And just think: if a Raspberry Pi-powered emulator machine looks this good, just imagine what a dedicated, Nintendo-built portable console in this form factor could do. Zen moves that legacy forward with a next-generation, state-of-the-art design, giving gamers the most powerful video game controller conversion technology ever created, putting full control back in your hands.

Still, looking at the build process, and considering the amount of hardware that banjokazooie has managed to fit into the GamePad’s relatively small form factor, the whole thing really is quite an impressive hack. Cronus Zen is a breakthrough device founded on the rich legacy of CronusMAX, universally recognized as the world’s definitive controller emulation and scripting technology. The only downside - aside from the rather high level of technical skill you’d need to build your own - is that the GamePad-turned-console only gets about three hours of battery life on a charge. banjokazooie’s hack changes that, by overhauling a broken Wii U GamePad with a Raspberry Pi 3, a 6.5-inch HDMI display, and some extra batteries to convert the damaged controller into a portable emulator that runs RetroPie. The Wii U GamePad is meant to be a controller for the Wii U with the feature to use it as a display for the console and play without using a TV - but at the end of the day, all of the actual processing is still taking place over at the console. The hack turns a broken Wii U GamePad into a portable console So you already have a Xbox One / PS4 controller and now you have to fork out R1600 for a Nintendo Pro Controller. And while the Switch doesn’t come out until next year, Hackaday seems to have found the next best thing in Sudomod forum user banjokazooie’s mod that turns an old Wii U GamePad into a fully functional standalone console. Switch Controller Mods (44) Switch Controller Spares.

Controller flexibility: You can play with official Wii Remotes, but you dont have. The entire console appears to have been shrunken down to the size of the Wii U’s GamePad controller. Mash-up packs can be purchased for Legacy Console Epic Shader mod.

Wii u pro controller mods