Play Tetris on the Raspberry Pi Pico

Until the new Pimoroni PicoSystem is released, much of the maker community is itching to emulate and play games on the Raspberry Pi Pico—not because it's effective but because we can. This maker, known online as Jools64, opted to create their own solution by programming a Tetris demo that runs on the Pico.

The game runs entirely on the Pico and was scripted in just a few hours as a test. For this project, the Pico uses a third-party Pico accessory from Pimoroni called the Pico Display Pack.

The Pico Display pack features a 1.14-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 240px x 135px and four programmable buttons. It comes with code libraries that can be used to program output to the display and input from the four buttons. In Jools64's Tetris program, the bottom buttons are used to move pieces left or right while the top bottoms rotate pieces and speed up the fall rate.

If you'd like to recreate this project at home, Jools64 has provided the code for any interested parties. It can be found on Pastebin. You can see the project in action in the full post on Reddit.

This project is a great example of what the community can do with something as small as the Pico. Check out our list of Best Raspberry Pi Projects for more cool creations from the maker community.