Kordar's Second and Third Gameboy Zero

[kordar99]

Hello Everyone! During my quarantine I decided I would finally build my dream Handheld; a Gameboy Zero powered by a hacked up Raspberry Pi 3B+.

-----THIS IS NOT THEM-----

Instead of building the 3B as my first Gameboy I decided I would build a couple tester handhelds. Thanks to a guy on reddit for sending me some partially built Pi Zero W's, which I completed and put into my builds. Overall the whole experience was great and I appreciate the build process, as I improved my skills and helped learn a lot about the whole process.

So, here is the results of my labor; my second and third builds (built at the same time as my Gaboze actually), I hope you enjoy them.

First off, here is a black and white build based off the "stormtrooper" build I saw on this site when I was doing research. It consists of a Pi Zero W attached to a Pocketadventures GPIOAssist Pro with a PocketAdventures USB/Potentiometer board and button board. It uses a 3.5" inch screen from a backup board - the circuit board wasn't one of the types listed on this site, but I was able to modify it to run off 5V. It comes with a pcb that you can adjust the brightness and stuff which fits into a cavity next to the battery bay. It has two back buttons which uses a 3d printed bracket from online somewhere. It also uses a charging board from Pocket Adventures and a switch I got off Amazon. I spray painted a regular gray cartridge a nice Matte Black and then used a clear coat; I think it looks great. The pictures don't do it justice but the screen is actually quite nice.

Secondly, the Black Gameboy has a more "original" feel to it, as I used SNES color buttons and the original reddish buttons as the back buttons. This one uses a Pi Zero W attached to a Pocket Adventures GPIO Assist Ultra, modified to accept a USB charging port. It also uses a pocket adventures button PCB and a Pocket Adventures Back Button board, with tactile switches. The screen is a 3.2" SPI screen attached using a Pocket Adventures SPI adapter. Overall this build was much simpler, although the SPI screen gave me trouble and I had to reflow the solder. But, I am very excited that these builds are done.

Lastly, both batteries are a 3500 mAh one from eBay and fit well in the battery bay without modification. I am still going to do some testing to see if I can improve the frame rate on the white game boy. I would also like to say that both Pi Zero's have a mild overclock and play quite well.

I would like to thank Pocket Adventures (Dividion on this site) for the assistance. I would also like to thank the guy I bought the incomplete builds from (Bridgetown Labs on etsy) for the assistance. Overall I feel like my skills greatly improved, and I will be posting my 3B+ build soon.

Additionally, I have some spare parts for sale (some tactile switches, button PCB's, power switches) and the Black Gameboy might be for sale if the interest is high enough. Thanks for reading!

[kordar99]

Pictures are out of order of course; my bad. Here is an additional pic thought.