Introducing the "GameBox" a portable emulation machine raspberry based.

The GameBox



Link to kickstarter
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While i have nothing to spare with this kickstarter directly, i saw it and felt it interesting... I contacted the guy behind this and i have been asked by the creator ( an italian guy) to talk about it and "advertize" it.

In exchange i'll be sent a piece of hardware to play with, review and maybe dissect if i'm brave enough

But what is it about?

The video here will explain it well and show the insides and working.



When i'll get the unit i'll be keen to test it intensively ane review it honestly for you guys,
in the meanwhile i'll be happy to report any questions about it to the Kickstarter creator and post the answers here.

karsten

(again i'm in no way affiliated to this, just felt it needed a chance and being able to review it so people can make their mind feels like a good thing)

 

Why is he doing a kickstarter on something that is 1. being made and produced by makers in the maker's community, 2. a pi zero, considering a pi 3 fits in the DMG Gameboy case comfortably and 3. Is loaded with Retropie, which one is not allowed to make profit on by selling?

 

What sets this apart from all the open source versions of this? Is it just that they build them for you? How likely are they to run into supply problems, isn't the pi zerow hard to come by?

 

Can you explain 1 so I may ask?

Not sure the point about 2, but 3 a far as I know it's not being paid for, it's just included as any Linux distro can be loaded on any pc for free.

 

Thanks for the questions. As far as I know all is already open sourced, it's just build and packed effectively and easily in a nice bundle.

Our you meant there's already the same machine released somewhere?

 

http://www.sudomod.com/community-spotlight-kites-custom-one-board-build/

 

Doesn't look the same to me? The insides looks very different too. I'll look into it but if it is please let me know.

 

That is a much better approach. I'd love to see someone do something similar with the compute module 3 as it is more powerful in a similar footprint without all the extra IO that really isn't needed for something like this.

 

Yaaay another emulation box...

 

Ahahah this one looks confortable and portable... are there better ones out yet?

 

I generally like these kind of ideas, I'd love to build one myself though. There's loads of tutorials floating around on the web, which all kinda look similar to this one. I guess what seperates this from the rest is indeed the fact they build it for you. $119 seems like a good price for the very early bird offering, too bad they are all gone now.

 

I'm not against emu devices per say, I just don't see the need for commercial ones. Much more satisfying to build one yourself. And Pi-based ones are usually especially easy to slap together -> even less need for prebuilt ones. But hey, to each his own.

If you're ok with going down the middle "putting about a dozen prefabbed components together" road, the pigrrl zero looks nice imho.

 

PiGRRL looks nice indeed, I also like this one:

http://www.sudomod.com/game-boy-zero-custom-parts-guide-part-1/

 

Woah i wish i could have the time and skills for a project like that gameboy zero

 

Well, skills is relative. I wouldn't be able to figure everything out on my own in a reasonable amount of time, but reproducing is not that difficult seeing there are loads of great tutorials available. Now to find some time though...

 

The founding was already succesful, and by the look of it, it may reach a stretch goal of having a hdmi out port in the machine.

If i'll get a sample i'll review it for you all guys.

 

So... By the end of October, he has to have made and shipped at minimum 100 of these consoles (judging by all the backers), according to his estimated delivery date. That means he has to source 100 raspberry pi zero w's (around £9 each), 100 cases (around £5 each, according to the average prices on aliexpress), 100 16GB micro sd cards (around £10 each...for official cards at least), 100 LCD's (around £25 each(again, aliexpress), 100 Gameboy Game cases (around £35, aliexpress), 100 game controller boards (around £20 per board. unless he's rolling his own, in which case he may be able to get a decent deal... maybe) and then the batteries, speakers, amps and other misc items.

So, around £11,000 (probably a little higher due to the misc stuff). Thats not including the chance of failed components, so, extra better be ordered..

Building and shipping 100 units within 2 months by himself is....ambitious. Even writing the sd cards will take a considerable amount of time, even if he sets 1 up, then copies the image and tries to write the image to the rest of the sd cards.. That won't go smoothly, I can promise you that. (no 2 sd cards are equal...).

I guess it is possible. But for a profit of around £3000 - £4000 ... is all that time and effort actually worth it? Hell, I just remembered the shipping costs! Shipping all over the world is going to cost him a ton too.

There is one thing I haven't touched on here. He's promising "Streaming TV/Media Player" and "Linux Console". Linux console, I assume, is just the terminal (X). Streaming TV/Media Player on a raspberry pi zero w is unlikely to be a pleasant experience. Streaming can potentially be fine, but will be slow to start up and get something actually streaming. Media playback, at least doing the rendering of the video on the pi itself, will be slow to unplayable. unless you're going to be streaming 720p or lower resolutions.

 

Just answering the little i know;

He's told me he's already starting with a new compact pcb that will make everything fast. I have no clue about prices of components, the streaming/media player is thanks to a lightweight linux. i think it was mentioned lxde or something like that...

If you have an interest on the matter i may ask for further infos.

 

> having a hdmi out port in the machine.
> leaving a hole in the case so you can get to the hdmi port that's already present on all pis.
ftfy

 

Well i presume it'll need something to bring it to the drilled hole since I highly doubt the position is on the perfect side of the machine, be it a prolongation or a mod or an extra board, that I can't tell...

Not sure where are you going with this remark since ask know a pi has hdmi already...?