Build your OWN retro game console with a Raspberry Pi!

Is it possible to have more fun building your game console than playing it? And heck, maybe we can build a game console that plays more retro games than a brand new Switch! It's certainly more open.

Here's all the equipment I used or purchased (affiliate links):

Mentioned in this video:

#RaspberryPi #RetroPie

Contents:

00:00 - Meet Null 2
01:19 - The build
06:02 - Getting software working
08:45 - Assembling the Acrylic case
11:03 - RetroPie setup and gameplay
14:00 - Things I like
15:31 - Things I don't like
16:21 - Results and Outtakes

[stevejolly]

The trick with the applicator thing for the acrylic cement is to have it about half full, hold it upright and squeeze the air out and flip it over, then the vacuum keeps the stuff in and you can very precisely control how much you want to squeeze out

[AtomicShrimp]

For the cup hole soldering, would it help to snip a tiny length of solder into each hole first, then melt it in situ? - maybe with a hot air gun?

[ShinyTechThings]

How about having a custom copper backplate made for a heatsink and see how much more performance you could get out of it?

[AlexBGamesONLINE]

Actually Jeff my hacked switch runs ubuntu so I can ssh into it 😂

[souravsaha]

Donno why ppl would dislike this much of information packed videos..i am a hobbyist and know how much efforts one could need to put to get something right when things go sideways.maybe ppl who don't understand but still watches this kinda video would dislike.

[denverparsons]

I’m not sure I want to take on this project lol

[MarcoGPUtuber]

4:53 That's why you aim the board at other people when you snip off pins.

[DionMunk]

What a fun build! I've built a few mechanical keyboards and doing surface mount parts is always a bit of a pain. I found that if you just get some solder on one of the mounts, hold the part with some tweezers, and solder one side, it makes it easier to solder the other side.

[BritishBeachcomber]

Surface mount (SMD) soldering is so much easier using solder paste, applied to every pad, before mounting the component and heating the pads.

[tamoghnapal]

So I ended up making a similar project with a Pi 3A+ instead (as Pi Zero is impossible to find nowadays), and it actually ended up costing me around 50$ total. I did not have a 3d printer, so I ended up using a 2$ pencil box as the case, and all the buttons were mounted manually and connected to a Pi pico, which was in turn connected to the Pi 3a's USB Port. It ended up working pretty great (though not so great look wise). Also I can use the Pi 3's headphone jack without external dac, and having access to power & hdmi ports means I can dock the device with my TV. I actually am frequently carrying it to my college to play games during free time. This Gameboy Null project gave me the inspiration to attempt to try doing it, and I'm grateful for it.

[Papierzeit]

By coincidence, I just stumbled upon this one video of yours while searching for something else, and I came across this part: "I'm actually amazed how good the sound was on early Genesis and Super Nintendo games. I've only ever heard them on the tiny speaker in our family's cheap 13" TV." - As a kid, I always plugged my headphones directly into the Genesis... :)

[rootbeer]

I had to do math tests for a kid of a friend of the family. It's been 10 years since I've been out of college so it's been a while for me. I pulled out one of my old calculators, which felt surprisingly familiar, but the results had me wishing for more. What if instead of handheld game consoles we made the ultimate graphing calculator kit? How about a square screen?

[danielriossuarez]

Loved it! As an electronics guy, I specially enjoyed the parts about SMD soldering, acrylic cement and other mechanical features in this board that can be useful for me.

[zambonidriver]

AvE’s ears perked up with the squint reference.

[RedMageGaming]

I can see so many older projects people have made with the Zero, get a big upgrade with the zero 2. Keeping the same physical profile on the board was a smart Idea.

[stonededge]

Great work Jeff! Really like the acrylic and it’s nice to use readily available parts during the chip shortages. Something that has severely held back my console :(

[greenprotag]

It looks like there is a clear path from the HDMI port to the outside of the shell. It's likely you could use a ribbon cable or extension PCB.

[nicwilson]

I bought a custom Super Famicom style Gameboy Advance shell and built a Pi Zero 2 based emulation machine into the shell :)

[linyongzheng]

Maybe you could solder pogo pins into the pi GPIO vias and have the pi contact the PCB with compression. That way you could easily replace the Pi if needed. Some pogo pin configurations should seat into the vias and ultimately add almost no thickness (less than a 1mm) when compressed. Downside is tolerance for the case will need to be much tighter. Really boils down to whether you want easier assembly and or easier swappable components.

[AngryMarkFPV]

I think I get to have my first smart moment. In circumstances where parts are tricky to hold / solder, don't use tape like you have here, use bostik blutack. easy to place, easy to remove, when its below 35c its fairly rigid. awesome work none the less Jeff.