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Re: "I have received mine" thread

Posted: Tue 27 Feb 2018 12:18
by dacar
I just would like to share my experience. I’m currently disappointed with my Raspiboy and I believe that my comments might be useful to future buyers.

First, why did I want a Raspiboy ? I had 3 goals in mind.

1 – DIY Kit. I really like the idea of assembling my own retro game console. Part of the fun is also that you can use some of the parts in other projects and you can upgrade you kit afterwards if you want.

2 – Portable console, I like to play retro games while on the move.

3 – You can plug it to a TV and play with friends or familly.

The main reason I would buy a Raspiboy was that my kids could use it in the car while we were on the road and we could play together once it was plugged on TV. Ideal for long week-ends.

A – the rate

I paid a total of 119,46 EUR for my kit.

87 EUR for the Raspiboy,
5,50 EUR for the PI 0
26,90 EUR for delivery and Paypal fees

Too bad that 22,5 % of the price is for delivery and fees.

B – delivery

Very long but you are informed of that before ordering so no problem.

Kit ordered on the 23rd of Jan and received (in France) on the 15th of Feb. My kit stayed for more than 3 days in a warehouse 30 km from my home.

C – assembling

I read all the tips on the building page and followed both videos (personally, I prefer Pierre’s video. You really get more useful information from it).

Assembling the kit is not difficult and it is part of the fun of this project. Plugging the screen was the most delicate part of the process but nothing too difficult.

D – troubleshooting.

I had 2 issues after assembling the kit. I very easily found answers on the troubleshooting page. It was very useful.

1st issue, the screen was white with a blue line. In my case it was because I was using an old v1.2 PI Zero. Sadly the information stating that you need a v1.3 PI is on the troubleshooting page and on the page where you are explained where to buy a PI.
On my side I already had a PI so I did not check that page and missed that information.

2nd issue, pad not recognize by Retropie. Very easy to solve with the troubleshooting information

E – Installing and configuring Retropie on an SD card.

Very easy thanks to the information found on the Assembly page.

F – using the Raspiboy

Pros :

- I really like the design. Quite nice and fills comfortable in the hands

- the sound is really good (Big surprise, I did not expect that)

- I like the interface of Retropie

- easy to install on a HDMI TV. (it’s a small TV game console that you can bring with you easily.)

- battery life is ok so far

Cons :

- the buttons do not work very well. Especially the cross. I really don’t think that you can beat records on a Raspiboy ;)

- The screen. The screen quality is AWFUL and I really mean awful. You really need to be facing the screen to have a bright image. I don’t think that two players can play at the same time on that screen.
Then the image is blurry because of the composite output. I mean blurry to an extent where it hurts playing for more than 30 mn. First time I started using it, my eyes started to cry after 30 mn on the screen. I think that a blurry image on a poor quality screen is the most important issue with the Raspiboy.

Conclusion :

I personally regret buying the Raspiboy.

I really enjoy the DIY part of it but that’s it. Nothing else.

I cannot use it as a portable game console because of the screen and I don’t want my children to use it because I fear they might ruin their eyes. Since then, I have converted my old PSP in a retro console. It’s very easy and free. The image is SO MUCH better and the controls very responsive (sound and interface are better on the Raspiboy).

Regarding the TV console part. I don’t see the point of buying the kit only for that. You can do the same thing with a PI Zero alone. You can plug it to a TV and use Retropie. So the kit is only useful if you can play on it directly.

Re: "I have received mine" thread

Posted: Mon 31 Dec 2018 14:15
by Jcdonny
My shipments on.hold and I got am email for 8bcraft? Asking to give them a eori number, I don't know what that is I just bought a game boy from the internet.

Can anyone help I got my tracking number about 10 days ago but it is an invalid number?

Re: "I have received mine" thread

Posted: Tue 30 Jul 2019 09:29
by protek
Reveived mine yesterday. Had a bit of an issue making the right shoulder button to work as the peg on the button didn’t press the rubber button properly. I fixed that by splitting a nylon M3 nut and hot gluing the halves next to the shoulder button pegs. Both work great now.

Also, do not use Retropie 4.5 with Raspiboy as the composite output is broken in that build and the suggested fix of downgrading one file version didn’t help. Luckily, the direct link at the Raspiboy site had Retropie 4.2 available.