Gman just keeps getting better and better. For this year’s contest, Gman entered the wonderful world of clamshell design. The only thing that rivals its beauty is its features, so let’s get into it!
Gman used a handful of custom PCBs last year, but this year he went all out. Just about everything that could be mounted on a custom board is, and the controller is no exception. The above board’s primary feature is a custom PS2 controller emulator dubbed “PS2+”. Designed from the ground up by Gman, along with Matthew and Dave, PS2+ is still in development right now. Once finalized, it will change PS2 portablizing as we know it. This board also features controls for screen settings through the PS2 controller, an audio amp that switches between the built in speakers and headphone seamlessly, indicators for the current battery life, as well as FFC connectors that go to Nintendo Switch joysticks.
Something has to be controlling that battery indicator though, and that something is another PS2 game changer that Gman has been developing – PowerS2. PowerS2 has many features, including full voltage regulation for everything the portable needs, battery protection and regulation, single port charge and play, an on/off button, and the ability to autoboot the PS2. The battery indicator is very smart, and has an RGB LED that cycles through different modes depending on what the user wants and the status of the battery. It’s a pretty slick system overall.
A classic insane Gman trim.
The final internals, organized and tidy as always. But wait, is that a Raspberry Pi? Is the PS2 Razor just being emulated by a Raspberry Pi, or is the Pi being used to run games through Ethernet, in order to avoid the brutal load times that come when trying to run games off of a USB stick? I suppose it’s the latter, but we’ll be keeping an eye on this portable.
It doesn’t get much better than this, at least until Gman builds his next masterpiece. Until then, enjoy looking through his worklog and finished thread for more awesome pictures and details.
Nold joined the forums last year and started off by posting a beautiful, tiny portable GameCube he’d made. From there, he tackled the N64 and built a sweet N64 portable. After that, he moved onto the Dreamcast and put more effort into trimming and portablizing the Dreamcast than anyone before him. What was left for Nold? The Nintendo Wii of course, and Nold wasn’t willing to stick with the basics, no sir! Nold decided that he wanted to start out by seeing how far he could trim the Wii motherboard down. Now, this is something we see a lot. Somebody with no electronics experience will come along, try to perform some crazy untested trim, fail, become discouraged, and leave. It’s a perfect formula with a single exception: Nold. Nold paced himself and started with the OMGWTF trim, hopped on a NAND bend, then reloacted the entire NAND without a breakout board, and then decided to go all out with the OMEGA trim: a trim only done by ShockSlayer himself. Nold pulled it off though, and the thread detailing his trim progress is a testament to his soldering abilities and a really awesome thread to look through. From there, it was time to put one of his various trims into a portable. Welcome to the WooDii, 3rd place portable in the 2018 contest.
It’s a gorgeous device. The two tones of earthy wood and black create a really stunning exterior.
The WooDii also has what is probably the sexiest fan vent ever.
Nold is also extremely talented when it comes to internal wiring. Keeping everything neat is a difficult task, and the anticipation of having a finished portable to play on never helps. Nold was able to stay patient and give his portable stunning internals, a common feature of all his portables.
A close up of that sweet sweet controller wiring. Note the arches used to run wires through. Nold is a man with a plan.
Here’s the trim he used with the regulators and cooling system mounted on. Nold says that the only reason he used an LMAO trim rather than an OMGWTF was that he had already trimmed all his Wiis down to LMAO size. Weird flex, but OK.
This portable is pretty strong features wise. Here’s a list:
Single port charge and play
Bluetooth to play Wii games
Nintendo Switch joysticks and 3DS buttons for a comfortable layout
5 inch screen
3+ hours of battery life
Here’s a video of the final product:
Nold’s full worklog and completed thread can be found here. Nold plans to keep working on his Dreamcast portable, as well as start poking around at the PS2, so expect more greatness from Nold in the future!
Every year, more and more people manage to pound out a project in time for the contest. This year, 10 people met the deadline, some by the skin of their teeth, but there were a lot of really sweet projects that deserve recognition. This article is a compilation of the remaining seven projects, so let’s take a look!
BocuD built a portable he dubbed “The Nintendo Swiitch” last year, but wasn’t able to finish it in time for the contest deadline. This year, BocuD paced himself better and was able to build a brand new portable from scratch. In between snapping NANDs and swooshing traces, the Swiitch 2.0 was completed before the end of the contest, and it’s a pretty nice portable. Built around a 5 inch screen, BocuD’s goal was to keep the portable as small and thin as possible, while still being comfortable.
The final product looks quite nice. Notable features include single port charge and play, controllable screen brightness, component video, and a final thickness of 21mm. Overall, it looks like a pretty professional device! More details can be seen in his worklog.
HackerBilly took us back to the 2000’s with his portable, dubbed “The Extra Thicc Boi”, built from a frankencased ZN-45 case. HackerBilly’s inspiration for this portable was his old pal ShockSlayer, who built a similar looking portable with a GameCube many years ago. What the portable lacks in traditional beauty, it makes up for in nostalgia. According to HackerBilly, the portable is quite comfortable and the perfect machine to play Luigi’s Mansion on the go.
Notable features include a massive battery pack and speakers powerful enough for a home sound system. Check out his video for a more in depth walk through of the final product:
Madmorda took a nontraditional route with her mod this year. Rather than choose a specific console and turn it into a handheld, Madmorda built a controller akin to a Wii U Gamepad that can be used with any console capable of outputting composite video. Madmorda named her creation the Gearshift, based on the fact that the casing for it is an original Sega Gamegear case.
This project is pretty sweet because it allows consoles like the Xbox that can’t be portablized nicely to still be playable on a handheld. Madmorda’s use of a wireless PS2 controller inside means that the Gearshift can be used with any device that has a PS2 controller adapter. This includes the GameCube, the Wii, all Playstation and Xbox consoles, and many others. Of course, the Gearshift features a stunning paint job, because the painting queen leaves no project ugly. Check out her worklog and the video below for more information on this awesome build!
For this year’s contest, Nobble teamed up with sexy, not quite naked cosplayer, Postman to bring us a project that isn’t a portable, but is still awesome nonetheless. The NintenDoom64 is named for BitBuilt’s favorite admin Doom. Oh, and for the Doom game released for N64.
It’s a pretty crazy mod. Nobble and Postman used LEDs, laser etched acrylic, splatter painting, and tons of other techniques to make this mod a reality. In the mood for some more Satan? Check out his worklog here!
Yours truly, GingerOfOz, built a Wii portable titled the Waker of the Wiind, for the Zelda game of my childhood. I chose to focus on aesthetics while trying to still balance features with keeping the internals neat.
It’s my first working Wii portable and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Features include a WiiHUD audio amp, an internal USB drive accessible through micro-usb, and component video. Check out my worklog and the video below to learn more!
Charjame entered his first ever portable into the contest with his Wiisconsin ErgoBoii, another portable reminiscent of portables past, namely in the form of ASCII GameCube controller portables. But rather than destroy a rare and valuable controller for the sake of a portable, Charjame used a combination of frankencasing and 3D printing to create a large, but comfortable portable.
Notable features include original GameCube controls and micro-USB charging . Overall, it’s a pretty solid first portable and we look forward to seeing what Charjame does next!
Last, but not least, is Miceeno, with another one of his stunning N64 portables. This portable is quite unique with his choice of casing material: aluminum. It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen a non-plastic portable, and Miceeno’s was a refreshing change.
The internals are really interesting as you can see how Miceeno has structured the entire case to act as a heatsink for the N64. Other features include an Ultra-VGA board for amazingly crisp video, single port charge and play, and hours upon hours of battery life. Check out his worklog to see how it all came together, and watch the video to see it in action!
That’s all the projects we saw in this year’s contest. While they may have lacked some of the luster that the winners had, these projects are still really awesome examples of how people, who may lack years of electronics experience that portablizing veterans have, can still build portables that are awesome in their own right. We’re still about 8 months from the next summer contest, but if you’ve got an old project that needs reviving, then dust it off and fix it up for Ghosts! And of course, a huge thank you once again to everyone who hosted, participated in, and drooled over this year’s contest.
