What do you think you could do with a spare care reverse camera screen? As it turns out, they're small enough and feature the right ports to become the screen for a gaming console. Such is the case with this amazing project, which - with the assistance of a Raspberry Pi - turns a car accessory into a perfect companion for long car rides.

Giving a car reverse monitor a second life as a portable console

This cool project was the idea of akash a s on Hackster. By combining a screen designed to show people what's behind their car with a Raspberry Pi Zero, Akash managed to build their own portable retro console. They needed a few more bits and pieces to get it off the floor, such as some soft buttons, a battery, a speaker, and some steady soldering, but the result is a great example of how Raspberry Pi owners can use hardware in ways others would never have imagined.

Now for the million-dollar question: why a car reverse camera monitor? Akash doesn't go into too much detail on if they bought it for the sake of the project, or if it was left over from a prior car of theirs. However, they note that these screens are really thin and feature AV ports, making them ideal candidates for a portable console.

Retro gaming on Raspberry Pi is taking off

If you don't usually equate Raspberry Pi with gaming, you may not know about the blossoming retro scene surrounding this handy SBC. Our writer Ayush Pande turned their Raspberry Pi into an emulation beast with RetroArch, and you can do the same. Outside of the XDA sphere, there's the 3D-printable miniature 386 PC that uses a Raspberry Pi under the hood, and someone created a 65-inch retro gaming mirror using one. And as these tools get better over the years, we're only going to see more and more inventive ways to bring the classics into the modern era.