Xbox never came out with their standalone portable console, unlike Sony, which has the PSP to brag about. Sure, the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds are coming in mid-October, and Microsoft took more than a decade to figure out what a demanding gamer on the go craves. On the other end of the spectrum is the DIY world, where inventive creators have their own ways of mocking big tech.
Youtuber James Channel has come up with an Xbox portable made from an old Xbox console, and it can be as raw as you would imagine. Stack it against the PlayStation 4 mod dubbed “PS4T” that puts a polished portable handheld in your hands, this one looks straight out of the Mad Max world. The DIY project salvages an OG Xbox console into a working handheld, as the controller is chopped in half to make the thing possible. Think that’s wild, just check out the complete video to learn how the cheeky DIYer managed the feat.
Designer: James Channel
The DIY handheld is a combination of some inventive tinkering of the console, its DVD drive, and other useful bits. Of course, how can I forget the good old duct tape that keeps the wild gadget in unison, functioning perfectly as he finally plays Doom on the fabled system. It all starts with taking apart the first-gen console and then mixing it up with an old LCD screen from the iPod Dock that acts as the display of the handheld. Things get pretty technical as James replaces the faulty transistors with makeshift ones and then hot glues the circuitry. The DVD drive is no pristine working condition either, and he figures out the workaround on that one, too.
The batteries from the dead iPod video dock are also a handful to revive, but the ingenious DIYer always has a workaround. These act as the power source for the handheld that survives around 10 minutes of gameplay. The speakers for the gadget also come from the video dock, which are the perfect fit for the size. Then the DVD is attached to the main circuit to load the game hardware. The latter half of the DIY is all about salvaging the controller to fit the makeshift handheld. The gamepad had to be sliced in half, keeping intact all the circuitry that needed to go on either side when attached to the rig. After fitting everything together, binding them together was a task that James handled using the good old duct tape. He even connects a joystick controller to the crazy rig, playing Steel Battalion.
All in all, the DIY is quite wild and only for the pro crowd, as the in-depth tweaking is not for amateurs. In the end, the games being played on the handheld are dated, still, a handheld gaming console, alright.
The post Xbox portable with a DVD drive, salvaged LCD, and controller sliced in half is fit for the Mad Max world first appeared on Yanko Design.
