I was with a friend thinking about making a Pico 8 handheld with A Raspberry PI, and a small screen, and some buttons and a battery, and we want to make it but we have no idea how, it would be cool to also have a teeny-tiny keyboard that we could use on it, we know for the software we can just download Pico 8 on Raspberry Pi OS and have it launch on startup, we could use spore for the games and thats why we need the keyboard. (except if there is a way to get an on screen keyboard that would work similar to those of PS4 and XBox) we want to specifically make it ourselves, and only for playing Pico 8 games. Any help?

it is possible! it can be a fun project and in fact many people have created their own (search on the bbs and other forums)

you have to know that a handheld project is made of multiple sub-projects (screen config, battery and power board, buttons, sound, case, raspi software config). for each of these, many guides can be found online, but you’ll need to spend time and effort to read or watch them, research things you don’t understand, get components and do experiments. it is rewarding but not super easy!

Waveshare makes a Raspberry Pi hat that seems built for PICO-8: 128x128px with directional stick and three buttons

https://www.waveshare.com/product/raspberry-pi/displays/1.44inch-lcd-hat.htm?___SID=U

Not sure about the quality.

Edit: Of course you could always buy a PowKiddy RGB30 or Miyoo Mini Plus (not as good for PICO-8 but an all-around great handheld that supports PICO-8, albeit using a wrapper at this time)

Like kozm0naut said, the Miyoo Mini Plus works. It's certainly not a streamlined experience made for pico-8, but onionOS on the Miyoo Mini Plus works.

I think you could even use one of these devices, what's missing is custom software that has a game store and maybe includes Voxatron stuff as well. Plus multiplayer support would be cool. It's a shame you can't hook it up to an external display, or do multiplayer right on it.

Either way if you're not looking for a project and just want a portable that plays pico-8, it does work.