DIY Handheld

Isn't it nice to play videogames on the go? Some friends and I designed our own DIY Handheld. We designed the handheld gaming console to be build by Creative Technology students during a workshop to get them familiar with practical skills such as soldering and machining.

The handheld consists of a Raspberry Pi Zero(W), a salvaged SNES Controller, a nice, big, screen, a powerbank, and 3D printed and lasercut parts. The Raspberry Pi runs RetroPi as its operating system which allows the user to put games on the system that were made for old consoles ranging from the first gameboy up to early Playestation 1 games.

The handheld was built by abour 30 students of Creative Technology and I even had the pleasure to sit with the Dutch Gamekings to build it during a livestream. It was great to see so many students working towards a physical product. I still see some participants playing gaming on the device at the university.

My part in this project was designing the electrical system together with another committee member. We also figured out the layout of the internals of the handheld and how to assemble it. I then wrote the manual on the assembly of the device, which is unfortunately unusable due to the inavailability of specific parts.