My "retroGamePi" console

moosepr

@ballanux that's pretty swish! Custom PCB and case! Many hours of design there!

How does the size compare to a normal gameboy?

obsidianspider

Wow, this is a whole other level of complexity with designing your own case and PCB. You mentioned an accelerometer. What are you doing with that?

ballanux

@glennlake Yes, I would like to make a kit. A big part of the effort went to making sure this could be produced in quantities... at least for the electronics! I still have some concerns and work to do about the case.

I still have to make a second prototype before promising anything but my goal would be to either sell the electronics and release the case files so anyone can print their own or if more people is interested also making an injection mold to produce the plastic case. Printing the case with good quality can take from 25 to 30h so the injection molding option would be great.

About the triggers, I could make more space for them but that would place them further below the center of the console. The ideal place is in the center or a bit higher, but that's not possible because they would interfere with the raspberry pi. In any case that's one of the points I have to work on, so I may change it.

Just to put into perspective the mechanical difficulties, this is my first prototype for the electronics, but I have already made 6 different iterations on the case... but of course, I'm not a mechanical engineer :)

ballanux

@moosepr The size is about the same... I think the difference may be +/- 1mm but I don't own a gameboy so I can't show them next to each other. I worked with some measurements from the web.

ballanux

@obsidianspider The idea was to include as many input controls as possible, accelerometers are cheap and are used in all newer consoles. The accelerometer is just an additional axis on the joystick so it should be possible to use it with any game/program that allows it.

detron

@ballanux WOW! I want one.
I would be inclined to buy one for sure.

jb32647

@ballanux An interesting thing for the accelerometer would be to simulate the paddles for an Atari or C64.

dancingmexican

This sounds like and amazing project I would love a handheld retorpie but im no way near good enough to build my own!

I would buy one for sure!

have you got any pictures??

ballanux

@dancingmexican said in My "retroGamePi" console:

have you got any pictures??

I posted a lot of pictures! maybe they take a while to load

ballanux

@jb32647 said in My "retroGamePi" console:

@ballanux An interesting thing for the accelerometer would be to simulate the paddles for an Atari or C64.

Maybe for driving games it could work simulating an steering wheel, but when I put it there I was thinking more for custom games development, not thinking in any particular system.