Community Showcase #8
Hey! This round pulls from our Discord and, for the first time, r/Zaparoo, so a few of these go back a while. We’ve got printed readers and cartridges, a barcode-scanning vinyl kiosk in a shop, NFC floppies in a Mac-style MiSTer build, fold-up manuals for cassette cases, and plenty of new card and cover designs.
BigBlue709
BigBlue709 shared their “portable” setup, a small CRT and arcade stick running the Zaparoo frontend, plus a shelf of cases with matching spines.
Glaze
Glaze made Game Boy Advance-style covers for cassette cases, starting with black-and-white test prints to check the fit before moving on to full-color NES Classics and Zelda art.
Anime0t4ku
Anime0t4ku moved into 3D design and made their own reader and cartridges. The second video shows V2, which adds a spring-loaded mechanism and came together the next day.
MrRogCool
MrRogCool built their MiSTer into a small equipment rack, with a front panel touchscreen that shows the box art for whatever’s running. They wanted to make something different from what everyone else is building.
HDnope
HDnope is back with an update on the New Net City cabinet from Showcase #7.
sqwirral
sqwirral is playing with an idea for black NFC cards, starting with an Art of Fighting design styled after a Neo Geo MVS cartridge label.
ArielAces
ArielAces finished a Steam card design to go with their Windows PC set from last time, and their Nintendo DS cards show off the holographic vinyl and embossing up close. Their Reddit post has more on the DS cards.
Robin Enrico
Robin Enrico set up a preview kiosk for a shop’s sealed video game soundtrack vinyls. Scanning a record’s barcode starts the album playing and puts its details on screen.
psybertech-
psybertech- printed two readers for their kids, an NES-style one and a bigger Atari homage, along with carts, floppies, and voxel figures with NFC tags in their stands. Both readers take the carts up top and standard cards in a lower slot, and the print files are in our community projects list.
Lucky_Mike_D
Lucky_Mike_D modified a miniature NES model so a tiny reader fits inside, then printed scaled-down carts with NFC tags sandwiched in the middle. The Reddit thread links the cart model and has more build details. They also turned a “1001 Games” book into a launch pad back in 2024, which you can see in their video.
rvansoest
rvansoest fitted a heavily modified Zapafloppy into their Macintosh-style MiSTer build, with real floppies that have the disc swapped for an NFC tag. Since their post, the disks have labels, the mini Mac on the speaker shows the box art, and a small record by the front plays an album.
TheNamesTopher
TheNamesTopher redesigned a PC cartridge dock to use NFC cards instead of SSDs and is moving their games off Steam and onto physical carts, launched through Playnite. The dock and cartridge files are on MakerWorld.
sssger
sssger set up their arcade cabinet to launch games only from cartridges, with a drawer under the controls holding a 10-game lineup. Picking just 10 is the hard part, and their post asks which ones you’d choose.
godkillax
godkillax made pog-style NFC discs for their Super Station One, with a tiny milk crate to keep them in. They use small round tags because the console’s antenna has trouble with full-size cards.
nekor74
nekor74 designed movie cards with poster art on the front and a synopsis, runtime, and video format on the back, styled for their CoreELEC setup. More designs are in their NFC Movies collection.
SunieAdilangin
SunieAdilangin made a fold-up manual template for cassette cases, eight panels on one printed page that fold and cut into a small booklet. Their Shadowgate example shows how a manual helps with games you didn’t grow up with, and the Reddit thread shows how to fold it.
ydmitchell
ydmitchell skips sticker paper entirely. They print the full front and back box art as one piece on satin photo paper, fold it around a card, and slide it into a standard card game sleeve, which keeps the print in place and protects it. Four wraps fit on one legal sheet.
Copec_86
Copec_86 printed their Amiga cards to look like floppy disks and files them alphabetically in a business card box with A to Z dividers.
Ninja3DP
Ninja3DP’s Mini NFC Card Reader is a compact printed case for the black USB-C NFC readers sold on AliExpress, with a recessed slot that holds a mini card in place.
CodiwanOhNoBe
CodiwanOhNoBe got a reader and cards for their birthday and designed a console-style case for their Raspberry Pi, with front openings for a power button and a USB hub for controllers.
Thanks to everyone who shared their builds and designs. If you’ve made something with Zaparoo, post it in the Discord showcase channel or on r/Zaparoo. I’d like to share it in a future roundup.
Creators selected as featured picks will receive a free one-year subscription to Zaparoo Warp. This showcase’s picks are Anime0t4ku, Robin Enrico, psybertech-, and rvansoest.