There’s a good chance that if you own a Raspberry Pi or two, you’re probably also the owner of a 3D printer, or know how to get access to one through a local print farm or a friend.
If one of your Pi projects includes a RetroPie (or its alternatives) then you can do something fascinating to give it those final touches.
Mini SNES / NES-style Raspberry Pi case
Legally distinct, of course
3D printing a Raspberry Pi case is probably the most popular way to encase these little computers, unless you absolutely must have the official Pi case or want a nice acrylic case that shows off the circuitry.
But, if you’re going to print a case for your RetroPie setup, why not have a little fun with it? Check out this cool NES-inspired design by That_Guy on Maker World pictured above. There are lots of examples like this where you can make your Pi look like a retro console and get the vibe just the way you like.
It can be as simple as a snap-on case, or you can go so much further, adding extra electronics that help you connect to analog video, or having a decorative cartridge mechanism.
As with many of these projects, you’ll need to choose the right filament, and if you have a multicolor 3D printer, you’ll have a much easier time of it.
9/10
- Build Volume
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256 × 256 × 256 mm
- Connectivity
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Wi-Fi
The ELEGOO Centauri Carbon 2 builds on the solid foundation of its predecessor and adds an affordable, effective multicolor system to the mix.
Game Boy-style handheld RetroPie
Now you can make a Game Man for those bigger hands
Handheld emulator consoles are all the rage and companies like Anbernic make really nice, if rather expensive models you can buy off the shelf. But, if you have the skills to put together a Raspberry Pi Zero build with a screen and some controls, you can use a 3D printer to create a case to hold it all.
You might not get that nice smooth injection-molded finish, but I think it’s a great way to make a handheld that fits your needs specifically. Size it to your comfort level, and give it the features and decorations you want. It’s going to be a more involved project, and you might have to learn how to solder, but in the end you’ll have a handheld you can truly call your own.
Altoids Tin micro-console
A fresh concept
We’re going to stick with handhelds for a second, but it’s with good reason. While creating your own retro handheld casing with a 3D printer means total freedom to make it fit your needs, what if you flipped the challenge?
That’s what the popular mintyPi build is about, Where the challenge is to build a Pi Zero emulator into something like an Altoids tin. The screen cover and deck are 3D printed, and you need some pretty good Tetris skills to make it all fit.
Retro CRT-style mini TV enclosure or microcomputer replica
At least this won’t break your back
Everyone knows that if you want your retro games to look and feel right, you need to play them on a CRT. Unfortunately, that’s not practical or possible for everyone, but you can at least make your display look like a CRT display, if not perform like one.
The above (paid) project to make a CRT style case for the Amiga 500 Mini is a good example of what I mean, and there are lots of similar projects for the Pi. Check out Ricardo Sappia’s TVArgenta project to turn a Pi into a retro TV. There’s no reason you couldn’t just run RetroPie that way and have your device look like something Super Mario Bros. was made for.
One project I am seriously considering for myself is making a tiny Mac from a Raspberry Pi Zero. This gives you a fully emulated macOS experience, but it would also be a sick RetroPie machine and all you’d have to do is swap out the SD card when you want to switch.
Cyberdeck with retro-futuristic vibes
The last type of project that fits the whole RetroPie vibe perfectly is to build a Pi-powered “Cyberdeck.” In case you didn’t know, Cyberdecks are fictional computers from the popular retro-futuristic Cyberpunk genre. They’re the ’80s-looking personal computers elite hackers carry around.
Pixel art and 2.5D boomer shooters are perfectly at home in one of these decks, and who knows maybe you can also use it for something more useful when in-between those nostalgia-fueled gaming sessions.
This is just the start
Be careful while you browse the possibiltiies for your RetroPie system. Before you know it you’ll be making your own arcade stick from scratch or actually investing in a real (heavy) CRT. When that retro bug bites, it can bite hard!
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