Someone managed to fit an entire Raspberry Pi computer inside the body of a cassette

This isn’t a throwback. If nothing, it’s actually a throw-forward. Designed to show how far we’ve come in a span of 4 decades, this cassette has a fully-functioning Raspberry Pi computer inside it running a ZX Spectrum emulator inside it. Hacked together by Stuart Brand, the cassette pays tribute to his first-ever computer, the ZX Spectrum. The ZX Spectrum was an 8-bit personal home computer developed by Sinclair Research. Ironically enough, Stuart would write programs on the ZX Spectrum and store them on cassette tapes. 40 years later, the entire ZX Spectrum computer can practically fit inside the same cassette’s plastic body, with a few minor adjustments made to allow the parts and ports to line up perfectly.

Designer by Stuart Brand

Brand used his free time to learn coding and to tinker in his garage. He said, “I would have no idea how to build this stuff prior lockdown.” It proves that even though you try, you don’t know how to do it.

Stuart faced a tight space restriction and chose to use the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Stuart said that cassette shells are a good form factor. He used a simple black spare cassette shell as a starting point and then used side cutters and a hand file to cut out the plastic supports. The heatsink shown at the top was also created entirely from scratch using scrap metal sheets and a bandsaw. A Dremel, needle files, and fine-grit sandpaper were used to finesse the shape.

The 5mm interior of the cassette meant Stuart had to hack together his solution. Stuart had to cut out part of the Raspberry Pi Zero W’s PCB in order to create the illusion. Thankfully, this didn’t affect the functionality of his computer. Stuart cleverly used his GPIO ports to store them. This allows you to connect the cables and make it work. That required a bit of cutting and sanding too, although it didn’t do anything to the cassette’s front profile, leaving it looking exactly the way it should. Stuart printed labels to attach the labels on the top of his cassette. He now uses his ZX Spectrum Pi Cassette as a ‘pick up and play’ device whenever he fancies “a quick bash at some old school gaming.”

Unfortunately, the schematics are not available for other people to make their ZX Spectrum Pi Cassettes. Stuart describes himself as an haphazard, inexperienced tinkerer, but he started the project with no planning and detailed instructions. The entire process was effectively planned out in his head. He apologizes for not having any diagrams and never measured anything. His best advice is to leave more space than you believe you will need .”

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Stuart’s build was featured in this month’s official Raspberry Pi magazine MagPi issue 116.