Handheld Gaming devices are very popular in Gaming Industry and still people enjoy playing the old Games like Tetris, Mario, Contra etc. Back there is 90s, Nintendo Gameboy was extremely popular, and today we have many advanced Handheld Gaming Devices, from many companies. But all these Gaming Consoles are very expensive, so here we are sharing, much cheaper, Raspberry Pi Gameboy Pocket or Pi-Pocket, in which you can play all the fancy games as well as classic old games, with the same button layout as of Gameboy Pocket but with colourful Screen.
This project mainly uses the Raspberry Pi (model B), Li-Ion rechargeable battery, 2.5 inch Color LCD, Gameboy Pocket gamepad, and a Mini Audio Amplifier. All these components are assembled in a Gameboy Pocket shell. So you need to have a old Gameboy Pocket, so that you can have its shell and it’s Gamepad. Gamepad has been taken out by cutting the PCB and removing all the other components from the Gameboy Pocket console.
This whole project is all about fitting and connecting all the hardware in a Gameboy pocket shell, with a proper power supply. All the unnecessary components are desoldered and removed from the Raspberry Pi, LCD driver Board, Teensy 2.0 and Gameboy PCB. Teensy board has been used here to connect Gameboy Pocket Gamepad (8 buttons) to Raspberry Pi. Teensy basically provide keyboard input over USB.
A Miniature Audio Amplifier has been used for sound, with a Speaker and potentiometer (to control the volume). Three power supply/regulator board have been used, which incudes 3.3V switching regulator to reduce the power consumption by Pi, 5V regulator output board and the 3.7V Li-Ion battery charger. The whole system is powered by 3.7v Li-ion battery.
All these hardwares are carefully connected to each other, with the help of soldering the wires and connectors. At the software part, Raspbian OS is used in Raspberry Pi without any specific modifications in it and only code needed, is for Teensy. You can install any Game’s ROM in SD card and can enjoy the game.
It’s a little bit tricky and effortful to connect and assemble of the hardware in Gameboy Pocket Shell, but when you look at the amazing Pi Pocket Gaming Console, you find your efforts worthy
