The hardware#

The Kate system is a software project which needs some form of computer to run it—some hardware. Some of the choices made by the Kate project means that you have a wide range of possible hardware to choose from when building your console, as long as they fulfil the minimum performance and capability requirements. For example, you can run a Kate system on top of a recent Android phone, but you won’t be able to run it on a Raspberry Pi Zero because the Zero version doesn’t have enough processing power and memory.

So, what do you need to be able to run a Kate system? That depends on what exactly you want out of it. Remember if you’re buying the pieces yourself, more capabilities also mean a more expensive and more complex project to build. You can always start with the minimum and try new things later!

Minimum requirements#

Kate is built on top of the Chromium project and needs at least a device capable of running Chromium with hardware accelerated graphics (the device must support OpenGL ES 3.1 or newer). All performance tests are done on a Raspberry Pi 4B device with 2GB+ RAM, so you can’t go wrong with something at least as powerful as that.

This means you’ll need:

  • A reasonably powerful CPU (we recommend not going lower than 1.8GHz);

  • A moderately modern GPU (has to support OpenGL ES 3.1 or newer);

  • A supported CPU architecture and operating system:

    • Windows 10+ (x86, x64 // Intel/AMD 32 or 64 bit);

    • Linux (x64, ARM64, ARMv7l // Intel/AMD 64 bit, ARM 32 or 64 bit);

    • MacOS (x64, ARM64 // Intel or Apple chips);

    • Android (anything running modern Chromium);

    • ChromiumOS/ChromeOS (anything supported by ChromiumOS);

    • iOS (ideally running modern Chromium, but modern Safari is mostly supported);

  • At least 2GB of RAM (chromium has high memory requirements for isolated processes);

Connecting gamepads#

Kate relies on Chromium’s gamepad support, and Chromium supports both wired and wireless connections. Wireless connections may have higher input lag.

Depending on what you’re connecting you’ll want at least:

  • A USB type A port (for wired USB gamepads);

  • A Bluetooth chip (for wireless gamepads);

If you’re connecting retro gamepads directly (e.g.: a real SNES, Playstation, N64, etc. controller), note that Kate does not offer any direct support for them, and you’ll need to figure out how to expose them to Chromium yourself.

Network usage#

Kate uses the network to download OS updates, games, catalog changes, and public keys used to verify cartridges. It also uses the network to synchronise save and configuration data between Kate devices. For playing games, as long as the cartridge itself has no online play requirements, Kate can run entirely offline.

If you’re doing updates or sync’ing over the network you’ll likely need either a wired Ethernet connection or a wireless Wi-Fi connection supporting hardware.

Audio and display#

Ideally, the hardware you pick should have stereo audio, as that’s what games will expect. If you’re picking your own display as well, note that Kate expects a 5:3 aspect ratio and a minimum resolution of 800x480 pixels. This is the common configuration for many screens offered for the Raspberry Pi.