About a year ago I build a GameBoy Zero (a Raspberry Pi Zero in a gameboy shell) and this weekend I finished a second one. You can see some picture of the first one (black case) and the new one (transparant, blue shell) below. While I thought about doing a proper build log, there are others who did a much better job at documenting how to build one than I would have. So if you are interested in building on of there for yourself, have a look at the link at the bottom, otherwise enjoy the pictures.

New Build

New GameBoy Zero based on Kite's Circuit Sword Lite

Backside has buttons with button membranes, big improvement over the clicky buttons from the previous build

This is the second GameBoy Zero I’ve built. This one is based on Kite’s Circuit Sword Lite, which has a few advantages over the Super-AIO board he released earlier. There is a PCB to have buttons on the back that use the same membranes as the ABXY buttons on the front, much better than the “clicky” ones I used in the previous build. Furthermore, I used all available 3D printed parts, ensured wires were the right length, and only added a few dabs of hot glue strategically. So the inside part is very clean, as it should be, since it is visible through the translucent case. Very happy how this one turned out.

Old Build

GameBoy Zero based on Kite's Super AIO board

Two clicky shoulder buttons on the back, they are functional, but I would recommend to go for a solution with membrane buttons

First build, looks great on the outside, but the inside is a little messy. There were a few issues with the soldering (my iron broke completing the last few connections and probably wasn’t running at the correct temperature for most of this project), and as I didn’t use as many 3D Printed parts as I should have, a lot of hot glue is used to keep things in place. The shoulder buttons however aren’t great and make playing some GBA and SNES games annoying (and loud as they are “clicky”). It is still a great device for playing games that don’t rely on the shoulder buttons (much).

Here is an overview of resources I used for my builds. Note that depending on the board you use, and the options you want, you might need to check additional websites.

  • SudoMod forum: Here you can find a ton of information… Start here! In the Buy/Sell section you’ll also find threads to order the boards you need.
  • Arron Morris’ Build: You can see how he build his. While using a different board, a lot of the steps are the same for the Super-AIO and Circuit Sword Lite.
  • Retro Ghost’s Build: Step-by-step instructions how Retro Ghost build his GBZ using a Circuit Sword Lite.
  • Kite’s GitHub Repo - For the Circuit Sword Lite: Official instructions how to set up the electronics. The Circuit Sword Lite comes as a kit with all electronics you need.
  • Kite’s GitHub Repo - For the Super-AIO board: this one is now a little obsolete. Though, the archived manual contains a lot of information still worth having a look at.