Hardware how hard would it be to develop a gba pi machine

[Dominator211]

This is probably one of my useless ideas that I will never pursue but I'm gonna make a post anyway.....

I came up with an idea when I was falling asleep last night what if I made one of the retro gaming machines for gba.Ii know that they already exist but mine will have a few perks if they dont exist already


- it would have a custom operating system

- Would use a Pi 0 board

- could play GBA games, possibly GB and GBC games in another revision

- it would use ROMS

- Internal storage (if possible)

- Users could import more ROMS from ROM downloading sites

- Users could scroll through their games with the OS

How hard would this be to devlop and how much would it cost to make just a prototype and how much soldering would be involved

 

[Mikemk]

Writing a custom operating system is hard, better to use Linux with a custom UI.
Other than that, this is all standard.
It would cost $5 + tax/shipping + 3d printer costs.

 

[0x40]

How hard would this be to devlop and how much would it cost to make just a prototype and how much soldering would be involved

Not hard at all, the cost of a Pi, SD card, and controller, 0.

 

[Dominator211]

Writing a custom operating system is hard, better to use Linux with a custom UI.
Other than that, this is all standard.
It would cost $5 + tax/shipping + 3d printer costs.

linux UI hmm what do you recommend

 

[Boogieboo6]

I'd personally use Retropie. It has more emulators and looks really nice and clean. I've been wanting to make my own GBA Pi, but I've been wanting to do it in an SP. I haven't done it myself because of the cost of a screen and the general difficulty of the project, specifically buttons.

 

[Mikemk]

linux UI hmm what do you recommend

If the goal is to write a custom UI, then I suppose I recommend writing a custom UI.

 

[osaka35]

What are your goals in creating it? Just so you can turn it on and it look like you turned on a GBA?

 

[Dominator211]

What are your goals in creating it? Just so you can turn it on and it look like you turned on a GBA?

ehh not really it would boot up into a custom linux UI and the player could selcet the game they wanted to play

 

[tbb043]

It's been done.

One example
http://hackaday.com/2015/04/22/retropie-portable-looks-like-snes-gameboy/

It'll play a lot more than just GBA, if that's not obvious, but there's not really a reason to not have full retropie support in such a handheldized pi.

 

[reddragon105]

None of the things you listed are things that haven't already been done, and done well, so it would be easy for you to make your own by following what someone else has done.

There are some really nice examples out there, such as this one, based on an original GBA with an upgraded backlit screen - - but there are also some examples using a GBA SP.

Assuming you have basic electronics/soldering skills, all you need to do is take a GBA, scoop out the insides, and attach the screen and buttons to the Pi somehow. Give it a Wi-Fi adapter and you'll be able to add ROMs by downloading them/transferring them over LAN.

Unless you intend to write your own operating system completely from scratch, the software side will be very easy - just install EmulationStation/RetroPie/Recalbox on the Pi. Not only will it play GBA, GBC and GB games but it will also be able to play NES, SNES, Master System and Mega Drive games, maybe even Playstation and Dreamcast games (not sure how well those emulators run on the Zero), and if you have a PC with a compatible nVidia graphics card it will also be able to stream PC games via Moonlight. Then you could also throw Kodi on there and use it to watch videos and listen to music as well. The possibilities are endless!