BitBuilt's 2025 Summer Building Competition

cheese

the tallest memer in town
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The past year has given us a new wave of mods and consoles! Cy? 64. Saturn? Split in half. Wii? Undervolted. But now it's time for the 10th Summer Building Competition! As always, first time modders and enthusiasts alike are all welcomed to enter their projects and show off their skills!

Information

The 2025 Summer Building Competition officially begins June 1st and ends November 1st. After concluding the community will vote and results will be revealed shortly after.

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The categories will be similar to last year

Innovation - Got an idea nobody's tried before? New stuff is always cool, and will gain you massive props

Case Design/Aesthetic - Pouring hours and hours into designing and producing a case deserves praise.

Internals - We've all seen portables that look as pretty inside as they do on the outside. Electing to make your internals clean will gain you some votes and cred among the community.

Features and Functionality - Despite the fact that some projects are mods of consoles over a decade old, it doesn't mean they shouldn't have modern amenities. Managing to sneak in extra features, more functionality (original or not), and whatever else you can come up with can gain you extra points.

Rules

Our goal each year is to make the contest as fair as possible for everyone participating and we hope that these rules achieve that goal. We've changed rule 4 to be similar to years before 2024, take note!

1. All work must be done by you and only you. Commissions involving your contest project are not allowed at any point throughout the duration of the contest while you remain a participant. This includes board trimming, PCB design, case design, wiring of any kind, etc. If you are unsure of what this includes, please ask before going ahead with it to prevent you from being disqualified.

2. A worklog with pictures must be made on the forums. A piece of paper or index card must also be visible in photographs with some variation of “BitBuilt 2025 Summer Building Competition” along with your forum username displayed on it.

3. At the end of the contest, a video of your project is required and must be submitted along with your final contest submission. If your project is not fully functional by the close of the competition, try to demo as much as you can. If it isn't functional at that time, you can include clips recorded through the competition showing the progress towards a finished project.

4. Your entry must not be an entry from previous years completed or otherwise. It must have been started in or after April of 2025.

5. When making your thread select the "Worklog" prefix. Once your entry is complete and also has your submission video, edit the original post to change the prefix to "Completed".
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A tip of advice: Remember your peers will be voting for you. Making a clean work log and or a spending time on your entry video may prove beneficial in portraying your submission to voters!

By registering for the contest, you’re letting us know that you agree to the rules stated above. Breaking the rules (namely the first one) put you at risk of being disqualified from the contest and banned from BitBuilt events and or services. Any necessary punishment is decided by BitBuilt staff and is final. When in doubt about anything, reach out to myself, @CrashBash or a staff member on the forums / Discord and we will advise you or direct you to someone who can aid you.

Registration

In order to register, you must first log in, go to your account dropdown menu, and click “Account Upgrades”.

After that, you can click “Purchase” under the Available Upgrades section and pay the $2 entry fee. Once you have paid the fee, you will automatically be given a banner to denote that you are a contestant in the Competition!

Once you are ready make your worklog in the 2025 Summer Contest subforum. See rule 5 for thread prefix rules.

Make sure to pay attention to the stickies here on the forums as well as the Discord Channel. Any and all new information, such as the prizes, will be announced in those places respectively.

Good luck to all!


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This year's competition has been sponsored by PCBWay, who has provided coupons for those who entered! In addition, they will be providing coupons for the winners to use for future projects!

In addition to these coupons, anyone can share their projects in PCBWay's community, and PCBWay will provide 10% commission on any orders received through the community store. They have provided additional details here.


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Edit from CrashBash:
Voting now open:
https://forms.gle/oskULz9btGWtWVq39

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Edit from Crash:
Voting has closed and winners announced! Check the results here:
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/threads/2025-summer-competition-results-and-prizes.7124/
 
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It is time. Thanks papa cheese and crash for organizing.
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Uhm achktually it's CYXTY FOUR not "Cy? 64."

Joking aside, I'm absolutely honored to be part of the announcement post here!

Looking forward to seeing what you all come up with as always!
 
I have a question
if I take a console of any kind and install it, let's say in a toy, I could do it even if I hadn't designed the case, I would still have to make modifications to the toy so that it could fit but it wouldn't be a portable console so to speak, it would still fulfill its functions as a console, in this case in a toy, I just want to know before entering the contest.
So that you understand me better, I want to recreate this. I have the STL files for the car, but I didn't design it, although I would have to cut it, modify it and design some things to be able to install the PlayStation 2 motherboard.
 

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sorry for double posting
but i have to ask this again since I didn't get an answer before I would like to know if I tried to recreate the PS2 Need for Speed Most Wanted Special Console would I be disqualified for using something I didn't design, I bought the STL files that someone else designed, but the STL files are to create an RC car, so it's just the body and nothing else, I would have to modify several things to be able to try to install the PS2 motherboard and the rest of things so that it can work as a console, I just want to know if I can before starting this project.
 
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sorry for double posting
but i have to ask this again since I didn't get an answer before I would like to know if I tried to recreate the PS2 Need for Speed Most Wanted Special Console would I be disqualified for using something I didn't design, I bought the STL files that someone else designed, but the STL files are to create an RC car, so it's just the body and nothing else, I would have to modify several things to be able to try to install the PS2 motherboard and the rest of things so that it can work as a console, I just want to know if I can before starting this project.
Unfortunately no, this would be using someone else's work for the case design, even if you would need to modify it to work with the console.
 
I was thinking of making a PS2 "portable" in the same way I did with my "CRTreamcast" project (over on the Sega section of the forum). However, I'd probably use the same OpenSCAD script as a starting point. The OpenSCAD source and the resulting STLs are up on my Github, but I assume that wouldn't be allowed since it's not technically started in April?
 
I was thinking of making a PS2 "portable" in the same way I did with my "CRTreamcast" project (over on the Sega section of the forum). However, I'd probably use the same OpenSCAD script as a starting point. The OpenSCAD source and the resulting STLs are up on my Github, but I assume that wouldn't be allowed since it's not technically started in April?
It says in the first post that registration closed on June 30th and that no registration can be made after that date, so you'll probably need to wait until next year.
 
I was thinking of making a PS2 "portable" in the same way I did with my "CRTreamcast" project (over on the Sega section of the forum). However, I'd probably use the same OpenSCAD script as a starting point. The OpenSCAD source and the resulting STLs are up on my Github, but I assume that wouldn't be allowed since it's not technically started in April?
Yeah that would be a no go for the comp. All work of yours regarding your entry must have commenced no earlier than April 2025.

What you can do is make a sequel to an older project. We allow V2 type entries; the requirement is that the V2 must be a substantial evolution from its predecessor that doesn't re-use any "work" from the original project. It just can't be the original project in a new box with an incremented name. If the original was all spaghet hookup wire and hot glue, then making some basic custom PCBs and an all new case with screw posts fits the bill.

RoseDagger's GB Adwiince v3 is an example of this.
 
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I assumed so, but thank you for clarifying! I'll keep the PS2 project as a side project, but will have to think of something new for the contest. :rothink:
 
Oh and because the definition of "commission" in Rule 1 was a common point of confusion last year: It is entirely allowed to use and customise any open source project or publicly purchaseable component in your builds, and you may use fab-house services like PCBWAY to make your custom PCBs, have your case 3D printed, stickers printed, vinyl sheets cut, etc.

Basically:
  • Buying a product "off the shelf" from a public store like 4layertech/electronshepherd/flashfi.re/ebay/amazon/aliexpress/.etc and using/modifying them yourself = Good
  • Using/modifying an open source project like Thundervolt or Shinobi Scaler, or using open source 3D scans/modding resources as a part of your case design = Good
  • Getting your comp entry case (that you designed) printed using a paid public 3D printing service = Good
  • Consulting with others to ask questions or be taught how to do something that you need for your build = Good
  • Asking others for a proofread/sanity check of your work (as long as all resultant corrections and changes are done by you alone) = Good

  • Having someone make something like a Thundervolt for you, paid or unpaid = Bad
  • Having someone assemble something like a Thundervolt for you using components and boards that you purchased, paid or unpaid = Bad
  • Having someone make modifications to any files or physical components related to your project on your behalf = Bad
  • Having someone make something like a sticker or paint a design onto your case for you = Bad
  • Having someone perform a service like trimming a board for you, performing physical troubleshooting with a board, or doing wiring/assembly for you = Bad
  • Purchasing something that has had "work" done on it already, like a pre-trimmed board on Aliexpress = Bad
  • Re-using project specific resources from one of your previous contest entries = Bad (you may re-use any open source resources, and basic components like batteries are fair game)
 
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Original post updated with voting link!
 
OP updated with results post.
 
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