ZeroBoy Is the People’s RetroPie Handheld

Sometimes you just want to get to the gaming without having to take a second mortgage out on your house. Modern video games are marvels of technology, but require an expensive console or gaming PC. But thanks to the wonders of emulation, you have access to a massive catalog of retro games that can run on relatively low-power computers.

The reigning king of that world right now is RetroPie, which is designed specifically to run on the low-cost, maker-favorite Raspberry Pi. With brand new Raspberry Pi Zero Ws selling for as little as $5, the barrier to entry is very low. But, when you’re building a portable handheld system based on a Raspberry Pi, the cost of the complementary components quickly adds up.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be done affordably though, as Facelesstech shows with his ZeroBoy build. The ZeroBoy is designed specifically to be as inexpensive as possible, while still being functional. The gamepad is a Wonky Resistor Score Zero, which should only cost $6 to $7, and the screen is a knockoff Waveshare 3.2" which costs around $12. Finally, a simple external USB power bank was used in place of a more traditional LiPo battery and charger.

Facelesstech did have to have some custom PCBs made to tie everything together. But, considering he’s not using any kind of enclosure, that was pretty important for keeping everything tidy. As you can see, you should probably avoid dropping the ZeroBoy, but it’ll certainly get the job on the cheap.