A few months ago designer Love Hultén had us all lusting over his portable wooden gaming console called the Pixel Vision that reminded us of the folding Game Boy Advance SP. And in response to all of the positive and envious feedback he got, he’s decided to put it into production and sell it via Kickstarter.
Made from solid American Walnut complete with a working wooden hinge, the Pixel Vision is powered by a Raspberry Pi A+ board powering a 3.5-inch LCD display. On a full charge you can expect to get about eight hours of gameplay, and as a lovely retro touch the console even has a custom written graphics shader that simulates the curved look of an old CRT monitor.
The Pixel Vision doesn’t play game cartridges like the Game Boy did, though. Instead, a USB port lets you upload ROMS from a variety of classic gaming consoles including the Atari 2600, the Game Boy and Advance, the original NES and the SNES, as well as the Sega Master System and the Genesis. There’s enough storage on board for well over 10,000 games, even if you still end up only playing classic Game Boy Tetris most of the time.
If you want one of the Pixel Visions to call your own, you’re going to have to act fast. Only 500 are being produced, plus 20 additional ‘Pearl’ versions featuring brass buttons, black panels, and a fancy mother of pearl inlay on top. The standard version sells for around $644 (3,999 Swedish Krona) and ships in February or April depending on how quickly you pre-order one, while the Pearl version costs just north of $1128 (6,999 Swedish Krona) and is available in February.
That might sound outrageously expensive for an emulator, but these are far more than just fancy gaming consoles. Each Pixel Vision is hand made from high-quality materials, and will end up being just as much a piece of art as it is a time-waster for your morning commute. [Kickstarter – Pixel Vision]
