This 11-Year-Old Fit a Gaming System into an Altoids Tin

Raspberry Pi Technology
This 11-Year-Old Fit a Gaming System into an Altoids Tin

Elijah wanted to make some unique gifts. (To see more of his work, you can check out his website.)

He wanted a retro-game console that could be playable both on the road in hotels, guest houses, and summer venues… and could be expanded to use as an internet gaming and retro-computing system.  It plays all the games from Apple II, DOS, all the pre 2006 consoles and handhelds from Nintendo to Sony…  even Vertex games.

altoids

What he came up with is a mashup of the console style raspberry pi builds, the portable builds, the battery box builds, and the USB pi zero expansions.

It was a good way to use the skills he’d picked up over the winter playing with Velleman kits and Pi builds.

It’s durable enough to travel around, hits all the goals of the build, and relies on the existing infrastructure of WiFi and HDMI at travel destinations.

Build time was just under four weeks of kid-time… a few hours every few days.

These are gifts, his next project is to build out a 7″ touchscreen Pi3 platform with a FONA module, batteries, a clock and some other goodies to boot either under Rasbian or the upcoming official Adroid release.

IMG_8814
This was the first road test, this weekend at a holiday inn express between camp sessions — all goals met.

The battery controller is play or charge, not both at the same time. Research indicates there should be a jumper or solder ball solution on the board somewhere. Does anyone have good ideas?

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged
Elijah Horland

Elijah Horland is an avid Minecraft player, an accomplished novice builder, a raspberry pi enthusiast, and an urban explorer. Currently studying kayaking and street-luge for the summer, you can follow his travels at http://www.notabomb.org

View more articles by Elijah Horland
Jeremy Horland

Jeremy Horland is a survivor of the 300 baud era. He spends his time working on edible cake images, UNIX systems, STEM coaching and vaudeville origami-comedy.

View more articles by Jeremy Horland

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK