What simply occurred? Probably drained ready for a Microsoft transportable console, one artful modder took issues into his personal fingers. Redherring32 has managed to create the world’s first transportable Xbox primarily based on the unique console, whereas detailing all the method by way of a sequence of posts on X.
{Hardware} tinkerer Redherring32 took the heart from a professional Xbox motherboard and packed all of it right into a surprisingly compact handheld kind issue.
To be clear – this is not a software program emulation or some knockoff PC handheld, it took some actual {hardware} expertise and customized PCBs to make this doable. It seems fairly properly made, too, with a degree of polish you’ll be able to solely count on from an officially-produced unit and the form of design that’d go extraordinarily properly with the Xbox mannequin that began all of it.
I constructed a transportable Xbox.
This is not a PC handheld, it is not emulation, this can be a actual motherboard from an actual Xbox. It has a 9″ 480p show, pure digital video/audio, 100W USB C cost and play, and I am presently including WiFi 6 for wi-fi Xbox Stay performance.Sure, actually. pic.twitter.com/yK7p0vPqUn
– Redherring32 (@redherring32) October 18, 2024
Upfront, the console rocks a 9-inch 480p show. It additionally options 100 watt USB-C charging that juices up a lithium-ion battery (capability unknown) and even an built-in, fully-functional Xbox controller.
After all, pulling off this sort of modding was no stroll within the park. Redherring32 says he needed to reverse engineer and redesign quite a few printed circuit boards from scratch, to not point out determine reliably trim down the chunky Xbox motherboard into a transportable footprint. Solely very particular motherboard fashions had been even suitable. The method took a whopping 4 months.
“I needed to analysis Xbox motherboard trimming fully from scratch, a process that took me a bit over 4 months. No person had ever tried it earlier than,” he wrote. He additionally added that the mission is made doable by 12 completely different “absolutely customized” PCBs he designed.
Subsequent up, Redherring32 plans so as to add Wi-Fi 6 help for wi-fi Xbox Stay multiplayer on-the-go.
If you happen to want to comply with on this legend’s footsteps, he has made your entire design open supply, together with an in depth information, schematics, and PCB supply recordsdata. Nonetheless, truly assembling one in all these could possibly be a giant technical problem.
It is value mentioning that Xbox boss Phil Spencer has been dropping not-so-subtle hints about wanting a transportable Xbox for years now. Simply final June, he name-dropped handhelds just like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, praising their capacity to play video games domestically.
“I believe we should always have a handheld, too,” he advised IGN in an interview.
Nonetheless, precise work on such a tool does not appear to have kicked off but over at Microsoft HQ. With the hand held gaming market persevering with to surge, although, the tease appears like the most important sign but. For now, this bodacious creation will suffice.
