What simply occurred? Doubtless drained ready for a Microsoft moveable console, one artful modder took issues into his personal fingers. Redherring32 has managed to create the world’s first moveable Xbox primarily based on the unique console, whereas detailing all the method by a collection of posts on X.
{Hardware} tinkerer Redherring32 took the center 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 potential. It seems fairly nicely made, too, with a degree of polish you may solely anticipate from an officially-produced unit and the sort of design that’d go extraordinarily nicely with the Xbox mannequin that began all of it.
I constructed a transportable Xbox.
This is not a PC handheld, it is not emulation, it is 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 at present including WiFi 6 for wi-fi Xbox Dwell 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.
In fact, pulling off this type 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 work out how one can reliably trim down the chunky Xbox motherboard into a transportable footprint. Solely very particular motherboard fashions have been even appropriate. The method took a whopping 4 months.
“I needed to analysis Xbox motherboard trimming utterly from scratch, a job that took me a bit over 4 months. No one had ever tried it earlier than,” he wrote. He additionally added that the mission is made potential 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 Dwell multiplayer on-the-go.
For those who want to comply with on this legend’s footsteps, he has made the complete design open supply, together with an in depth information, schematics, and PCB supply recordsdata. Nevertheless, truly assembling one in every of these might be a giant technical problem.
It is price 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 regionally.
“I believe we must always have a handheld, too,” he informed IGN in an interview.
Nevertheless, 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 seems like the largest sign but. For now, this bodacious creation will suffice.