I’ve always liked to tinker and make things. You’re not a maker if you don’t recognise the smell of melting plastic. I’ve been working on a gameboy enclosure since 2013 with the intention of having someone professionally print it but with printers so cheap these days I realised I could print it myself.

I have all the parts for the gameboy and previously assembled it using an ABS enclosure I bought from Jaycar. I had to measure and cut holes in the case which took ages. In the end while the gameboy was functional it didn’t meet the original design I had in mind. Inside was a tangle of wires and a lot of stuff was hot glued.

While I did skillfully wire and program everything up I wasn’t keen to show anyone the mess inside. Being the neat freak with slight OCD mixed in I started designing a made-to-fit case in which I could restore some order in the chaos that is my gameboy.

You’re not a maker if you can’t recognise the smell of melting plastic

It’s funny how I got interested in this idea 4 years ago and how popular it’s now become. I see a lot of blogs and videos of people printing of Adafruit’s Gamegirl designs and people who are using the original gameboy enclosure and a lot of cutting to get things to fit. Then you’ve got people like me who want to create something similar to the original but unique in their own way.

Here’s the original gameboy design which will be disassembled soon.

Here’s the rough design in Fusion 360 for my perfect gameboy enclosure. In the picture I’ve got two back covers in view. This is still a very rough design and I probably won’t be ready to print it for a few weeks/months.

To be continued….