BlueRetro

BlueRetro GameCube has been around for quite some time. https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console. I guess I could update from my previous post in a similar thread. [2] Long story short, my open source firmware is used by product makers and they make a voluntary contribution often base on how many unit they sell. It is also widely used by Chinese company on AliExpress. I got one of those Chinese company to sponsor me a significant amount on GitHub sponsor since August 2022. I guess they forgot about it, still going ever since! I still make 1000 USD a month from the various HW makers. One new thing I made this year after 5 year of doing this hobby, is that I finally manufactured and sold one adapter base on this code myself for the OG Xbox console. [3] Factoring all the expenses I made 7K for a batch of 300. I plan to do a 2nd batch

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console. I made a gross income of around 3K a month last year out of Royalties on the soft for each device sold. It's Apache 2.0 software so people can do whatever they want. I started making money when I decided to list on the GitHub README the list of manufacturers/makers that where sponsoring the project. (Only one person at that time) Soon after the others offered to give royalty as well. I even got a Chinese company, notorious for selling "clone" of OSHW projects, to support the SW development as well via GitHub sponsor. I've been working on it for the last four years. I entertained the idea to make and sell the hardware myself. But in the end I learned that's it's not something I'm interested to get into. What I really like is working on

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console. I've been working on it for the last three years. I entertained the idea to make and sell the hardware myself. But in the end I learned that's it's not something I'm interested to get into. What I really like is working on the software. In the end this pivoted into a more community driven project where multiple makers are selling various variations of the HW and giving me a cut of their profit to support the SW development. Recently I even got a Chinese company, notorious for selling "clone" of OSHW projects, to support the SW development as well via GitHub sponsor. I wrote a retrospective of last 3 years [2]. [1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro [2] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/discussions/289

I got my BlueRetro [1] project which is a universal BT controller adapter for retro console. I'm making a pretty bad job monetizing this TBH. I originally wanted to sell the HW myself but turn out that with real job + young family with the little energy and time left I can't do more than "here's the code". Turn out a few makers pick it up and are nice enough to give me a cut on their sales. Adding user donation I maybe made 2K out of it this year, not much but better than nothing I guess. I wrote a retrospective about the last three year working in this if you like more detail [2] [1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro [2] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/discussions/289

Author here. I wrote a retrospective that might be interesting to read to some: https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/discussions/289 In this article, I detail how my initial goal of leaning more about Bluetooth and sell a product turned into a software platform makers now use to sell their own hardware take base on my original design. You can easily give the project a try without building a full adapter. If you got a dev board with the original ESP32 you can flash [1] the BlueRetro_pad_test.bin firmware, connect a Bluetooth device [2] to it and see the buttons inputs from a terminal [3]. You can also connect to the web Bluetooth interface [4] to take a look at the configuration. To simply see the adapter in action you can look at my original Hackday Prize submission video [5]. [1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/wiki/Flashing-f