What is RaspiBoy?

Learn and Discover

Raspiboy is a fun and intuitive raspberry pi kit that wants to introduce you to electronics and to the world of DIY and makers.

The idea came when I saw on internet projects of "GameBoyZero", awesome raspberry pi based consoles. I was amazed, but it looked pretty difficult to build one, it was a 3 months work and over 150€ for all components! And last, you need an old gameboy to rip open.

RaspiBoy is conceived such that everything fits together perfectly and the build is easy and instructive, it can be done in about 10 minutes and it's without soldering!

Build Your retrogaming console

The RaspiBoy comes as a kit, with easy mounting tutorial on the website and video. Don't worry ! It's super easy and we will guide you step by step. It's very much like a puzzle ! Moreover I hope you will find the tutorial interesting as there will be lot of interesting facts on product design, PCB design, prototyping and so on!

(Why a kit? Because we simply cannot include the raspberry pi zero (5€) as it is only sold 1 raspberry pi zero max per customer.)

And isn't it cool to be able to say that you made your own handheld game station ? 😉

 But wait! You are saying that we can play any game of our childhood, what does it mean exactly? Does the kit comes with games integrated?

I do not supply any software or game, there are several emulation station software that you can install (super easy installation, it will be explained step-by-step in the tutorial!), for example Retropie or RecalBox. You can check them on Youtube for demo !

Those softwares come with a wide range of systems supported. You can have a look here to all the supported systems.

To install a game you need it's ROM file. A ROM file is a computer file containing all the game data. You can legally download ROM of any unlicensed games on the internet.

Then to install the ROM you just have to put the ROM file on a USB-key and plug it into the RaspiBoy. That's it ! (copy and installation is automatic!)

We tried to add as much nice features as possible in this RaspiBoy! Here is an overview :

 

PLAY ON TV

HDMI output : you can connect RaspiBoy to your big TV and video automatically switch from RaspiBoy to your TV!

 

PLAY MULTIPLAYER

Up to 4 players : you can connect USB gamepads on RaspiBoy! (3 players with basic kit and 4 players with extra-usb kit, see below)

  • Speaker + headphone jack + volume wheel to tune volume
  • 4 LED for battery status

 

 And what does the RaspiBoy kit include exactly?

Injected casing

Battery

Memory card

3.5" LCD screen

8BCraft PCB

Extra-USB (option)

 

Gamepad module

Speaker

USB-gamepad (option)

 

***Please note that the Raspberry Pi zero is not included in any kits. It is dirty cheap, only 5$, and we will give you instruction how to get yours. We can't include it in the kit because it is only sold 1 raspberry pi zero per customer/order and we can't get any supply of it !*** CLICK HERE for more info on Raspberry Pi Zero

 

Options

We made our kit as affordable as possible, therefor we had to make some sacrifices. But if you want you can pay a little extra to get those upgrades !

  • BATTERY, ULTIMATE: from 3000mAh to 6000mAh. Don't stop playing with this HUGE battery. (beware the raspiboy will get significantly heavier!).
  • MICRO SD UPGRADE: From 8Go (about 5000 games) to 16Go (about 12500 games) or 32Go
  • EXTRA USB KIT: The original kit only have 2 external USB (not enough room on the electronic board!), so 3 players maximum. With this kit you can add one extra USB connector to your RaspiBoy to play up to 4 players. This additional kit require soldering!
  • USB GAMEPADS: Add extra USB gamepads to play multiplayer. You can connect 2 (or 3 if you have the EXTRA USB KIT).

 

Why getting a Raspiboy? It can be : 

  •  For yourself and to have some good fun with friends.
  •  To make a gift to a special someone. (we'll give you a gift card to put under chrismas tree if you want to give it for christmas!)
  •  To discover the world of hackerspaces, fablabs and raspberry pi with a nice project. We made the tuto very clear and with lot of interresting facts!
  •  To build an arcade station for your kids and impress them with a cool gift they won't forget !

The project started on Kickstarter in December 2016 and raised over 120 000€. Industrialization is done and Raspiboy is now in stock.