Richard from Heber – the MiSTer MultiSystem project’s hardware manufacturing partner – has revealed more details on his handheld prototypes (previously covered on RetroRGB) in an interview with RMC.
The MiSTer MultiSystem is a project launched in August 2021 by Heber and RMC which combines many of MiSTer’s most popular hardware add-ons into an all-in-one board, offering HDMI, VGA and SCART video output, TOSLink and 3.5mm audio output, integrated 128MB SDRAM, SNAC support and a proprietary expansion connector. The whole project is offered in a 3D printed console-style case which can be purchased from the RMC store or printed at home.
The original MultiSystem of course uses the DE-10 Nano internally, making it 100% compatible with the MiSTer ecosystem, and the same is true for the latest handheld iteration.
It’s still early days – there are no immediate plans to put this into production – but what Richard has so far is impressive, with 7-8 hours of battery life using an internal 10,000mAh battery, fully functional controls and audio, and an integrated 1080P screen. As per the original MultiSystem, these handhelds are also 3D printed to a very high standard.
In addition to RMC’s video, I also managed to sit down with Richard and get my hands on the prototypes as well as extracting some more information from him, which you can see in the above interview.
It’ll be interesting to see where this project goes as there has certainly been a lot of demand for a fully featured portable MiSTer and this one seems to tick all of the right boxes. With Heber (an Intel manufacturing partner) doing all of the design and manufaturing in-house, Richard also raises the intriguing possibility that the DE-10 Nano board could be bypassed entirely, with the Handy utilising a custom PCB built around the Cyclone FPGA chip itself.
But for now they’re considering their options and soliciting feedback, which can be provided on either of the above videos as well as via the official MultiSystem Twitter account.
