Hey everyone, it's Colin. How's it going?
The RetroPie platform has proven to be a popular option
when it comes to video game emulation.
This time, we'll look at a product that lets you put it
in the palm of your hand.
This is the GPi Case from RetroFlag who sent one
to me for this review.
It looks like a generic Game Boy clone,
but there is much more going on here.
It features four face buttons instead of the usual two,
and there are shoulder buttons integrated into the back.
Its styling is just like that of the original DMG,
but it's actually a bit smaller in size.
It even has what looks like a cartridge slot on the back,
but that's what separates the GPi Case from ordinary clones.
The case is actually a fully functional housing for a
Raspberry Pi Zero single board computer,
and that cartridge slot is where it gets installed.
Building handheld consoles out of the Pi Zero is nothing new,
but the GPi promises to make it quick and easy
with no soldering or previous modding experience necessary.
A small ribbon cable gets connected to one of the Pi's USB ports,
then it's dropped into the housing and held in with four standoffs.
What makes the setup solderless is the clever use of pogo pins on this adapter board.
They're spring-loaded and make contact with the header connections on the Pi Zero.
The ribbon cable gets connected to the adapter
then the case can be closed up, screwed together
and finally inserted into the slot on the back of the case.
And if you're wondering, no, it doesn't work
if you stick a Game Boy game into that slot connector instead.
That's all there is to the hardware assembly,
but some software setup has to be done too.
A microSD card needs to have RetroPie installed on it
and then some patch files from Retroflag get copied over and set up with a script.
The patch changes the RetroPie config to work properly with the GPi's screen.
Then, just drop the card into the Pi Zero through the slot on the side and you're ready to power it on.
From there, it's a typical RetroPie experience
with access to multiple emulators, though because of the Pi Zero's limited CPU performance,
some platforms will play better than others.
The case is also compatible with the Pi Zero W which offers Wi-Fi
and that's the model I'd recommend going with.
I'll explain why in a bit.
A neat trick carried over from RetroFlag's other
Raspberry Pi Cases is safe shutdown.
If you install the necessary software, the Pi will recognize
when the power switch has been turned off and shut itself down gracefully.
This prevents the SD card from becoming corrupted.
The build quality of the case is impressive.
The D-pad and action buttons are solid and responsive
and the built-in speaker is clear and reasonably loud.
Plus, there's a headphone jack at the bottom.
The screen is a 2.8" IPS panel with a resolution of 320 x 240
and has nicely saturated colors and good brightness,
with an adjustment wheel on the left side.
The case runs off of three AA batteries
or you can plug in power through a jack on the side.
With a set of standard 1900 mAh Eneloop rechargeables,
I got exactly four hours of runtime with the console
playing the demo loop of Wario Land 4 at moderate brightness.
When the batteries died though, things got weird
and I managed to grab my camera just in time.
The power light was flashing to indicate that time was running out
and a few minutes later, the Pi began continuously rebooting.
Eventually, the screen became garbled, then went black.
It would have been nice if RetroFlag had set up the safe shutdown feature
to trigger when the batteries got low.
Really, I couldn't find anything obviously wrong with the design of the GPi Case,
but there are some other nitpicks and missed opportunities.
The shoulder buttons are awkward in their placement;
They feel just a bit too low to use comfortably
and there's not much travel to their switches.
At least RetroFlag put tactile bumps on them to make it easier to feel where they are
since they otherwise blend in with the case design
External power support is great, but the case uses a small DC barrel jack.
A cable is included that converts it to USB,
but simply putting a USB port on the side would have been much better.
Especially since there's already a micro USB port hidden inside the battery compartment
just for firmware updates to the case.
And along those lines, there's no way to connect
USB devices, like a keyboard to the Pi Zero itself when it's installed,
so all setup has to be done either through config files, copied over to the SD card
or through SSH from another computer.
Using the Pi Zero W connected to Wi-Fi makes this much easier.
Finally, the use of AA batteries has its pros and cons.
They're convenient enough, but a lithium-ion pack would no doubt offer better run time.
That said, it would have also come at an increase in cost.
The GPi Case goes for $70 US
and you need to supply the Raspberry Pi and SD card yourself,
but everything else needed to assemble the system is included with the case, even a screwdriver.
So for under a 100 bucks, you can put together
a powerful and flexible handheld emulator in just a few minutes.
And considering the features the case offers, I think the price is fair.
With all that in mind, if you just want a Game Boy with a better screen
this may not be the solution for you.
As well as the GPi Case works, it's still ultimately a RetroPie setup,
with all the relative complexity that entails.
It doesn't start up instantly like an original game cartridge does
and some emulators can look a bit soft due to image interpolation.
It requires some work to set up and customize
so assembling the hardware, as easy as it is, really is just part of the story.
But while it may not be of interest to the most casual of gamers,
it's a great way to get into RetroPie in general.
There's lots of flexibility and plenty of tutorials out there on how to set up the software.
The GPi Case hardware simply removes the barrier to entry of building a handheld console.
And it looks, and works great, while doing so.
Thank you to RetroFlag for sending a GPi Case my way to check out.
As usual, I'll include links in the description with more info.
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and as always, thanks for watching.