Customizing the Odroid Go handheld gaming system
I stumbled across the Odroid Go handheld gaming system a few weeks ago. I was looking for more details on another handheld (which will be detailed in a later post as I await parts from overseas). Odroid is an ESP32 based all in one chip that also contains wifi and bluetooth. The ‘Game Kit’ as it’s being called is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Odroid hardware from its maker, Hardkernel and it’s a pretty amazing little gadget.
First of all, it’s $32us for EVERYTHING you see above…well that doesn’t include a microSD card. For $32 you get the mainboard, the case, the battery, speaker, a 2.4″ LCD screen, the buttons and a micro USB cable. It comes in the box you see above and you do have to put it together but there is no soldering, just screw the parts together – which only takes a few minutes. The parts all plug into the mainboard via pre-wired JST plugs. The LCD screen is a little tricky since it’s a thin ribbon connector but it easily slides into place.
I got mine from Ameridroid which cost a few bucks more but it was shipped from California for $10. You may also find them on Amazon but it looks like everywhere is sold out due to it being so popular – the listing is gone from Amazon completely. Ameridroid is saying (as of this post) that they won’t have new stock until mid/late September.
What does it do?
It’s basically a gameboy clone with a programmable operating system and firmware. There is a burgeoning community of developers making apps, porting emulators and such to the platform. It’s not the fastest chip on the market but it does what it says it will just fine.
Despite coming with a fairly small 1200mah battery, people have been getting 6-7 hours of game play on a single charge.
As of right now, it currently supports Atari 2600, Atari 7800, MSX, NES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Game Gear, Sega Master System, Colecovision and ZX Spectrum emulators along with some standalone games and apps like Doom (of course) but the list is changing daily as more ports get published. It looks like people are also porting Arduboy titles too which is great.
To install any software, you need to populate a microSD card. The instructions on the wiki get you going right out of the box. But you’ll likely need to flash a new firmware to get the latest emulators running and source your own roms. The firmware requires a dedicated flashing app to get it up to date but you may only have to do it once as they seemed to have streamlined the update process beyond the initial firmware release. But YMMV depending on version you receive.
I used a 16gb card but that’s likely overkill for now as I only have about 5 gbs of software on there right now…but who knows what emulators will come next.
There is a speaker but no headphone jack. Some folks are working on a ‘hat’ that plugs into the expansion port that will give you a proper headphone jack but it’s easy enough to change the volume or mute the device completely I probably won’t bother with one.
Customization Options
The Go comes in a clear shell by default but people quickly started customizing theirs and I wanted to as well. I started with painting the shell innards and then 3D printed a new DPAD and buttons. ETA Prime did a great painting how to video:
I picked up some Tamiya PS-44 Translucent Green polycarbonate paint from a local hobby shop:
After taping the outside of the case with painters tape, I did two quick coats (about 20 minutes apart) and then let it dry for a few hours…the recent heat wave made it dry real fast.
It turned out far better than I could have hoped for. It was my first time using this type of paint and was very easy to do. The results speak for themselves:
The stock buttons and DPAD are fine and I almost left them as is but I found a really good set of files for 3D printed replacements and couldn’t resist making an all green Go:
They feel just like the stock parts and are near perfect copies. I did have to trim one of the alignment tabs on the B button but it doesn’t affect usage at all. I also used support and a raft which was tricky to remove from the buttons but a pair of tweezers worked.
I also printed this stand for the Go which works great:
I also discovered that an old Nintendo DS Lite case I had laying around is a perfect fit for the Go:
Lastly, I put some green painters tape on the inside of the back part of the case to mask the backlight bleed through. While not totally necessary due to the shade of paint I used, it seemed like a nice finishing touch but I may remove it since it looks like tape.
This really is a great handheld for the money. You likely won’t be emulating SNES or N64 games (nor would you have the controls for those) but if you like older school consoles & computers, you’ll love this. Plus it’s fun to customize.
You can read more about the Odroid Go on their forum, wiki, Facebook group and Reddit.
Update: I ended up switching to lime green buttons for more contrast…love how it looks!
Update 2: I couldn’t leave the buttons alone so I remixed them and adjusted a few things specifically for the ODroid Go. I removed the extra tab from the B button, made the A button the same height as the B (it was 0.5mm shorter) and removed the button text.
Printing them at 0.1mm layer height turned out fantastic (the photos are a little misleading since the filament is semi-transparent).
Update 3: I printed some red buttons and a Dpad on my latest resin printer (a Sparkmaker FHD) and really happy with how it turned out – the translucent red works well with the green shell:
