Crash Bandicoot is one of my favourite games of all time. It was a top-tier PlayStation 1 game back in the day, and still is; it pushed the original hardware to its limits and helped Sony sell an incredible ammount of consoles during the 90s and 2000s.
Modern retro gaming has seen an array of ports, decompiles, hacks and fan games, but this new way to play Crash Bandicoot is one of the more absurd ways to do it, and that new way is on your old iPod. This is possible thanks to a new project called Sprout, which is a modern motherboard for older iPods
Sprout is a new, replacement PCB for the iPod 3rd generation, 4th generation, and iPod mini. You open the iPod, lift out the original board, and drop Sprout in its place. The case, screen, and click wheel all stay, so it looks and feels the way it always did. But it now has Bluetooth for your AirPods, Wi-Fi, a hi-fi DAC, USB Type-C charging, and a microSD slot that holds up to 2 TB of music... if you have that much.
Most iPod mods swap the hard drive for flash storage and fit a bigger battery. But you’re still stuck with wired headphones and iTunes. Sprout replaces the whole logic board and runs new software, written from scratch to behave like the original. It comes in two versions. Sprout Pico runs on a Raspberry Pi RP2350, turns on instantly, and plays your own music library and podcasts. Sprout Pi adds a Raspberry Pi Compute Module Zero, so it can also stream from Spotify and Apple Music, stream podcasts, and run apps.
Sprout Pi Features
- Raspberry Pi Compute Module Zero
- Custom apps
- Music streaming from Spotify and Apple Music
* - AirPlay streaming
* - Podcast streaming
- Compatible with the iPod 3rd and 4th generation
- 40-hour battery† with a 2,500 mAh cell
The custom apps feature is one of the most exciting, and is how retro games are going to be possible on here, even if it only has a click wheel, but I guess that means it's a unique way to play... right? In Sprout's marketing video, it shows a few seconds of Crash Bandicoot being played on a 4th Gen iPod, which is obscene and will absolutely be awkward to play, but nonetheless possible.
Pi and Pico Specs
- Display: the original iPod monochrome LCD, driven natively
- Microcontroller: Raspberry Pi RP2350
- Supported Codecs: MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, and Opus
- Audio:
- Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC, through the original 3.5 mm headphone jack
- Bluetooth audio for AirPods and other wireless headphones and speakers
- Digital audio out over USB Type-C, to USB Type-C headphones and DACs
- Inline remote controls over USB Type-C
- I/O:
- Wi-Fi
- USB Type-C for charging and drag-and-drop data transfer
- microSD card slot, up to 2 TB
- 2x GPIO via wired remote connector
- No soldering required: fits with a screwdriver and a plastic opening tool
- Reuses the original screen, click wheel, and ribbon cables
How this will actually perform once it launches is unknown, but the proof of concept and videos shown turn your old iPods into modern MP3 players that will undoubtedly go down well with retro gamers and those wanting to resurrect old tech, similar to modding GAME BOYs. So dust off your old iPod and keep an eye on Sprout's CrowdSupply page for more updates.
