Halo Carts for a Custom Game Console That Microsoft Would Refuse to Ship

Sliding a plastic brick into a cartridge slot and hearing the soft click of an eject button should not feel revolutionary in 2026. Yet that simple motion sits at the center of a one-off machine that quietly argues for something most big publishers stopped offering years ago. YouTuber The Stock Pot took a Geekom IT13 MAX mini PC, stripped its original shell, and wrapped the board in a fresh 3D-printed body shaped like a compact Halo console.

Olive-green panels click into place over an air gap, orange power and eject buttons protrude from the darker carbon fiber-reinforced PETG case, and a plethora of vents ensure that the 45-watt Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and Arc graphics don’t sound like a plane taking flight. The entire contraption is small enough to fit on a desk yet seems like it came straight out of a UNSC arsenal, complete with laser-marked details and a shelf of bulky cartridges nearby that appear to be waiting for someone to get their hands on them.

Those cartridges are pretty much the highlight of the build. Each one is a solid 3D printed shell with Halo emblems and several in-game Easter eggs. Inside, you’ll just discover a small NFC sticker. When you put one in the cartridge pocket, a little microcontroller wakes up, reads the unique ID off the sticker, and sends it to the mini PC over USB. A Python script running in the bottom-right corner of the screen then matches that ID with a Steam game or a local file and launches it. The game itself remains on the SSD; the plastic brick simply delivers a message to the system, indicating which game to play.

Stock Pot is quite open about the limitations, as this entire structure just restores the ritual of ownership, not tangible possession. Sony’s announcement that it would stop making new PlayStation disks in 2028 appeared to be a modest act of defiance. Putting in one of these labeled cartridges still generates the same level of thrill as removing a worn Xbox disk from its case. Except in this case, the actual files remain digital and pre-paid for, thanks to Steam.

Building the casing took some careful manipulation of the small PC’s 3D model, which Geekom provided. He had to attempt a few different prototypes to get the correct one, all built on a Prusa with recycled PLA at first before switching to the stronger carbon-filled PETG for added texture and robustness. The cartridge mechanism came from an earlier project, an NFC-enabled media player, and he only had to pull out the guts and make the pocket deeper so the spring-loaded eject lever wouldn’t get caught. The ESP32 still requires a USB cable because the board’s internal headers are unlabeled and we didn’t dare to touch them. He has a second version planned that cleans up the cable and hides it inside the enclosure.

Performance fits the hardware perfectly. Halo: Combat Evolved and its remastered version work smoothly, with no difficulties. Other emulation and less demanding current titles run smoothly, too. Of course, you’ll find all of the standard networking options: dual 2.5-Gigabit Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi 7, and USB4 ports, all of which give enough space for the console to begin taking on other jobs when it’s not busy mowing down Covenant. The fans are silent, and the designers did an excellent job with the air intake and exhaust positioning, so you won’t have to deal with any bothersome noises when gaming.

Print files for the entire enclosure and the cartridges sit free on Printables. Anyone with a decent 3D printer, an RC522, an ESP32, and a similar mini PC can build their own version. The software side is also very simple; only a few lines of code to map out the necessary IDs will result in a console that responds to, of all things, plastic. In a year when genuine game material is vanishing, this sleek little Halo box is content to keep the memory of inserting a cartridge alive for a bit longer, one laser-engraved brick at a time.
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