#pigrrl

The PiGrrl lives! Got the display and controls working with retropie installed as well. Finally time to stuff it all in the case.

Started the build of my PiGRRL 2, using this really nice looking translucent red case from SpinnerGirl360 - I’m impressed with her work!  I still have the blue case but it is a ‘factory second’ and I didn’t realize I needed a full button and screw kit to complete it, so instead of just buying those I ordered a full kit

After tapping/threading the screw holes, I started work on the button board:

Lots of buttons to solder, along with the connector. Looking good so far!

So I’m planning on taking what I’ve learned from the (not so successful) Project 001, and apply it to the construction of a slightly more well thought out RetroPie handheld, the AdaFruit PiGRRL 2.   The above is the kit you can order from Adafruit, including the optional Pi and a battery.  Missing is the case which needs to be 3D printed, screws, and a lot of soldering.

It certainly doesn’t make a lot of financial sense to build one, considering you can play retro games on a variety of platforms you probably already have - like your phone, or your laptop.  But I owned the original game boy back in the day, and remember playing tetris on it while squinting to see in low light, since it had no backlight.

The finished product, if successfully achieved, is not your grandma’s gameboy.  Capable of storing and running thousands of game titles on a variety of emulators, and running a complete linux distribution.  Hell you can log into the thing with ssh if you like, put it on the network, attach bluetooth controllers, whatever.  We will see if it lives up to that, and if I can build it without running into some game-stopping obstacle, like last time.