Zeroboy XP Is a Gorgeous DIY 3D-Printed Handheld Video Game Emulator
Redditor Federal-Reception394’s Zeroboy XP is too gorgeous to ignore.
The DIY community is full of more handheld video game emulator projects than you can shake a stick at — even if you have an unusually shakable stick. It isn’t usually news when someone posts about a new build, but some stand out. That is definitely the case with redditor Federal-Reception394’s Zeroboy XP, which is too gorgeous to ignore.
The Zeroboy XP has a style that is vaguely reminiscent of the original Nintendo Game Boy, but like it is from an alternate universe in which Apple purchased Nintendo some time in the late 1980s. The eye-catching enclosure is Federal-Reception394’s own design, which they 3D printed. They modeled that in Autodesk Fusion, printed it in ABS, performed vapor smoothing on it, and then painted it. The logos and decals were printed separately and then applied.
The components inside are typical for a handheld emulation console. There is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W running RetroPie, a lithium battery with charger, an LCD screen, and controls connected via a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 development board.
But there is one aspect to the electronics that is interesting and that is the “PCB” for the buttons. Federal-Reception394 didn’t have the ability to make an actual PCB, so they 3D printed a substrate and embedded copper rivets in that. They were then able to solder the buttons to those rivets for precise and sturdy positioning.
The result is a very impressive handheld console perfect for emulating Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games.