Raspberry Pi Pico and microcontrollers are an excellent way for programmers to practice and hone their skills as the hardware imposes limitations that encourage efficiency.
Linus Åkesson, aka lft, has created the Kaleidoscopio project, written in 17,000 lines of assembly code using the RISC-V instruction set, which aims to squeeze as much capability out of the Pi Pico as possible and acts as a throwback to 1980s PC capabilities.
The Pico lacks dedicated audio or video components, so these are simulated in software by Åkesson, who uses one core to run the chipset and the other as the CPU for rendering effects.
The only additional hardware required is a VGA port, some resistors, and an audio jack.
Åkesson’s page features more details on the project, and he also provides a link to a similar project based on the Amiga, his favourite retro computer.
