Use Cardboard to Build an Affordable Handheld RetroPie Console
Want a RetroPie console, but don’t have the money for a nice enclosure? Then you’ll want to check out this project by Kiteretsu.
2024 is a great year to be a gamer. The AAA studios may be a bit disappointing, but the indie video game scene is absolutely flourishing and we now have nearly 50 years’ worth of awesome titles to go back and play. But most of us don’t have the cash to buy every console and computer system released over those decades, which is why emulation is so popular. If you want to dive into that world on a budget, Kiteretsu has a tutorial that will walk you through building a cardboard handheld RetroPie console.
RetroPie is an operating system (based on Debian Linux) intended specifically for gaming emulators and made to run on single-board computers (SBCs). Just save your ROMs (legally obtained, of course) in local storage and start playing. The included emulators cover all of the most popular handhelds and home consoles from the fourth generation and before. And there is likely an optional emulator available for whatever weird and obscure console you’re thinking of.
This probably sounds great to you, right? But RetroPie builds can get tricky and the big challenge is the enclosure. If you don’t have access to a 3D printer, you may feel like you’re out of luck. But Kiteretsu’s build proves that idea wrong. Its enclosure is cardboard and paper in a kind of papier-mâché composite made with water and glue. It won’t be as durable as plastic or metal, but Kiteretsu reports that it feels solid and protects the components.
Those components include a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W SBC, a 3.5” TFT LCD screen, buttons, a joystick module, and an ESP32-C3 microcontroller development board (it appears to be a Seeed Studio XIAO). That is what connects the buttons and joystick to the Raspberry Pi. The ESP32’s firmware is customizable, as is the controller input mapping in RetroPie, so you’ll have complete control over the functionality. Finally, you can connect Bluetooth headphones (or speakers) for sound output. Power comes from a USB battery bank.
If you want everything that RetroPie has to offer, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, then Kiteretsu’s cardboard console may be for you.