Last month, my youngest son and I decided to build a retro gaming console with a Raspberry Pi 3 running ReTroPie . I’d come across this Lifehacker article and decided it would be a fun project for the two of us. So we ordered the parts and, once they were delivered, it was only a couple of hours before we were playing games I hadn’t played since I was his age.

My youngest is a huge LEGO fan, so I thought the next logical step would be for us to build an enclosure for our new console. I really wanted to do something that fit with the retro gaming theme, but he wanted to do his own thing. So while he built something pretty cool, he didn’t give me permission to share it. What follows is the case I built…

I’d seen the LEGO NesPi case on the Raspberry Pi site, and while I really liked it, I wanted to build something from scratch. Most of the games we were playing were NES games, so I decided to build my own version of the LEGO NES case.

I decided on some constraints for myself:

I could only use LEGOs we had in the house (we have quite a few) The completed build should look like it is made from LEGOs (studs are ok) It should be easy to get the Raspberry Pi in and out

Here’s what I ended up with:

As you can see the colors don’t all match and it’s not a scale match to the original NES, but I think it captures the essence of the console if that makes sense. Here it is with the door open:

We’re not using the ethernet port so I just exposed the USB ports. It could easily be built with a wider door if need be I think. Here’s the side/rear view:

The transparent red 1×1 piece doesn’t match anything on the original NES, but it lines up pretty well with the lights on the Raspberry Pi, so it illuminates when plugged in:

The opposite side is open to the inside of the enclosure. I ended up building the enclosure around the official Raspberry Pi case which I’m not sure was the best decision in hind sight. But it does make it easy to slide the Pi in and out which was a goal. You can also remove the side of the inner case to allow air flow if need be.

Here it is with the Pi removed:

And that’s pretty much it. Here it is all together in action:

I did end up recreating my enclosure in Lego Digital Designer after the fact. Because I was limited in my brick selection, I knew it could be built to look better and be more structurally sound. I still think there is room for improvement, but here’s what I ended up with:



You can see the black stripe is uninterrupted down the front of the case now. There are other internal structural improvements as well. Here is a link to download the .lxf file and build instructions.

Let me know what you think in the comments. We’re new to Raspberry Pi, ReTroPie, and LDD so any suggestions for improvements would be welcome. If you end up building this enclosure, or some variation of it, please send a pic!

-Josh T.

BONUS: A couple of other Nintendo themed LEGO enclosures we built as gifts for the holidays: