I have recently been interested in getting a physical console for me to play my games. What are some good options? Is it worth it to put together my own? The more info the better. Thanks I advance!
4 Likes
If you don’t have much Experience in Hardware I don’t recommend D I Y-ing, most of the things cost From 50 to 60. I’ll give my opinion on some that caught my eye.
Xtron Pro : A Unique one in the fact that the screen can physically rotate, it can also play NES games. It is 84.99 right now, which may be out the budget (it is for me, that’s for sure)
Meowbit : A Cheap Portable with a Purr-etty nice design with micro:bit compatibility
Kitronik ‘Wide Boy’ (that’s the name I thought of because it doesn’t really have a officially one) : It’s wide and can be easier to fit into a hand. It’s around 55 right now.
Adafruit PyGamer : Think the Wide Boy with a analog stick. It’s around the same price with less wide build.
Adafruit PyBadge : It’s a Console, It’s a Badge, It’s the PyBadge! It’s the cheapest at 40 dollars that you can fit into any pocket.
If you do have experience in this area, I recommend just getting getting a Raspberry Pi Zero and following this : https://arcade.makecode.com/hardware/raspberry-pi/setup
2 Likes
well I have
and I think its cool it can vibrate
2 Likes
I have a bunch of them, and I also built my own… so far, to purchase, the best one is the Kitronic Arcade Max > https://kitronik.co.uk/blogs/resources/introducing-the-new-arcade-max-for-makecode-arcade-from-kitronik
It has a big screen, the size of the Elecfreak for education ( https://shop.elecfreaks.com/products/elecfreaks-retro-makecode-arcade-for-education ) but the Elecfreak is a bit underpowered, IMHO whereas the Arcade MAX is the one that seems much more powerful than any other console I own. Make sure you get the MAX, if I’m not mistaken, the older products from Kitronik use a less powerful processor.
Of course, you can also go the Rapsberry Pi way… Soon, I’ll try to run Makecode on a Pi Zero to see how it runs…
The description says it has a 320x240 screen, does this mean it supports higher resolution? I also want to know if it supports color palette changing, as that is a big requirement for me.
1 Like
No, hardware is always limited to 160x120, it gets upscaled 2x. Color palette changing is definitely supported on hardware though, it’s just changing what 16 colors can appear on the screen
2 Likes
I got one 2 weeks ago and it’s a kitten bot meowbit it’s like 50 dollars and it’s solid but if you want the best bang for ur buck you could create your own and the best money can buy is probably raspberry pi I think cotton pro is good too tho
1 Like
i’d figure out what games you actually want to play first tho - that seems to change the recommendation way more than the whole diy thing
1 Like