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Raspberry Pi brings broken NEC TurboExpress handheld back to life for retrogaming fun
If you're a fan of old school handhelds, you're in luck—so are we. We came across this really cool project put together by maker and developer Dawilson246, as he's known as over at Reddit. Using one of our favorite SBCs, the Raspberry Pi, specifically the Raspberry Pi 3, he revitalized an old school NEC TurboExpress handheld, using as much of the original hardware as possible.
If you weren't lucky enough to grow up with the NEC TurboExpress (PC Engine GT in Japan), allow us to fill you in. This was a handheld gaming console that competed with the likes of the Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. Its main selling point was its powerful processing power and ability to play all of the TurboGrafx-16 HuCard games. It had everything from a backlit color LCD screen to a working Television tuner add-on.
When it comes to modding old hardware, we can't help but wonder what went into the project's creation. Many of these consoles are no longer in production and the community at large generally isn't a fan of taking apart working units, as even broken units can command a high price. Thankfully, Dawilson246 confirmed that no working TurboExpress was harmed in the creation of this project but rather this was an opportunity to put new life into an old broken TurboExpress.
Dawilson246 shared tons of pictures of the build in the original project thread shared to Reddit and they are juicy. We get an excellent look at all of the work he did to install the Pi and connect it to the components inside. We can see the Raspberry Pi 3, a Pimoroni Player X board for USB to controller inputs, a PCB which seems to supplying a common GND and a source of voltage. The LiPo battery is where the 4 x AA batteries used to be, and a TP4056 charge controller is there to safely charge the LiPos. Holding it all together is plenty of hot glue, the glue that holds the maker community together. Video and audio output looks to be routed via the composite jack, we can see yellow (video) and white (mono audio) wires coming out of the Pi, to the TurboExpress.
Everything fits neatly in the original TurboExpress shell and is wired to use the original buttons, providing an experience that is much closer to what you'd encounter back in 1990.
Because he's opted to use a versatile board like the Raspberry Pi 3, you've got a lot of options when it comes to software. We get a good look at the RetroPie loading screen, so it wouldn't be a stretch to guess that this is how the games are being played. RetroPie is an excellent choice for emulating retro games which is more than ideal for a project like this.
If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, you can check it out in the original thread Dawilson246 shared to Reddit.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
