Introduction
I did build a custom made Retropie box for my two daughters to play during the Covid-19 isolation.
It all started a couple of years ago as I salvaged an LCD panel from an old broken Netbook. When I figured out that I could use that panel and plug it via HDMI or VGA I was looking for a good use for it.
Then we all were struck by the Corona wave and all of a sudden we found ourselves in self isolation. This also affected all social contact including my daughter’s 7-year-old birthday party. I thought that I could build a custom game-console and suprise her on her birthday.
Here is a list of materials and the result. I might put some instructions about building it later.
List of Materials
- A salvaged ~12” LCD Panel from an old Netbook
- A pair of salvaged speakers from an old Laptop or Netbook
- M.NT68676.2A LCD Panel Controller Board ~ 20 EUR
- 12 V / 4.0 A Power adapter for the panel controller ~ 13 EUR
- Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (4 GB) ~ 60 EUR - another model with the same ports would just do fine
- Raspberry Pi case with active cooling ~ 14 EUR
- 8GB+ microSDHC card ~5 EUR
- Raspberry Pi USB-C Power Supply ~ 8 EUR
- Micro HDMI to Standard HDMI (A/M) Cable ~ 3 EUR
- 2 x USB 2.0 Controller SNES Design ~ 10 EUR
- 4-pin JST connectors ~ 2 EUR
- A small wooden box ~ 10 EUR - or any box fitting everything together
- Foto transfer potch ~ 7 EUR - if you’d like to put some colors on the wood
- Countertop wood oil ~ 13 EUR - or any varnish protecting the wood
- Plywood and some timber slat ~ 10 EUR
- Some wood glue and
- Cussion foam
It did cost me around 180 EUR (of course it could be built for less) and around 40 hours of downloading, installing, wood working and polishing.
But the result was a real joy.
Result
I did call it ZeyPi
, names after my older daughter Zeynep
.
Here a picture of the finished game-console with girls’ names on it:
Here is a video girls enjoying it: