{"id":2751,"date":"2026-08-12T00:12:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/luxregina.com\/portfolio\/?p=2751"},"modified":"2026-08-12T02:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T02:31:10","slug":"building-a-handheld-console","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/luxregina.com\/portfolio\/building-a-handheld-console\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a handheld console"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garage collective<\/span> | Building a handheld console<\/h2>\n

Client<\/strong>: Garage Collective
\nPublished<\/strong>: Physical project
\nRole<\/strong>: Designer and Maker<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Context<\/h5>\n

I love making games! My main job is to teach how to make<\/a> games, and my main hobby is to make them<\/a>, at Garage Collective. Needless to say that a majority of my time awake<\/strong>, I’m thinking about games, playing them or making them \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

After releasing DrakkenRidge<\/a>, in September 2025, I needed a break from VR<\/a>. I’ve been mulling the idea of making new 2D “pixel-art” games, a return to my old field of expertise!
\nFor that purpose, I’ve re-installed a bunch of emulators (mostly RetroPie) and been re-engaging with various Genesis\/Megadrive\/SNES\/GBA titles, for “inspiration” as they say! (and yes, Zelda The Minish Cap<\/strong> graphics on GBA absolutely rule!).<\/p>\n

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Only “some” of the hardware that I own…<\/p><\/div>\n

Aside the Raspberry Pie that runs my emulators, I also own a MASSIVE variety of consoles, handhelds, etc. that allow me to play retro-games as the Good Lord intended (!!!). Some are my consoles of old, that stayed in a pristine condition (I’m pretty caring after my stuff) and some others are new emulators, or dedicated machines like several Evercade<\/a> or a variety of HyperMegaTech<\/a> (yep, that’s the name!) consoles.<\/p>\n

When it comes to gaming, I’m as much in love with the hardware as in with the software (I also love, and made<\/a>, some board games).<\/p>\n

I know how to make games, but never tried to make hardware<\/strong>… Something that had to be corrected!<\/p>\n

The opportunity<\/h5>\n

One of the class that is offered in the department I teach in, GAME 347<\/a>, introduces students to physical computing<\/strong>, the world of microcontrollers, etc. It’s a class that follows another I used to teach<\/a> (but haven’t in a long time) and that I’ve always been curious about. Well, this summer of 2026, it was offered as a Summer class<\/strong>, and since I wasn’t teaching at that time, I was free to sit-in: I had no more excuse to not explore my interest for the hardware side!<\/p>\n

First Steps<\/h5>\n
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A rudimentary Star Wars game, inspired by the Kessel Run : how may parsecs will you be able to run?<\/p><\/div>\n

No surprise, the class was a blast to take! The first couple assignments were about getting familiar with Microcontrollers, an opportunity for me to prototype a very simplistic Arduino game, the “Kessel Run” that plays the iconic Star Wars tune<\/a> when the game ends.
\nHowever, the bulk of the class is dedicated at producing a much more ambitious final project. In my case, building a console, from scratch, that can play the type of games I teach my students to make in my Introduction to Game Dev<\/a> class.<\/p>\n

So let’s dive into it.<\/p>\n

The Tutorial: How to build the console<\/span><\/h2>\n

First, here’s a quick introduction of what this tutorial is about:<\/p>\n