I spent Saturday manning the @BrightonPi stand at Brighton Mini Maker Faire showing off various projects with Gareth James. It was great fun, and I really enjoyed talking to people about the potential of the Raspberry Pi.

There were a few questions that got asked a lot… hence this post.

The projects

I was showing off 80’s joystick with 80’s arcade game, OpenELEC, Ladder Board and a Sous Vide water bath. $son0 was adding the RPi camera to his alarm project (and generally messing around with Scratch).  Gareth brought along his timetable and secret squirrel.

1. Where can I buy a ladder board?

The Raspberry Pi ladder kit is a great introductory physical computing project, and can easily be made by kids who’ve learned to do basic soldering. It’s available online from Tandy (though sadly out of stock at the time of writing).

2. What’s that game (being projected onto the wall)?

It’s Targ, and it should be available for download from the MAME web site ROMs page (though sadly the download link seems to be broken at the moment). The classic 80’s gameplay proved too difficult for many modern gamers, and nobody made it to level 3 on the day (or set a high score). Gareth and I were amused to see a succession of kids holding the joystick upside down..

If you want to run MAME (and other classic games emulators) on your Pi then the easiest way is probably PiMAME.

3. What WiFi adaptor are you using?

I use the Edimax EW-7811UN as it’s small, inexpensive, and works easily and reliably with Raspbian and OpenELEC.

Any more?

I think that’s it for the frequently asked questions. If you have any more then please ask in the comments.