3Derp, the engineer who gave shape to this lovely, gamely DIY, also gave it a funky name. PortaBerry Pi. PortaBerry Pi is a Raspberry Pi based portable emulation machine, most suitable for on-the-go retro gaming. It has a 512 Mb Raspberry Pi Model B processor which is powered by 9.6v NiMh pack battery.
The GUI is shown on a 4.5″ TFT monitor – pretty neat for retro gaming. The remote control emulates those of the yester years, the 90’s, and what you have here is one with a joystick, four action buttons, a start/select button and two shoulder buttons. For audio – since what it retro gaming without the lackluster audio sounds – 2 mini 8 Ohm speakers are run in mono, or a stereo of 3.5mm headphone jack is running. All this runs on the sweet layer of RetroPie operating system.
This is one of the cool DIYs but if you’d like to make one yourself, you would need to purchase more than a few items. Namely, a teensy 2.0 USB microcontroller, a NiMh Battery Pack, a Switch Mode UBEC 5V@3A, a colorful Round Tactile Button Pack, a Sainsmart Joystick Breakout Module- or something similar, a 8 Ohm 29mm Dia Speaker, a Mini Audio Amp (unless you’d like to build one yourself with LM386), a USB 2.0 A to Mini-B 5-pin Cable of 1 ft length, a USB Right Angle Gold Extension Cable A-F/M(90deg) – 10in, a USB Cable – A to Right Angle Micro B, Dual RCA to Right Angle RCA Cable, and Right-Angle 3.5mm Stereo Plug to Pigtail Cable. Phew!
Check the video below. It shows 3Derp playing Mario on a PortaBerry. If this does not get you going into building your own RPi emulator, what will?
Filed Under: Reviews