BlueRetro

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