There aren't enough consoles made out of wood, in our opinion. Sure, the Atari VCS had pretend wood on its front and the guys over at Analogue Interactive have spoiled us rotten with their range of wooden Neo Geo systems, but there's still room in the market for more of this kind of thing - and thankfully the excellently-named Love Hultén agrees.
This Swedish craftsman and gaming addict has taken to Kickstarter to raise funds for his latest project, Pixel Vision. Inspired by the clamshell design of the iconic Game Boy Advance SP, it's a portable system clad in solid American walnut. Hultén has created other wood-based gaming systems in the past, but their high cost has relegated them to little more than one-off, personal projects - Pixel Vision, he hopes, will find a wider audience.
Measuring 95x95x45mm and powered by a Raspberry Pi A+ board, the handheld will focus on emulating classic consoles like the NES, Atari 2600 and Game Boy, amongst others. You'll be able to store over 10,000 games in its memory, and ROMs can be transferred by a USB connection. The 2000mAh power cell supplies eight hours of battery life per charge, and there's even a custom soft case for carrying the device around in. Finally, the 3.5-inch screen has a unique shape which makes it look like an old-fashioned CRT screen.
The production run will be limited to just 500 units. Hultén is after 400,000 Swedish Krona (around £30,000 / $46,000) to fund the work, which he says will all be done by hand, rather than industrial manufacturing. You can watch the entire process in the rather mesmerising Kickstarter pitch video below.
[source kickstarter.com]
Comments 20
That banana's seen better days.
lol, was about to say the same thing.
@ThomasBW84
It's being used as a scale.
(Really.)
If I was gonna consider something like this I'd just go for a GBA SP.
Love the idea but those edges and the button layout must make this pretty painful to use!
@RupeeClock I know, though I think an edible banana would be better
Cool, but those edges look really sharp. Also holy crap this thing is EXPENSIVE.
I don't see the reason why this costs 46k$
I might as well get all the gaming consoles starting from Atari 2600 and their relevant games with that amount of money(and perhaps after getting them all, there might be some spare)
I'm just glad they included a banana for scale, I would've had no other way of judging this thing's size.
@ekreig I see.
Just checked the kickstarter page. Seems to be the right price.
I'll stick with my wooden 3DS, it can do the same and more.
I have that Raspberry PI board he is using and have never once fired it up to see what it can do. I'm just lazy I guess
My word, that looks mightily tasty. And no, I'm not talking about the over-ripe banana!
@davidevoid Yes, that torturous A-B button layout is a non-starter for me, and especially for players who use their index and middle fingers instead of their thumbs. I also have doubts about the longevity of that wooden hinge; even if it doesn't entirely break, you'll soon be finding creative ways to keep the screen from flopping about.
Lovely music by Tangerine Dream..
Banana for scale? lol
Nice little handheld. Though, I doubt I'd buy one.
Its got an old timey TV look to it, but I wouldn't want one.
"Woodn't you like one of these?" That pun was disgustingly bad. I love it.
So it's to play old, emulated games?
... What about copyrights and such, wouldn't this thing be seen as piracy?
Where can I get one of those black/yellow thingys? Looks delicious.
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