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These days you can buy a $35 single-board computer with plenty of horsepower to play classic video games designed for the PlayStation or older consoles. But while you could just buy a Raspberry Pi, load up RetroPie software, and plug in some game controllers, and call it a day… sometimes it’s nice to have a game console that looks like a game console… and maybe one that packs a little more power.

Enter the Roshambo Retro Gaming Kit.

The kit lets you assemble your own retro console with single-board computer, a case with a classic SNES-like color scheme (it bears a pretty striking resemblance to the Japanese version known as the Super Famicom).

The Roshambo kit also supports optional components including fans, power supplies, game controllers, and SSD cartridges that you can plug into the top of the system like an old-school game cartridge. This allows you to store games or other data on removable cartridges, and it’s probably the coolest thing about this little retro gaming system.

There’s even an eject button that lets you pop out the SSD cartridge when you’re done with it.

ETA Prime (YouTube)

The kits are designed to work with either a Rock64 single-board computer (with an RK3328 processor) or a RockPro64 (with an RK3399 chip). If you’ve already got one of those boards, you can buy just a Roshambo case for $30 (or spend a little extra to get a case + power supply or fan/heat sink).

But if you’re looking to buy everything at once, there are kits that include (almost) everything you need to assemble your own retro game console.

The $100 RoshamboPro kit comes with a RockPro64 with 2GB of RAM + a fan/heat sink and power supply, while the $70 Roshambo kit includes a Rock64 with 2GB of RAM and power supply (but no fan).

You’ll still need to add a microSD card for storage and an OS, but the devices support a variety of gaming-centric operating systems including Lakka TV, Recalbox, Retro Arena, and Batocera.

SSD cartridge prices range from $30 for a 128GB module to $75 for a 512GB cartridge. And you can pick up a single game controller for $12 or a 2-pack for $20.

via CNX-Software and ETA Prime

 

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3 replies on “Roshambo Retro Gaming Kits help you assemble a DIY game console”

    1. Is the product name a call back to South Park?
      This price really feels like a kick in the balls.

      1. I actually built out this very same thing with a Raspberry Pi3 a few years ago.
        I sourced a broken Super Famicom from ebay, took it all apart and let the plastic sit in hydrogen peroxide for a 12 hours, and some light sanding to take care of the yellowing plastic.
        Spent the money on 3d printing a backplate to accommodate the pi IO connections, added USB ports for the front controllers and used a ribbon cable extender to move the SD card to the bottom port on the system. I then ordered a little daughter card that allows for the power to be controlled via the toggle switch, which works OK. At the end of the day I easily spent near $100 for something that is not nearly as clean of a build out.

        Honestly, $36 for the case which looks 1for1, AND a daughter card that adds front USB, back IO, power toggle, reset switch and a SATA connection via cartridge slot is by no means a kick in the balls. $99 is for the ready to rock system. If you think that’s too pricey then order the DIY kit and do the legwork yourself.

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