Modder Builds a twenty first Century Gameboy From a Steam Deck

“A few months ago,” writes PhyFawkes, a member of Reddit’s “Steam Deck Modded” neighborhood, “I had the idea: ‘The Steam Deck motherboard seems pretty small. I wonder if you could make a Steam Deck the size of a Gameboy?’”

Ideas like this are a deadly enterprise—for each one which’s concluded, “And the answer was, ‘Yes!’,” there are various greater than have changed into cash sinks which have confirmed harder/impractical/and many others than they ever appeared at first look. Happily, although, PhyFawkes’ mission is trying more and more prone to fall into the previous class than the latter.

As per their post on the r/SteamDeckModded subreddit, the SteamBoy—because the creation known as—seems to be coming alongside very properly certainly. The system places the Steam Deck motherboard right into a Gameboy type issue, which appears bit chonkier than my reminiscence of the actual factor. That’s in all probability extra a difficulty with my reminiscence although; on this demo video, PhyFawkes assures us it’s the identical dimensions as the unique Gameboy, i.e. 32mm, or simply over an inch, thick.

Anyway, to date the mod has mainly concerned connecting up the buttons on the SteamBoy’s case to the precise Steam Deck’s inputs. The one half that’s not working but is the display—which, as PhyFawkes writes, presents the largest problem. This is maybe not stunning, provided that the unique Gameboy got here with an LCD that displayed—rely ‘em, since you actually might—160 x 144 pixels in two-bit “color,” i.e. 4 shades of inexperienced. The SteamBoy model is a full coloration 1200 x 1080 show that was initially meant to be used in VR headsets.

The most recent post on the subject, which was remodeled the weekend, explains that getting the display working would require “a custom adapter PCB [printed circuit board] between the display and motherboard,” in addition to modding the Steam Deck’s BIOS. The adapter is seemingly required as a result of the Steam Deck’s show output doesn’t observe an ordinary pin format, though there’s some debate as as to if a complete customized PCB is required.

In the meantime, because the demo video demonstrates, the system can fortunately output video to an exterior monitor, which is one thing {that a} Gameboy completely couldn’t do: certainly, the idea of doing so in all probability wouldn’t have crossed anybody’s thoughts within the heyday of the unique system. What a time to be alive, and so forth, and so forth.