We've seen some pretty impressive Raspberry Pi projects in the past, but this Pi-powered DIY gaming briefcase takes the cake. It's an all-in-one game emulator made from mostly-secondhand parts, and it can play almost anything you want. Plus, it's portable enough to take on the road.


The Raspberry Pi in this unit is brand new of course, but the LCD came from a broken laptop, the SNES controllers were secondhand, and while webrow, the Imgur user who posted the setup, didn't say where the briefcase came from, we're betting it was secondhand too.

Hit the link below to see a gallery of the build from start to finish (and a larger version of the photo above), but here's the basics: the Raspberry Pi runs an app called EmulationStation, freely available at Github. Webrow also needed an LCD panel converter so he could plug it into the Pi, and had to break out the soldering iron to give himself enough cable to fit the controllers at the bottom of the suitcase while the LCD was at the top. He even added plexiglass protection around the screen and critical components so he and his friends could play without worrying about damaging it. He dissected some SNES components so he could use original SNES controllers on the board, but you could use USB SNES controllers if you don't have those available, or want something you can connect directly to the Pi.


When it's all finished, it's a thing of beauty, and a great weekend project if you're wondering what to do with your Raspberry Pi. Webrow did this so his consoles could "rest," but we like the idea of picking up a briefcase to take all of your favorite games with you when you travel or go visit friends.

RaspGC | Imgur via Hack a Day