Maintaining children entertained is all the time a problem and the acquisition of an iPad or an Xbox is definitely an inexpensive method to obtain that. However some mother and father have the time and ability to go a step additional to construct one thing that may actually interact and nurture these younger minds. That’s what tremendous dad Trevor Johnson did when he constructed the Herman Leisure System (HES) for his children’ enjoyment and artistic expression.
Johnson initially supposed to construct a RetroPie handheld online game emulation system, however bumped into points with {hardware} compatibility. That led him to the creation of the HES, which is so significantly better. A RetroPie handheld will give the participant entry to an enormous library of nice video games, however these are purely leisure. The HES, which runs a customized Python-based software program ecosystem, lets the children create their very own video games with the help of an LLM AI, to allow them to construct helpful abilities and categorical their creativity on the identical time.
The {hardware} to construct an HES console is easy, inexpensive, and simple to assemble. It consists of a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W single-board pc, an Adafruit 1.3” TFT Bonnet (which incorporates the show, a joystick, and buttons), and a Waveshare UPS HAT to produce energy from a lithium battery. These parts match inside a 3D-printable enclosure with grips for comfy play.
That {hardware} alone can be fairly nifty, however the software program actually makes the HES stand out. On prime of Raspberry Pi OS Lite, Johnson programmed a Python system for managing video games, together with an API and {hardware} abstraction layer to simplify and standardize the event of recent video games. The actually cool half is that the HES’s Python system performs properly with an AI assistant that the children can work with to create no matter video games they dream up.
Johnson makes use of Perplexity AI for that, but it surely ought to work with a number of different fashionable AI assistant fashions. Nevertheless, Perplexity AI is especially well-suited to the duty as a result of it may function inside a “House” tailor-made to the HES. That House provides the Perplexity AI assistant the knowledge it must create video games for the HES and, as a result of the HES House is public, anybody can put it to use.
You may even do this proper now — simply observe the hyperlink and ask the assistant to create a recreation. For instance, I simply had it make a hangman-style recreation and it spit out the code (suitable with the HES) with solely two brief prompts.
That makes the HES the proper console for teenagers, as a result of they’ve the liberty to create any recreation they need. And, ideally, they’ll be taught a factor or two about programming alongside the way in which.
