Reddit user Gabbelago likes to play games on their smartphone, so they decided to 3D print a case for it that had buttons. The resulting prototype is both practical and elegant.
Gabbelago documented the project, titled “EmuCase,” in a series of images uploaded to Imgur yesterday evening.
“As to if it was designed for Pokemon, I personally mostly play Pokemon but basically I just made a case that would work for gameboy style games,” said Gabbelago when I asked what led them to create the case. The emulator on their smartphone is called myboy, and it plays Game Boy Advance games which aren’t very well suited to touch controls.
As a result, Gabbelago decided to create a personalised solution using some basic wiring and plastic parts that could be created with a 3D printer.
The case wraps around the edges of an HTC M8S. It’s custom designed for that particular phone, but the idea is no doubt translatable to other devices.
Longer copper wire was used in order to have enough capacitance for the buttons to register on the screen’s touch interface when pressed.
Gabbelago designed a 3D model of the prototype to be printed in 123D, with the sides printed straight and then heated to be moulded to match the curvature of the phone’s edges. “This was a fun project but I don’t claim to be the first person who came up with the idea,” they said. “I just made something for myself that was cool to me and then shared it.”
It’s not the first project Gabbelago finding innovation in gaming nostalgia either. Some time back, they also created a power switch for their computer in the form of a Super Mario Bros. question mark block.
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