The Pinecone DAISY-1 is a fantasy 8-bit computer that exists in reality | Arduino Blog Blog Home > > Industrial-grade vision inspection, made accessible by the Arduino® UNO™ Q board This stunning smart planter tracks plant health and handles daily care Blog Home The Pinecone DAISY-1 is a fantasy 8-bit computer that exists in reality Arduino Team — June 2nd, 2026 There was a time when computers were exciting and fun. Now most of them feel like commodity appliances — no more interesting than a washing machine or a toaster. Joe longed for the good ol’ days of 8-bit personal computers, so he used a trio of Arduino development boards to design his own “fantasy computer.” This is reminiscent of fantasy video games consoles, such as the PICO-8. More than anything else, it is about recreating the feeling and experience of using an 8-bit personal computer. But unlike the PICO-8, which is really just software that can run on a wide range of hardware, the Pinecone DAISY-1 isn’t separable from its hardware. That hardware consists of three different development boards: an Arduino Due (runs the OS and BASIC interpreter), an Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3 (acts as a video processor), and an Arduino UNO Rev3 (does audio processing).
The Due communicates with the Mega and the Uno via UART. There is also a separate ESP8266 board pretending to be a modem, giving the DAISY-1 access to Wi-Fi. All of those fit inside the stripped enclosure of a VTech Laser 50, which was a very inexpensive 8-bit computer from the ‘80s that was like an even cheaper version of the TRS-80 Model 100 (though it was built around a Z80, so maybe the Epson PX-8 would be a more appropriate comparison). But the Laser 50’s internals were gutted to accommodate those Arduino boards and so Joe had to build his own system for the hardware.
Source: https://blog.arduino.cc/2026/06/02/the-pinecone-daisy-1-is-a-fantasy-8-bit-computer-that-exists-in-reality/
The Due communicates with the Mega and the Uno via UART. There is also a separate ESP8266 board pretending to be a modem, giving the DAISY-1 access to Wi-Fi. All of those fit inside the stripped enclosure of a VTech Laser 50, which was a very inexpensive 8-bit computer from the ‘80s that was like an even cheaper version of the TRS-80 Model 100 (though it was built around a Z80, so maybe the Epson PX-8 would be a more appropriate comparison). But the Laser 50’s internals were gutted to accommodate those Arduino boards and so Joe had to build his own system for the hardware.
Source: https://blog.arduino.cc/2026/06/02/the-pinecone-daisy-1-is-a-fantasy-8-bit-computer-that-exists-in-reality/