I've been lurking around here for months now.
It began when I wandered into a Super Joy III, brought it home, and noticed that it had a cartridge slot. I'm sure like many of you, I immediately thought "Hey, I can turn this thing into a tiny nintendo of some kind!!"
I did lot's of research, and of course, one of the places I ended up was here. This is why I'm here now.
I never intended to make a portable. I was more interested in making a strange small console of some kind. Unfortunately, after two fried NOACs, I put the project down.
About two months after that, I was walking to work, and someone had thrown out a NES, in the box and everything. I got it home, and alas, it did not work well enough to use as a NES. I took my experience with the NOACs and the brainstorming of ideas for that project, and immediately made the next leap: "I'm going to shove something else into this NES".
So here we are. I know this doesn't belong here, but I spent a lot of time lurking and researching here, so I thought it was just as well that I show off the fruits of my labor.
PC masquerading as a Nintendo Entertainment System
When I first thought of the idea, I did a lot of research on the internet. I quickly discovered that others had gone before me.
I decided it was cool enough to do anyway, even if it had been done before.
VIA EPIA CN10000EG Mini-ITX Mainboard. Most of the parts for this project came from logicsupply.com
The dremel-ed out NES lower shell with most of the components that will be installed into it.
The upper shell with CD/DVD installed. It's mostly held by the slots I dremeled out for it at the cartridge port, and a little duct tape.
The player one controller port and the control chip ripped out of the NES to USB adapter available from retrousb.com This was my first time soldering in about 15 years, and I didn't screw it up, so I was happy.
Testing the guts before shoving it all into the case.
I did not attempt to keep the original NES power/reset/LED board. I grabbed a power button and LED from an old PC to minimize the footprint in that section. The original board was huge, and I'd need more room than it afforded me.
Testing again with most everything installed.
Completed NES PC. The view "under the hood" The harddrive is held to the top with industrial strengh duct tape.
Making everything fit in, closing it completely, and having everything continue to function is a bit of a hassle.
The back of the closed NES. I went with a wireless G card to avoid having to run more wires than I had to.
NES with the cartridge door open. Slot loading DVD with decoration cartridge. The DVD player makes a little noise when first loading a disc. Other than that, this machine is completely silent.
The complete package. The wireless keyboard has a thumbstick and mouse buttons on either corner.
The finished product in action. Forgive the mess.
