A Portable Gaming Console That Dieter Rams Would Drool Over

You can clearly see how the R-KAID-D SK-4 is a direct homage to two of Rams’ designs in particular: the Braun SK-4 record player from 1956 and the Braun T3 pocket radio from 1958. Both are quintessential Rams pieces, and rely heavily on clean lines and simple, pleasing proportions. They lack ornate flourishes, and instead favor stark minimalism. Hultén has managed to mimic that style perfectly with his R-KAID-D SK-4 portable video game console, which has a wood-accented enclosure similar to the SK-4 and controls reminiscent of the T3.

Hultén doesn’t provide any detail about what is going on internally or how it was made, but our guess is that the R-KAID-D SK-4 is powered by a Raspberry Pi single-board computer (SBC) running RetroPie or some variation with EmulationStation to emulate retro games. It has a joystick that can be removed when the console is stored, and six arcade buttons. Four additional buttons are used for system functions. Games are displayed on a roomy LCD display, and there is a built-in speaker with volume control for audio. Gaming isn’t normally considered a sophisticated endeavor, but if there is any way to change that, it’s with his beautiful portable console.