Kenneth Loebenberg's RetroPie Build Has Something Unique: An Angry Watermelon Case

Maker Kenneth Loebenberg has, like many before him, built a retro-gaming station from a Raspberry Pi single-board computer (SBC) — but, unlike any other, this one is shaped like a watermelon. An angry watermelon.

"My brother is a teacher and wanted a cool game console that played older games for the kids to play in his STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math] class," Loebenberg explains of the unusual machine's origins. "I am an artist and game dev, So I sculpted this in Blender and resin printed it. It has a [Raspberry] Pi 4 in it and is running RetroPie."

The computing hardware — possibly the most popular single-board computer running the most popular all-in-one retro game emulation system, controlled using wireless 8BitDo Bluetooth controllers — plays second-fiddle here, though, to the housing in which it lives: an anthropomorphic watermelon, 3D printed as an eye-catching housing.

"The [Raspberry] Pi is glued in with USB facing down to the bottom," Loebenberg explains. "I used an SD Card extender to route that to the bottom so its changeable. In the back of the watermelon on the bottom there is a notch for the extender cords to go through for HDMI and power. There is enough room between the bottom of the Pi and the case to fit a USB dongle if you don't want to use the Bluetooth."

To finish off the build, Loebenberg used his animation skills to put together a splash screen which sees the annoyed-looking watermelon weaving backwards and forwards while RetroPie loads in the background. Once loaded, an emulator and game are chosen using a similarly watermelon-styled menu to complete the theme.

More information on the project is available on Loebenberg's Reddit thread, while the 3D-print files have been published to Cults3D under the CULTS — Private Use license. "It's a pain in the ass to assemble," Loebenberg admits. "I could have made it bigger and easier to build in, but I wanted to keep the size down."