The Freeplay CM3 and Freeplay Zero are kits that allow you to build your own portable gaming console using a Raspberry Pi and a GameBoy Advance shell (plus a few other accessories are required). You're not buying a complete product, but a DIY kit that enables to you customise the look, choose what software to include and hack it to your heart's content!
There are two options available; Freeplay CM3 which uses a Raspberry Pi 3, is solderless and has a built in RPi Compute Module 3 and the Freeplay Zero which uses a Raspberry Pi Zero and will probably ship a little quicker than the CM3.
Freeplaytech ran a successful crowdfunding campaign last June over on Kickstarter, and are now starting to ship the first batch of kits to backers. There is currently a pre-sale for those that want to pledge to help this product and allow them to pay for manufacturing a larger second batch, with these pre-sale kits being shipped, hopefully, around March/April 2018.
You can watch a video above of a favourite YouTuber of mine, StopDrop&Retro, assemble and review the kit. If you're into knock-off consoles, retro gaming and DIY computing, definitely go give his channel a subscribe.
I for one will definitely be buying one of the CM3 kits and ripping apart an old GBA for this project. I purchased a PocketCHIP about a year and a half ago, which in case you haven't heard of it, it is a small portable linux terminal (pretty much shaped like a futuristic steam punk OG GameBoy) that is based on a Raspberry Pi rival, the CHIP. It's a great little device, and I may post a review on both the PocketCHIP and this new Freeplay CM3 if people are interested.
Let me know what you think about this project in the comments down below!
Sources:
Freeplay CM3 | Pi-Powered GBA! - ASSEMBLY by StopDrop&Retro (
)Freeplay Zero / Freeplay CM3 by Freeplaytech on Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1227007236/freeplay-zero-freeplay-cm3-by-freeplaytech)
Freeplay CM3 DIY Kit (https://www.freeplaytech.com/product/freeplay-cm3-diy-kit/)