TMNT Handheld Now Runs RetroPie

After receiving a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles handheld game that was reportedly destroyed in a battle with Shredder, hacker Matthew Eargle (aka) “AirborneSurfer”) went to work. He decided to not just fix it, but upgrade as the “Turtle Pi” to play RetroPie games, including of course other TMNT games from the era.

While straightforward in concept, stuffing a Raspberry Pi Zero W, along with usable controls and a 2.2" TFT into a housing required quite a bit of work. After disassembly, he took out internal supports using a Dremel tool, and even cut up the original control board to see if parts of it could still be used. When this didn’t work out, he made his own control system, soldering buttons onto perf board and running a large number of wires back to the Pi. Shoulder buttons were also added to the setup, along with a USB audio adapter for a much more capable system that still looks nearly stock!

It’s an impressive feat of parts stuffing, and as seen in the video below, it apparently made Raphael quite happy. Of course, he wasn’t the only one that thought this was a neat build — his setup won the element14 Hack Like Heck competition grand prize!