This DIY Handheld Game Console Doubles as a Windows 10 Tablet

Handheld video game consoles have been entertaining busy gamers for decades now, and they have certainly come a long way since the iconic Nintendo Game Boy. Nintendo’s current home console, the Switch, is also a handheld console. That means that you can play your home console games anywhere. A number of retro games have been re-released for the Nintendo Switch, but many are still absent from the official Nintendo store — particularly those that were never released on previous Nintendo consoles. If you want to play those, you can build GreatScott!’s fantastic LattePanda-based handheld video game console that doubles as a Windows 10 tablet.

LattePanda produces a series of single-board computers (SBCs) that are similar to the well-known Raspberry Pi computers. LattePanda SBCs are quite a bit more expensive, but they offer a lot more for that money. The LattePanda V1, which is the version used in this project, offers a powerful 1.44GHz Intel Cherry Trail Z8350 quad core processor, 2GB of DDR3L RAM, 32GB of built-in EMMC storage, and an onboard Arduino Leonardo-compatible Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller. Those microcontroller I/O pins are accessible on the board, which is ideal for the adding gamepad buttons to the handheld console. Importantly, this LattePanda SBC can also run Windows 10 and you can even purchase it with a license for the operating system.

GreatScott! has paired that with a 7” Waveshare touchscreen IPS LCD. The LattePanda and LCD are housed within a 3D-printed enclosure. Tactile push buttons are used for the gamepad buttons, and audio is pumped out through a built-in speaker. The Arduino Leonardo can emulate a gamepad, so the buttons will appear like any other gamepad to the software. That software is RetroArch running on Windows 10. RetroArch is commonly used to facilitate video game emulation, which is exactly what you want in a portable console. It can be used to emulate just about any console or computer from the 32-bit era or earlier. Building this handheld console isn’t cheap, and you’ll probably spend about $200. But it is great if you want to emulate a huge library of games that aren’t available on the Nintendo Switch.