in making something I like to see a smart app to work for free phone calls for life if you own this device every one would have one I know I would like to make this happen for the world to see

trixster · 02 December 2015, 14:13

AGA in uae4arm is bugged on pi1 builds atm, have a look on the raspberry pi forum thread for details and a work around.

26 November 2015, 22:27	#1
eXeler0 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Sweden Age: 50 Posts: 2,946	I've seen Magazine Cover DVDs, but Cover Computers? So apparently, the MagPi Magazine will give away a Raspberry Pi Zero as a "Cover Freebie". This $5 computer apparently comes with a 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, HDMI out and Micro SD card slot. (Ye, its a lot like the first Raspberry Pi). Most of us here are old timers.. remembering paying $300 for 8MB RAM or something like that.. Did you ever expect to see a $5 computer Magazine Cover freebie? Edit: Link: http://www.techspot.com/news/62930-r...5-dollars.html

27 November 2015, 17:19	#10
Steve I Identify as an Ewok Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: North Lincolnshire Age: 45 Posts: 2,356	Here it is: Attached Thumbnails

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26 November 2015, 23:17	#2
Quazar Registered User Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Scotland Posts: 41	It's quite an interesting concept - a cover computer! As MagPi #40 is available in major shops, I trailed around quite a few shops this afternoon but ASDA, WH Smiths etc didn't have it. I had tinkered briefly with the original Raspberry Pi, and with the magazine being £5.99 with the free Pi Zero it's worth a look I think so my search will continue!

26 November 2015, 23:40	#3
Steve I Identify as an Ewok Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: North Lincolnshire Age: 45 Posts: 2,356	I've bought one for £10 with the neccessary adapters from The Pi Hut: http://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero Should be receiving it sometime tomorrow. Looks like I was lucky to get one as they've now sold out everywhere. Can't wait to have a play with it.

27 November 2015, 05:25	#4
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Stock is going out at real crazy rates! There's a local shop in my area that says online that has stock, I will try to go tomorrow and see what's up. Hopefuly I go back home with a shiny new $5 computer! I really can't believe it, I love the Raspberry Pi, this makes it even more awesome.

27 November 2015, 12:54	#5
Devlin Bane of Magic Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Bradford, UK Age: 37 Posts: 335	I wasn't so lucky. Everywhere I went in bradford was out of stock

27 November 2015, 13:55	#6
jbenam Italian Amiga Zealot Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Italy Age: 36 Posts: 1,910	I went to my local WH Smith and it seems they're sold out everywhere Looks like they had 20 copies which just vanished after an hour or so. I should've gone there yesterday...

27 November 2015, 16:24	#7
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,335	I'm curious to know why they are so interesting? If they were Pi2 silicon then maybe I could understand the interest. But a Pi1 with no ethernet and a custom HDMI connector? Is everyone planning to put one inside their 8-bit computer shells?

27 November 2015, 16:30	#8
Steve I Identify as an Ewok Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: North Lincolnshire Age: 45 Posts: 2,356	Well mine arrived this afternoon. It's absolutely tiny. Powers up ok and I booted up Raspbian no probs. I have attached my mouse to the other USB port but how are you supposed to attach a keyboard as well with only one USB port??

27 November 2015, 17:26	#11
Baboon Moon Monkey Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Plymouth, Devon Posts: 419	Looking at your link of what you purchased you just have a standard USB OTG cable but you actually would need to buy a micro USB Hub

27 November 2015, 17:35	#12
s2325 Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Gargore Age: 43 Posts: 17,789	What about these keyboards wit built-in touch pad?

27 November 2015, 21:00	#13
Steve I Identify as an Ewok Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: North Lincolnshire Age: 45 Posts: 2,356	I've decided to go for this impressive looking ultra slim USB hub made by Anker. I won't be receiving it till early December though unfortunately. Here it is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Release-Anke...ywords=USB+hub

27 November 2015, 23:05	#15
rare_j Zone Friend Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London Posts: 1,176	Looks neat but once you have a USB and HDMI adapters hanging off it, it doesn't seem quite so cute somehow. Now if they put the faster chip in the a+, that would work.

28 November 2015, 21:37	#17
Steve I Identify as an Ewok Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: North Lincolnshire Age: 45 Posts: 2,356	Nice report Akira! Thank you. Can I ask, did you try out Retropie for Pi2 at all? I wonder what the difference is between the Pi1 version and Pi2. I wasn't sure which to download so I'm downloading them both at the moment. Its a bit shit that you have to wipe over the operating system to install these emulators. I was hoping they could be installed individually like on Windows but there isn't a lot of info on how to go about doing that. I'm really only interested in Megadrive, SNES, Amiga and MAME emulation so I don't want the other emulators that Retropie provides. Anyway I'd love to fit it into some kind of GBA sized case and retro game on the go. Now that would be awesome!

29 November 2015, 00:36	#18
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	NOpe, I didn't try the Pi 2 version at all. What I did try is setting overclocking at Pi2 settings and Retropie refused to boot anymore. If I have a spare card I can try the Pi 2 version but isn't it a different processor? I don't think it will run properly or at all. You can definitely install Retropie on top of Raspbian. The Retropie image is just for those who, like me, don't care about the OS. Look for "manual installation" of Retropie, you will find links with tutorials. You don't even need Emulation Station if you don't want the frontend and commandline is your thing. I just spent the day trying to get games into the thing. Since it has no network connectivity, you have to copy from a USB stick to the internal SD card. Of course, with more fidgeting, eventually, I will just make it boot off a USB device like I did with my rPi media server. I want to get a 128GB USB stick or cheap hard drive so I can fit all the games I have on my Wii and more. This little thing surely outperforms my Wii using Retroarch in every aspect.

02 December 2015, 13:37	#19
locksmith Registered User Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: south east Posts: 112	I was thinking of getting one as I thought you had to have a epom of something like that but its looking like a good thing to have I take it runs on Linux based stuff im not sure as im very new to this many thanks good to read more about theses raspberry like to get involved in making something I like to see a smart app to work for free phone calls for life if you own this device every one would have one I know I would like to make this happen for the world to see

02 December 2015, 14:13	#20
trixster Guru Meditating Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: England Posts: 2,337	AGA in uae4arm is bugged on pi1 builds atm, have a look on the raspberry pi forum thread for details and a work around.

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