Announcement: This portable is now officially for sale. Here is the "For Sale" thread in the Trading Post. I still need a new RetroDuo SNES board to finish this portable, but if you can get one to me I can finish this portable up probably within a week.

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Original post:
I have a secret to admit - I've been holding out on you guys. I didn't want to post anything until I had some good stuff to share. I just now completely finished the case on my second revision of the Nintendo SuperBoy (portable SNES) so I thought now would be a good time to start a worklog. All that's left is wiring up the electronics and mounting them in place. I expect to be done soon-ish.

I didn't post many, or any, "making of" pictures of the first SuperBoy because I was making it for a portable building contest here on the forums. I documented the whole thing, however, and put the pictures in my YouTube video of the portable. Since there is no contest this time I'm reverting back to my usual "post way too many pictures" routine.

This portable features a Retro Duo that I long thought was dead. It's been sitting in my junk pile for a long time, and one night I decided to give it another try just to see if it was truly gone. Much to my surprise it started right up. No idea why it didn't work for me before, but hey! Free SNES!

One important note - I've made this completely in my apartment with only a drill, an X-Acto knife, and a set of files. No paint, no bondo, and NO DREMEL. A Dremel would have sped things up quite a bit, as I have gotten pretty good with one over the years.




Perf board makes an excellent guide for drilling speaker holes:








The two-tone color scheme is because I had two cases, one with a messed up front and one with a messed back. I combined the good parts and tossed the bad ones. In this shot, I am in the process of filing the R and L shoulder button holes.




Tight fit!




Comparison shot! I play the original SuperBoy almost daily. Currently working on Yoshi's Island and Super Metroid. Notice where the speaker holes on the new portable is compared to the previous one. This is due to the placement of the controls. In order to fit a dpad in this case with a PSOne screen, some things had to be moved around from the original design.


I've heavily modified the screen to get it to fit this project. That involved doing an LED mod, chopping up the board to make room for the controller, replacing the volume and brightness controls with some very tall tact switches, and last night I removed the anti-glare layer via hailrazer's method for a super crisp, bright screen.




Let it soak for three hours, occasionally dripping some fresh water on top to keep it moist, and then peel off the anti-glare plastic sheet.


Think it's reflective enough?

Great work so far!

oh, and I had the Idea for replacing the tact switches for my commission n64p the other day, I'll be doing that!

SS

It was a lot of work lining up the holes for them! But they fit perfectly and stick up just a little bit out of the case, so they are quite clickable.

Yeah, I'm surprised at your progress w/o a dremel.

Oh, and I picked up a retro duo yesterday, I might begin to lurk the Snes section now...

SS

I've got plans for a couple more SNES portables with completely different case designs, so maybe you should start lurking here more often to join in the fun and games.

One of these days I'm going to finish my N64 project... As soon as I come up with a case design I like.

Wow. I’m amazed – as with all your projects. Can't imagine doing all that with so few tools. You continue to be an inspiration. Looking forward to seeing those new SNES portables that you’re talking about too. Keep up the good work.

I shall begin to lurk!

Hey, question about the retro duo: I havent opened mine yet, I was going to ask if desoldering the nes portion would render it useless(the nes side) and if desoldering it improves the snes video quality.

SS

I don't know about improving the SNES's video quality, but as far as I can tell desoldering the NES portion does indeed render the NES board useless.

Huh. I'll be cool and make the nes work alone. Is there a difference if I got my retro dou from play and trade? I heard something about it somewhere.

SS

Looks like I will be racing to try to finish my portable before you, LOB.

Holy crap. You are a casemaking god. WITHOUT A DREMEL!?

What do you use for your case? Where did you source it from? I am interested in picking something like that up for a project of my own.

LOB is my hero. His portables are awesome and he's been a great help with all my many, many questions. This looks amazing, especially considering you didn't have a dremel. Keep up the good work and keep us posted!

It looks as if it is an AG-85 off of http://www.polycase.com

the AG-85 is the most comfortable case I have ever held.