Tag Archives: Gaming

DIYer creates handheld gaming PC from a salvaged Galaxy A90 phone

Posted on by

Handheld gaming machines are compact, easy to use, and give you the freedom to bring AAA titles to your busy lifestyle. They are more of a luxury accessory these days owing to the skyrocketing memory module prices worldwide. So, there aren’t many gamers who are willing to shell out $500 – $1,000 upwards for the luxury.

A DIYer identified these problems and finally set out on making a gaming handheld for a fraction of the cost. The custom-made gaming handheld PC is built out of a Galaxy A90 phone with a broken screen bought off eBay for $30. The major components, including the processor, RAM, GPU, and the built-in battery, are salvaged out carefully by removing the outer shell. These components act as the main brain of the gadget.

Designer: GameRig

The next major step is to get hold of a Bluetooth gaming controller and the keyboard, and somehow get them to fit inside the handheld’s shell which is quite thin. Since we are talking of a gaming handheld, the controller’s outside shell, vibration motors, ports, and the support system for the components can be removed. Just the PCB, joystick, and the button inputs are required. The 11.5 cm long keyboard is saved from the same treatment as it is already quite thin to fit inside the handheld rig.

Then comes the most important component for the thing, and the maker luckily had a 7-inch screen display lying around. So, the next step is to connect the keyboard and the controller components to the screen and check if everything is working fine. The connection from the screen to the other components is via the Samsung DeX app using the USB-C hub.

The enclosure of the hub is quite big, so it gets the same treatment, as only the necessary components are retained, and the enclosure is eliminated from the equation. The phone’s battery and an added battery are salvaged for the project. But the display requires 5V output while the battery is capped at 3.5 V. The solution is to get a charging board that supplies the desired voltage to the components.

After getting the hard work done, GameRig gets down to building the shell of the handheld. Predictably, he uses 3D-printed components to get the job done. The display housing is built first, and then the main housing for the rest of the components is dealt with.

Next, it is down to soldering the required components like the controller, power board, and the motherboard to the batteries. After figuring out the wiring and the ports for the machine, the DIY handheld gaming rig comes to life. The last step is to fit a speaker for the machine, and then again test everything again before securing the housing.

The fun part starts here as the hard work put into the making is rewarded with the maiden session of gaming on the handheld. To be honest, the modern-day AAA titles like Tomb Raider are a bit of a handful for the machine. However, it is perfect for playing the less demanding arcade titles like Asphalt or classic games every gamer still swears by.

The post DIYer creates handheld gaming PC from a salvaged Galaxy A90 phone first appeared on Yanko Design.

A ‘Wolverine’ DualSense controller so feral it makes the actual game look tame

Posted on by

I distinctly remember the Wolverine game hype. It’s quite literally why I bought a PS5… well, that and GTA VI. And then September rolled around, the game released, and it was instantly trashed for its patronizing game design, made to feel so sandboxed and easy that some people literally played through missions without touching their controller. The game might have been trash, the graphics and the hype definitely weren’t… and while I most certainly won’t be spending my well-earned money on a copy of the Wolverine, I would buy this controller in an absolute heartbeat!

Designed by an artist by the name of FAZ, this Wolverine-themed DualSense controller is about as unhinged as Logan in his boundless rage, slashing away at enemies without a hint of holding back. Wolverine in his peak form is pure animalistic rage, and this controller captures that while still honoring the superhero part of the equation. The controller is themed after the outfit, and rather cleverly leans into the parts of Wolverine that aren’t adamantium. There are no metal accents, fake claw motifs, or anything that would feel like maybe a visual crutch. There’s just the yellow and black, a hint of distressed fabric, a few scratches, and copious amounts of spattered blood… probably of Logan’s enemies.

Designer: FAZ Des

For the unitiated, FAZ is a South Asia-based visual designer and creative director, working primarily with an iPad Pro and boundless creativity. FAZ’s Instagram isn’t a chronicle of his work, it’s a gallery of videos showing him creating designs, taking you through the WIP journey rather than showing you the final product. In an AI slop-filled world, FAZ actually shows you the man-hours instead of the final images, and that’s refreshing. Not to mention the fact that he’s freakishly talented too, using a mere sculpting app on the iPad (Nomad Sculpt, if you’re asking), to create designs as beautiful as this Wolverine-themed controller.

The controller’s color scheme is but obvious. Even the game leans heavily into the black and yellow visual DNA that is Marvel’s Wolverine, and it only makes sense that FAZ would stick to the same palette for his controller. The yellow remains glossy, while the black parts have a corduroy-style texture on them. What I personally find highly interesting is that the controller doesn’t use the Adamantium theme anywhere, not on the joysticks, the function buttons, or even the triggers. I guess it’s FAZ’s way of saying that the indestructible metal doesn’t define Wolverine, his personality when he dons his costume does. To be honest, I could totally work with that.

The controller also has a fair amount of blood on it, added to reinforce the NSFW nature of Wolverine’s work. A good Wolverine fight doesn’t see him effortlessly destroying his enemy. It sees a struggle, it sees Wolverine taking a beating, bleeding, healing, and reaching that animalistic flow state while he fights his enemy to the death. That specific moment is what this controller captures so well – not the polish of a Wolverine who hasn’t entered the battlefield yet. Rather, the avatar of Wolverine after he’s done slicing and dicing his opponents, as the adrenaline wears down.

The only real caveat here is that FAZ made this as a pure concept. Unless some third party reaches out and helps 3D print and fabricate the skins for this, there’s no realistic universe in which this controller would exist. I’m pretty sure Marvel and Insomniac Studios have resigned to the negative press Wolverine’s getting and don’t really plan on milking this particular cow anymore, especially after pouring hundreds of millions into its development. That doesn’t change the fact that this controller looks absolutely wicked, and that I’d pay a pretty penny for it, even if I don’t care too much about the game itself!

The post A ‘Wolverine’ DualSense controller so feral it makes the actual game look tame first appeared on Yanko Design.

Uplay Fits the Gaming Body the Way a Cycling Saddle Fits a Rider

Posted on by

Anyone who’s spent a tense hour of competitive gaming knows the posture without ever naming it: leaning forward, elbows braced against the thighs, spine curved toward the screen like the controller demands it. Uplay starts from that exact unconscious habit rather than fighting it. Instead of asking players to sit properly, it builds a stool specifically shaped around the slouch competitive gaming already produces on its own.

Most gaming chairs still borrow their DNA from office seating or racing simulator rigs, neither of which was ever built around a controller-holding body. Uplay skips that inherited logic entirely, starting instead from actual hand position, actual posture, and how a player’s body relates to a screen a few feet away. That’s a narrower, more specific starting point than most furniture in this category bothers to consider.

Designer: Ilya Lazukin

That posture came with a real cost before Uplay existed. Hours spent bracing elbows against legs leave pressure marks and genuine discomfort, the kind that quietly ends a gaming session before the match does. A search across furniture retailers and marketplaces turned up nothing built to solve that specific problem, which is what pushed this concept from personal annoyance into an actual design brief worth pursuing.

The solution reads deceptively simple: a round seat, a tubular frame, and a tabletop positioned just ahead of the sitter. What makes it work is that both surfaces share one continuous bent tube rather than existing as separate pieces bolted together. That single curve carries weight from the tripod legs up into the armrest’s support column, turning what looks like two objects into one structurally unified piece of furniture.

Height adjustment borrows hardware from an entirely different category of design. An eccentric clamp, the same mechanical principle used to secure a bicycle seat post, lets a lever release the tabletop’s support column, slide it to a new height, and lock it back down. That borrowed mechanism means the armrest can sit exactly where a specific body and a specific controller grip actually need it, rather than settling for one fixed compromise height.

Nothing about Uplay stays permanently assembled either. The seat, the tabletop, and the frame elements all separate into individual components by design, not as an afterthought for shipping. That knock-down structure means a gaming setup that lives in a corner during a match can collapse down small enough to slide under a bed or into a closet once the session ends, a detail that matters more in small apartments than any spec sheet suggests.

Materials extend beyond a single fixed look. Some versions pair painted steel tubing with a plain plywood tabletop and seat, left exposed in a natural wood tone. Others wrap that same plywood in a soft, removable fabric slipcover, turning a utilitarian frame into something that can match a couch instead of looking bolted on from a hardware store. Either way, the underlying structure and adjustment mechanism stay identical.

Sit on it without touching the tabletop at all, and Uplay works as an ordinary low stool; nothing about its shape forces the armrest into use. That flexibility matters because a gaming session rarely stays static for hours straight. A player might brace forward through a tense match, then lean back and set the controller down entirely, all without needing to swap furniture or leave the room to find a different chair.

The post Uplay Fits the Gaming Body the Way a Cycling Saddle Fits a Rider first appeared on Yanko Design.