Abstract

Lately, my busy schedule has not permitted me to be able to play video games in the comfort of my own room as often as I would like. However, I find myself with some free time during the day when I’m not in my room. While I do have a portable game system, and a cell phone that plays games, I thought it would be cool to play older games that would require me to be in my room to play. This inspired me to transform my Raspberry Pi 2 into a portable video game system. This will allow me to play video games such as Super Mario Bros. on the NES, or even Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation on the go. The main software to download for this is EmulationStation, which allows one to play any game that is downloaded, provided that there is an emulator installed for it as well. In addition to this software, buttons were connected to the Pi using its GPIO (General Purpose Input and Output) pins in conjunction with a circuit board. This allows the games to be controlled without the need of an external device such as a keyboard. Lastly, a 3D printed case for my Raspberry Pi was needed. This case houses the Pi, the screen, and power supply. It also has cutouts for the buttons on the PCB to control the games. This case makes it so that the Raspberry Pi and all of its connected components are in a compact and neat arrangement, making the video game system portable. In the future, I want to add more games. Currently I only have Super Mario Bros. 3 and Crash Team Racing. These games show the minimum and maximum capability of the Raspberry Pi. I want to also implement my own GUI. This will allow me to not only access EmulationStation, but also the games that came preinstalled with Raspbian. This project will let manufacturers see the capabilities of small hardware, and may shrink the size of game consoles in the future.