Good evening, Hecklers!
I just wanted to take a moment to update my progress on this challenge. It's been a crazy couple of weeks here with my car finally giving up the ghost and having to deal with all the headaches that come with that (hooray car dealerships! 
). In the time available, I've been hard at work preparing my project--gathering the parts, measuring, designing, and modifying the case that I'll be using. Case mods! Classic electronic games!
So!
Much!
Dremeling!
As I alluded to in my initial audition piece, I'll be improving upon Heck's original build by giving my device a little bit of retro flair! Everyone loves to tout the 8-bit and the 16-bit consoles, but there's not a lot of love out there for the O.G. handheld games! The LCD games pumped out by manufacturers like Tiger Electronics, Mattel, and even Nintendo were my first foray into video games, and I wanted to build something that kept the soul of those marvelous little tchotchkes while adding the functionality of more robust gaming systems. To wit, I'm taking one of the original games that no longer works and completely updating the internals while preserving the original exterior as much as possible. This includes keeping the branding--the glorious 1980s toy/media franchise branding--and expanding that theme to the gameplay as well as the UI.
This one and Paperboy were two of my favorites, but I'll be using something a little different for the base of my build.
When finished, this project will push all the right nostalgia buttons so it will look right at home in any vintage toy collection. It's as much an artistic endeavour as it is a technical one!
I just finished the bulk of my Dremel work today and all the components seem to fit. Now to assemble the internals!
