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Clockwork Gameshell


I only recently got a chance to put this together and try it out.  Originally ordered back in Oct./Nov this was one of those fun mailbox surprises when it arrived.
A fun silver lining of pre-ordering or back-ordered projects is the 'oh yeah! I forgot that was coming!' moment - it's the little things. I'm a simple man.

Before being able to play any of the Retro goodness, the handheld needs to be assembled model-airplane style.  It's honestly a bit intimidating unpacking all the pieces,
wiring and PCBs.  I'm not a terribly handy person - I will kludge things together to test or just enough to get it working but finesse is usually not the end product.
Thankfully, there is no soldering (everything is modular) and no screwing or gluing.  The basic process consists of assembling modular 'blocks' - carefully cut the 2
sides that encase the component (battery, main board, controller, screen and speakers) out of the tree/rack, place said component carefully inside and snap it shut.  I only
needed to trim down a couple bits from cutting them free but your mileage may vary depending on how steady of hand you are. Once everything is encased in its module,
it's time to fit it in the case.

I had much less anxiety about putting this all together once everything was free from the plastic tree.  The 'block' components fit together pretty nicely and honestly
would work in other projects as well.  Once the blocks are all assembled, they fit snugly by friction in either of the provided backs for the case - one is a very gameboy-
esque, smooth case and the other is a crazy cool tinkering case with ports for additional ribbon cables and, best of all, a lego compatible back for adding the optional
button bar or fun homemade lego block stand. 12-year old me would be quite amused by this.  With the blocks in place and connected with the included wires, there are 4
small, rubber pegs that fit in pre-determined spots to close the case with friction.  One last step are some very clever circular 'turner' friction cam locks on either side
of the case. Everything holds together tight with zero slop or play in how it holds together.
Once it's all assembled, I charged it up, connected it to the wifi and played some of the included indie games and listened to the chip tune media player.  I also got a
chance to add some obviously-and-totally-legally-obtained-no-foolin' Genesis, NES and MAME ROMs.  It's a great little emulation machine!  Next up is some GB[A] games.
If the additional button bar was in place, I can see it being a solid (albeit slightly unwieldy) SNES game player.  There are also options for PS1 & N64 emulation but I
believe this would take some additional analog controller work to make it very playable.  I am not that smart or ambitious.

Overall, I'm very happy with the fun of the build, how well it works and the open feel of it all.  They're still in stock at the Clockwork Pi store as well as the large
internet retailer named after a rainforest and if you're interested in tinkering or playing some emulated as well a good selection of fun Indie games I say go for it.
What's one more project??





Links pertaining to Clockwork Pi:
https://www.clockworkpi.com/gameshell
https://github.com/clockworkpi/GameShellDocs
https://forum.clockworkpi.com/c/gameshell/5

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