Zega Mame Gear Raspberry Pi Mod Pre-Soldered Kit - Zarcade Limited
Zega Mame Gear Raspberry Pi Mod Pre-Soldered Kit - Zarcade Limited
519 Davisville Rd.
519 Davisville Road
Willow Grove PA 19090
United States
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FEATURES:
- 4 Front button support
- Plug and Play
- External access to USB and SD Card (Optional)
- Connect to a TV with HDMI out (Optional)
- Digital Audio
- Safe shutdown and power-off
- Battery Level Indicator
- USB-C Charging
- Pre-configured images
- Zega Mame Gear with 3.5" Composite LCD
INCLUDED:
- 1x Mainboard
- 1x 3.2 inch Serial LCD
- 1x Digital Audio Board
- 1x USB-C Powerboard with battery charger, battery level and safe shutdown
- 1x Speaker
- 1x 4 wire Mainboard to Power board connector
- 1x 5 wire Mainboard to Audio board connector
- 1x Ribbon
- 1x 3D printed (Resin) Select button pre-soldered to Mainboard
- 1x HDMI Adapter for Raspberry Pi Zero or Zero 2
PAIRS WELL WITH:
- Zega Mame Gear Button Bracket
- Zega Mame Gear Battery Extension Cables
- 40 Pin Male Header for the Raspberry Pi (2.54 Pitch)
DOCUMENTATION:
- Mame Gear Pre-Install Checks Guide
- Zega Mame Gear Support Portal
- Downloads/STL Files/Images
- Recommend Batteries (Battery is NOT included with this kit and must be purchased separately). You will also need to purchase separately the Battery Extension cables.
NOTES:
- Mame Gear requires a Raspberry Pi with a header. If you have a Pi with a pre-installed header, no soldering required. If not, you will be required to solder the header to the Pi.
- Although not required, adding the additional 2 front buttons will open up more games to play on the Zega Mame Gear. Some shell modification is required. You can also purchase a ready drilled shell from the Zega store.
- With the optional Zega Mame Gear expansion board, you can easily access the SD card and connect a USB device such as a Game Controller
- PCB color may vary.
- Raspberry Pi, shell, buttons, membranes, lens, battery not included.
WARNINGS:
- Please ensure you are confident in your soldering ability to attempt this project. Under no circumstances will any refunds/replacements be made if soldering has been attempted.
Customer Reviews
I've been wanting an emulation based Game Gear for a while now, this kit makes it pretty easy to make it yourself. Paired with a Prestige shell, buttons and membranes you don't need anything from an original Game Gear if you don't want to use one. It feels great in the hand, it's a little lighter than a real Game Gear, the screen is good (but not great) and the sound is pretty decent from the speaker, and excellent (but mono) through the headphone jack. I'd recommend using a Pi Zero 2 with it, I tried a 3a and although it works fine it tends to give low voltage warnings that won't happen if you use a Zero.
The description on the site is a little confusing since it's a copy paste from the Zarcade site and not all options are available from HHL, so let me clarify exactly what you get with the presoldered kit: The Zega Mame Gear board with the 3.2 inch serial screen attached, appears to be a new revision as it has HDMI output and an already soldered in select button to make assembly easier than what you see in the Youtube videos. You get the power and sound boards, the cables to connect them, and a speaker. I also got some small HDMI adapter, I'm not sure if you're supposed to use it internally to connect the Pi output to the Zega HDMI connection, I have no plans to use that anyway.
What you don't get that you will need are the lipo batteries. It can run off of one or two. Also, it does not include extension harnesses for them, one of my batteries could reach the power board with no issues, the other I cut the cable and soldered extension wires to it. I used some batteries I found on Amazon.
A couple of pointers on assembly, when the Zega literature says do not run the system while USB charging, they mean it. Charge the batteries with the unit off, unplug before you turn it on. When testing before assembly, don't have the batteries connected. I fried a Pi by turning it on with batteries and the USB cable still connected. Try to keep everything clean, it's really easy to get dust between the lens and the screen. When **** in the mainboard the tightness of the screws affect how the controls feel. Too tight and the dpad doesn't register well and diagonals are difficult. I got finger tight then loosen all the internal screws by a full turn to get it to feel better and register diagonals.
I've built several portable Raspberry Pis in the past, this kit it is one of the easiest I've built and it made the best finished product. The Game Gear is a big chonky boy compared to modern handhelds, but it's also super comfortable and a joy to play.
The select button on this ZMG board, as well as the other pre soldered points seem to be more secure than the 1st one I purchased where the select button came detached...
Game gear hdmi out soldering is loose and uneven.
Otherwise everything else is satisfactory.