Remember the days when the pinnacle of gaming graphics was an 8-bit plumber rescuing a princess and afternoons spent in front of TV screens with a game controller in hand? Retro gaming is experiencing a huge boom these days. While the market is flooded with ready-made emulators, the real magic lies in something else: the ability to build your own arcade machine or handheld exactly to your liking. If you love technology and aren't afraid to pick up a screwdriver, we'll show you how. The two most popular platforms for this task are currently the Raspberry Pi and the ESP32. Which one should you choose and how to get started?
Why build your own retro console instead of buying one?
You might be wondering why spend a weekend building something that can be ordered from China for a few hundred. The answer lies in the maker community itself. While ready-made Chinese consoles work out of the box, they often suffer from cheap workmanship, poor displays, and proprietary software.
A DIY game console gives you absolute freedom. You can 3D print the cover in your favorite colors, choose the quality of the buttons, choose the best TFT or OLED display and load an emulator of old games exactly to your liking. And most importantly: the feeling when you first start a game on a device that you soldered and brought to life yourself is priceless.
Brainstorming: ESP32 vs. Raspberry Pi – what to choose?
The foundation of every console is its “brain.” In the world of tinkering, you’ll primarily be choosing between two directions: a full-fledged microcomputer and a power-efficient microcontroller. Each of these paths offers a slightly different experience and level of building difficulty.
Raspberry Pi: Powerful multimedia center
If you want a console that you can connect via HDMI to a large TV in your living room, the Raspberry Pi is the obvious choice. It's a full-fledged minia computer with enormous computing poweronem.
Thanks to support for systems like RetroPie or Recalbox, the software installation is very user-friendly. The performance of newer models (e.g. Raspberry Pi 4 or 5) is more than enough not only for NES and SNES classics, but can also smoothly emulate more demanding 3D games from the PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, or even arcade machines.
From a hardware perspective, the Raspberry Pi is more about safely stacking compatible modules and cables. However, the price of this performance and convenience is a higher purchase price, larger dimensions, and the need to deal with a stronger power supply from the mains (along with active processor cooling).
ESP32: An Affordable Solution for Handheld Gaming
The ESP32, on the other hand, is a microcontroller. Originally created as a low-cost smart home (IoT) chip, it has become a darling of the handheld console community thanks to its dual-core processor and integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
It is absolutely ideal for projects in the style of the classic GameBoy, which you can take in your hand or on the go. It offers extremely low power consumption, so you can play for hours on a single small Li-Po battery. It handles 8-bit and 16-bit systems perfectly. It may not be a 3D game killer, but for handheld arcade games it is thanks to its miniThe size and purchase price of tens of crowns are unbeatable. However, you have to be prepared for the fact that this path requires a little more DIY skills, you often cannot do without a soldering iron and careful wiring according to the diagrams.
What you will need for assembly (Basic checklist)
The construction is not as complicated as it may seem. If you choose the ESP32 as the basis for your handheld console, you will need these few basic components:onent:
- Development board: The ESP32 module itself.
- Displayer: Color TFT display (e.g. popular resolution 320×240 px with SPI interface).
- Control: Classic keypad buttons for Arduino/ESP projects and possibly an analog joystick.
- Power supply: Li-Po battery and charging module (most often TP4056 chip), which ensures safe charging via USB.
- Sound: Small speaker and I2S audio module for clean audio output.
- Storage: MicroSD card reader module (so you can fit all those ROMs in there).
Beginner's tip: Don't forget to "debounce" the buttons in your code, or use a hardware solution using capacitors to prevent your character from jumping twice in the game with one press!
Software and Recovery: How to Make It All Work
Once you have everything connected (whether test-wired on a solderless patch or hardwired on your own printed circuit board), it's time to get it going.
U Raspberry Pi The procedure is very straightforward. You download the program on your computer Raspberry Pi Imager, use it to upload the system to the SD card RetroPie, insert the card into the "raspberry" and connect it to the TV. The system will guide you through the button settings and you can simply upload your legally acquired game ROMs to it via the local network.
U ESP32 pre-prepared firmwares are used, the most famous of which is the open-source project Retro Go (or Odroid-Go). Using a development environment (e.g. Arduino IDE or directly via a convenient web flasher), you upload the code to the chip via a USB cable. Games are then uploaded to the included SD card in the classic way.
Conclusion and recommendations: Where to start your project?
Building your own retro game console is a fantastic weekend project. Not only will you end up with a fully functional device full of nostalgia, but you'll also learn a lot about the basics of electronics, soldering, and how microcontrollers work. It's the perfect gateway to the world of modern crafting.
Whether you areonec you decide for miniWhether you want to build a cool handheld toy powered by the energy-efficient ESP32 chip, or a powerful TV console with a powerful Raspberry Pi, you don't have to search for components all over the internet. All the necessary development boards, color TFT displays, switches, battery modules and many other electronic components are available.oneYou can find components for your project at Czech electronics and robotics specialists, such as the e-shop https://www.laskakit.cz/ Get your soldering iron ready, choose the right parts and go back to the nineties with us!
