Over the years I’ve played around with the Raspberry Pi to see what I can get it to do. I have limited programming skills and rely heavily on the opensource community and how-to documents.
The most successful projects I’ve done with the Raspberry Pi have revolved around using them as DNS and VPN servers. I also have them running with a monitor and wireless keyboard/trackpad combo in the basement utility room and garage. The screen on my phone to look up something in those rooms gets to be a little small and I’m usually using the phone as a flashlight so having a full sized monitor comes in very handy.
One of the things I’ve wanted to do for a while is build a portable gaming machine. Something that could easily go in luggage and look decent to the TSA as it gets scanned. I tried putting something together in 2013 with a Raspberry Pi B first gen, but struggled with lag and the controller setup. As luck would have it, I’ve had an extra Raspberry Pi 3 Model B sitting around I’ve been trying different projects with, but haven’t found the one until I read about RetroPie again.
RetroPie provides an easy installation method to get different emulators up and running on the Raspberry Pi. I had purchased some SNES Classic USB Super Nintendo Game Controller in 2013 when I first gave this a shot.
Once I had RetroPie up and running, I decided the standard Raspberry Pi case was just not enough. I found the BabyNES Raspberry Pi B+ case on Thingiverse and liked the looks. Then it was just a matter of printing and assembling.
A few more pictures of the assembly process and the final product:
I just found this site and didn’t know OMG existed! Regarding RetroPie, it is awesome! I have tons of games on mine, including SNES games and several Atari games. Super easy to set up. I am now working on buidling a retro Pac man style arcade with horizontal screen under a glass top. I would love to work in your shop, but I live 3 hours away in nowhere Nebraska.
If you have any questions, email me at hsukup1 at gmail