The Sexiest Cyberdeck You’ll See Today
Like most other cyberdecks, this one runs on a Raspberry Pi.
A great deal of hacker culture today comes from a few iconic works of fiction, particularly from the “cyberpunk” genre. William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer is arguably the most influential of those. Even more well-known works — at least by modern standards — like The Matrix were heavily inspired by Gibson’s work. The “matrix” is even the name of the internet-like network in Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy. Hackers in that world crack into the matrix using “cyberdeck” computers. That’s why it has become popular for makers to build their own functional cyberdecks, and this is the sexiest cyberdeck build that you’ll see today.
Everyone has different ideas in their head about what exactly a cyberdeck is supposed to look like based on the descriptions in Gibson’s books, but there are a few things they all tend to have in common. The first is that they have an integrated keyboard like most of the home computers from the early ‘80s. The second is that they have a screen attached. The third, and probably most important, is that they look like they were cobbled together from various other machines by the hackers who owned them. This build incorporates all three of those, and manages to also achieve a very cool military prototype aesthetic.
Like most other cyberdecks, this one runs on a Raspberry Pi single-board computer. The housing is a very heavily modified clipboard case. Other components include a touchscreen LCD, a battery powerbank, a USB hub, a speaker, a WiFi adapter, and a compact keyboard. But great components don’t make a great build alone, and it’s the very stylized construction and paint that seal the deal here. The paint job does an amazing job of conveying the prototype look, and the weathering makes it evident that this cyberdeck has been used and abused by a hacker on the go.
A custom loading interface has been created called M.A.T.R.I.C.S. (Mobile Assault Terminal Remote Intrusion Command System), which is shown before getting to the Raspbian desktop. The maker even built a working “Head Mounted Display” (HMD) based on a virtual reality headset that matches the cyberdeck. Finally, a few select stickers make the cyberdeck feel like it’s a part of a real world that’s inhabited by real hackers — and ominous artificial intelligence.