NES in a cart!

[SgtBowhack]

I was trying to think of wacky case designs for my NOAC that I want to fiddle with. Luckily for me, MM007 mentioned his Atari in an NES cart idea again and a light in my head goes off. NES in an NES cart, how novel! The case is cheap too! I can take it anywhere I want! Woohoo!
So I start thinking, and suddenly realize "Hey, this could even be made into a portable!" If I redesign the back to line up with a PSone screen, I can just snap one of those on. Then I wire up some batteries, make a joystick with a controller port attached directly onto it (rather than silly wires, pfft), and voila Obviously the card edge connector would be where the cartridge socket goes, since it's already the right size. I'd kinda like to keep the Famicom slot on it too. I think I might put the controller ports on one side of the cartridge and the video out/audio out/power in on the other side. I'm not too sure that I can get all of this in there too easily, but I think it might be worth a shot

[gannon]

I once started on a project of puting a noac into a nes controller. Although it could've fit I decided against it because of how horribly it'd freeze because of no support to stop the cartridges from moving.

[SgtBowhack]

Oooh, that's a good point. I wasn't planning on really making it a portable (well, not as it stood, though if I use one of those U-shaped cart sockets from the real NES it probably would work out fairly well (not much bobbing around, etc.) Hmmm. That is an interesting design problem though. Thanks for pointing that out.

Edit: Thanks for the support, to the three who agreed. I appreciate it
I just had another thought because of what gannon said. I could even leave the NES cartridge's card edge there so that the connection stays solid. If I use a regular NES cartridge socket (one that connects to two card edges), it should be fine, yeah? Might also look less crapperific. I'm excited about doing this now!

[MM007]

Oooh, that's a good point. I wasn't planning on really making it a portable (well, not as it stood, though if I use one of those U-shaped cart sockets from the real NES it probably would work out fairly well (not much bobbing around, etc.) Hmmm. That is an interesting design problem though. Thanks for pointing that out.

Edit: Thanks for the support, to the three who agreed. I appreciate it
I just had another thought because of what gannon said. I could even leave the NES cartridge's card edge there so that the connection stays solid. If I use a regular NES cartridge socket (one that connects to two card edges), it should be fine, yeah? Might also look less crapperific. I'm excited about doing this now!

Another idea: you know the connection side that wears out? put that as the side that connects to the NES and solder it in place.

Also make sure it is nice and flat with the other side, so the NES cart, when put in, doesn't leave a gap.

I had an idea for an NOAC in an NES cart before, but didn't have an NOAC, so I opted for the Atari in an NES cart.

Also, you might need to try using some AA or even AAA batteries to fit inside the unit.

With those batteries and cartridge connections, try to make the board a little less than 3.5" by 3.5" to be safe. Then the controller will have to be layers on top of that. You can avoid the heat of a 7805 by putting in the 7805 into the power line(if you want to use a DC adapter, but don't use the NES one without a bridge rectifier and some caps), but have a switch for battery and wall, and make sure you have 4 rechargable 1.2V cells (4.8V) connected directly to the Power switch/button.

My design won't have its own screen(I am too cheap to afford one), but if you use a small screen with at least 256x240 resolution(NES resolution, I think it varies in other nations, like 256x224, most games should work okay. 320x240 should work well(1.25 times res by 1 time res).

Feel free to use my schematic to get turbo A and B. Also, if I were you, I'd have a switch to underclock the NES for Slo-Mo, and overclock for High-Speed.

[SgtBowhack]

Thanks for the tips I'm not sure I really want it to be that portable, just portable enough to not be as bulky as a real NES (and slim too!)
The NES cart might leave a gap, but since the NES connector was meant to move around a little bit, it might not cause too much of a problem as far as stability is concerned. If it does become a problem, I can always just add some foam padding or some such. Like I said, I kinda think it'd be best to have the cart slot be detachable, so I'd probably just take an old connector and bend out the pins (I figure that's OK so long as I don't take it off very often).
So, are you saying basically to wire the 7805 into the AC adapter? That makes a lot of good sense there. Why don't they do this normally? I was thinking of making my own custom little AC adapter (as small as possible, and so that it only takes one plug on the outlet) with that in there anyway, and then a battery pack with the same plug so that the switch will be unnecessary.
If I do use turbo controllers, I think I will buy them since they cost a whole 2 dollars, and the 555 timer and AND gate IC alone would probably cost half of that But thanks though! I'll also keep the overclocking switch in mind.

[MM007]

Thanks for the tips I'm not sure I really want it to be that portable, just portable enough to not be as bulky as a real NES (and slim too!)
The NES cart might leave a gap, but since the NES connector was meant to move around a little bit, it might not cause too much of a problem as far as stability is concerned. If it does become a problem, I can always just add some foam padding or some such. Like I said, I kinda think it'd be best to have the cart slot be detachable, so I'd probably just take an old connector and bend out the pins (I figure that's OK so long as I don't take it off very often).
So, are you saying basically to wire the 7805 into the AC adapter? That makes a lot of good sense there. Why don't they do this normally? I was thinking of making my own custom little AC adapter (as small as possible, and so that it only takes one plug on the outlet) with that in there anyway, and then a battery pack with the same plug so that the switch will be unnecessary.
If I do use turbo controllers, I think I will buy them since they cost a whole 2 dollars, and the 555 timer and AND gate IC alone would probably cost half of that But thanks though! I'll also keep the overclocking switch in mind.

The connector will be difficult to keep in place if you place the end that has problems on the actual NES without reinforcement. You see, the other part is tight on a cartridge, to the point where if you try to put a cart in, the connector will come off of the actual unit first...

So you might have to make sure the connector stays in somehow....maybe use screws....

Also, you will have to dremel the connector's sides to get it to fit....

and make sure to make the PCB of your NES VERY thick....

[SgtBowhack]

I think these are things to worry about when I have an NES to fiddle with, but they are all good points I'll keep you posted when I get it started, which likely won't be for another 5 months

[Guest]

My design won't have its own screen(I am too cheap to afford one), but if you use a small screen with at least 256x240 resolution(NES resolution, I think it varies in other nations, like 256x224, most games should work okay. 320x240 should work well(1.25 times res by 1 time res).

I love this inaccuracy. The resolution of the NES does not differ between countries, the resolutions of the TVs themselves do. An NTSC monitor can ouput 240 visible lines 60 times per second. The part of the TV case that covers the edges of the screen blocks out visible lines, but the lines are still displayed. Programmers often fail to update the last 8 lines of the screen for extra time because of this. Thats why in an emulator you will see garbage at the top and bottoms of the screen. On a PAL monitor, 288 lines are visible, but the NES does not output any more lines. The image is also stretched horizontally across the whole screen, I think (no vertical bars.) So the image is noticeably letterboxed, so it looks even more stretched than it was on a NTSC monitor.

I would try to find an LCD that does 256x240 or something close to it, because LCDs cannot stetch pixels very well, especially at low resolutions.

[MM007]

My design won't have its own screen(I am too cheap to afford one), but if you use a small screen with at least 256x240 resolution(NES resolution, I think it varies in other nations, like 256x224, most games should work okay. 320x240 should work well(1.25 times res by 1 time res).

I love this inaccuracy. The resolution of the NES does not differ between countries, the resolutions of the TVs themselves do. An NTSC monitor can ouput 240 visible lines 60 times per second. The part of the TV case that covers the edges of the screen blocks out visible lines, but the lines are still displayed. Programmers often fail to update the last 8 lines of the screen for extra time because of this. Thats why in an emulator you will see garbage at the top and bottoms of the screen. On a PAL monitor, 288 lines are visible, but the NES does not output any more lines. The image is also stretched horizontally across the whole screen, I think (no vertical bars.) So the image is noticeably letterboxed, so it looks even more stretched than it was on a NTSC monitor.

I would try to find an LCD that does 256x240 or something close to it, because LCDs cannot stetch pixels very well, especially at low resolutions.

Oh, Okay then, sorry about that. ^^ Then it is 256x240

Can they strecth to 1.25x by 1x or 2.5x by 2x(640x480) without too much blur or distortion?

[SgtBowhack]

I would try to find an LCD that does 256x240 or something close to it, because LCDs cannot stetch pixels very well, especially at low resolutions.

This is true. Or just find a 320x240 monitor and find a way to tell it to be pixel-accurate and cover up part of the screen

Oh, Okay then, sorry about that. ^^ Then it is 256x240

Can they strecth to 1.25x by 1x or 2.5x by 2x(640x480) without too much blur or distortion?

1.25:1 does look like crap. My laptop's monitor is native 800x600 (it's an older 12" screen one) so whenever the Windows 2000 logo shows up (640x480) it looks pretty blocky and jagged. I think a 2.5x:2x one might not look too bad though. It'd be nice to just get it to not use 20% of the screen and keep the pixels 1:1 though (though the NES's pixel ratio was weird because they weren't square pixels).

[SgtBowhack]

One more thought I had... I'm being a bit silly about the controller thing. I'm sure a huge NES cart would have space enough to support a controller. Maybe I should just put a controller in there too? Would it complain if I had a controller in there and wired a controller port too? I assume I'd need to shut the internal one down somehow when there's a controller plugged into it. Otherwise when it's polling, it'd get differing results and go crazy. I guess I could just give it OR gates or something and then it'd work if you pressed buttons on one controller or the other *shrug*

[JackFrost22]

I was doing something like this the biggest problem is the cart port. I was making a gameenhancer for a system and the cart port is so hard to place

[MM007]

The internal controller should work perfectly, and you should try to make an external player 1 controller port as well. If it will work in my SNES, it will work in your NES, since the wires are EXACTLY the same.

Also, I have held the cartridge in my hands like it was a controller, and it was comfortable.

[SgtBowhack]

I was doing something like this the biggest problem is the cart port. I was making a gameenhancer for a system and the cart port is so hard to place

Uh huh... yeah... what the heck are you talking about? I think I've pretty much said how I'm doing the cartridge slot... there's not a whole lot of placement involved

Also, I have held the cartridge in my hands like it was a controller, and it was comfortable.

Neat. I figured roughly that it was about the same width and stuff as a regular NES pad. I'll probably buy some cheap 3rd party pad and just screw the circuit board into it. How do you think is best to disable it when the controller is in place? Is there a way for it to "sense" it being there, or should I just have a switch or something?

[MM007]

I was doing something like this the biggest problem is the cart port. I was making a gameenhancer for a system and the cart port is so hard to place

Uh huh... yeah... what the heck are you talking about? I think I've pretty much said how I'm doing the cartridge slot... there's not a whole lot of placement involved

Also, I have held the cartridge in my hands like it was a controller, and it was comfortable.

Neat. I figured roughly that it was about the same width and stuff as a regular NES pad. I'll probably buy some cheap 3rd party pad and just screw the circuit board into it. How do you think is best to disable it when the controller is in place? Is there a way for it to "sense" it being there, or should I just have a switch or something?

It should just sense it in there....weird thing is, that I have the white wire severed in my internal controller...to get it to work...and it is Vcc though. O_O

Of course, it is hooked up to a switch, and it could be that I am turning it on when I think I'm turning it off....in which case, the controllers would just be wired in parallel.