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The Ultimate Nintendo Console
Ngamer writes "Logan West, a member of a fanatical group of gamers known as "The Elite," recently created a Nintendo fan's ultimate dream: his Nintendo Entertainment Console is a composite of the NES, SNES, N64, GC, and Gameboy, all combined into a single system! With no shortage of electrical/carpentry ability, Logan carefully dissected his consoles, wired them to a central unit, then crafted a wooden vessel to host all five systems as one. Logan has already gotten a response from Nintendo after submitting his creation to them--they were quite impressed!"
> ...a composite of the NES, SNES, N64, GC, and Gameboy, all combined into a single system!
Yes, but can it run Doom 3??
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
That thing looks positively retarded.
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My ultimate Nintendo console does all that and it's called a Power Macintosh.... [i]if you get my drift here[/i]
Seriously though the Gamecube is about the ultimate Nintendo console, stick in a GBP and between ports, GBA ports, and Animal Crossing w/Action Replay you can play a really big hunk of Nintendo. In particular a Gamecube with GBP is capable of playing every single Zelda game ever made*
* Not counting the Phillips CD-I titles. Which you shouldn't.
I made myself one of those too, and very effective it is too.
For anyone else who wants one, what you do is, you walk down to your local furniture store and buy what we in England like to call a "shelf".
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
That is quite possibly the sexiest piece of mahogany I have ever seen.
Who actually owns so many Nintendo consoles?
I have a PS2, which also plays PS1 games (like combining a PS1 with a PS2 into a mega PlayStation Entertainment Centre), but I hardly play those PS1 games anymore.
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
While that is quite an awesome beast, how does it deal as far as heat output. While I know the NES, SNES, and GB probably don't put out much of any heat, I'd imagine the N64 and GameCube would. Without any ventilation (being a wooden box and all), couldn't you meltdown you N64 and Cube?
But the look brought back a lot of memories of my old atari 2600! When it comes to visual design I don't know if I'd qualify that as a good thing, but it was still a bit neat in a way.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Well, drawing upon the definition of class 1 lasers, we can see that:
It is neat that they replied with a non-canned response, but it was total BS. You don't have anything to worry about with this laser, and they just don't want to encourage people to modify their products like this for some reason.
And this is different from stacking the consoles on top of each other because...?
I don't intend to be overly critical, but that thing looks like he put all of the systems into one box, and just combined the video outputs. (i know the voltages and power supplies et all). But I thought I was gonna see some streamlined piece of beauty and not a behomoth of a monster. Got to give him some props though for doing this.
What an eyesore!
Couldn't you have the same sort of thing, plus a whole lot more, with MythTV? Doesn't MythTV have emulators for all those platforms?
John Kerry is a Joke!
Looks like he took a walk on the wild side while building it...
As an added note, I did send something similar to this to Nintendo of America and got a response back which said that it was very neat that I could develop something like this, but they could not host it in their magazine for the following reason: Namely that the Nintendo GameCube has a Class I laser housed inside a Class I case and if the mechanism is bypassed that prevents operation of the laser while the lid is open, then potential eye damage is probable. They didn't want to give anyone the idea to take apart a GameCube and damage their vision. I totally understand, but it was neat to get a response that wasn't automated! - The Story of the NEC
My biggest problem with having so many game systems, is that the controller wires always end up in knots. What I would love to see is a combo system that lets use just one set controllers that is switched to what ever system is currently active (like an AB switch). That being said, the woodworking is impressive, I loved the cd player top.
Making it, eh, okay, but hardly all that impressive.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
I dont remember what site i saw it on, possibly HardOCP, but it was a SNES, Genesis, N64, Gamecube, PS2, and an Xbox all inside a custom PC case it looked a 1000 times better then this and since the xbox can emulate every console before Dreamcast id wager it was way more usefull.
I mean - as a gaming enthusiast I can understand the desire to combine all of these systems - but it does not look like he saved much physical space in the process.
Given the choice of having all the listed systems working in their original cases - or having all of them in one large block of mahogany that took up the same amount of space - I would have to go with leaving them alone (I personally enjoy the 'cool' factor of having mint condintion, working, old game consoles)
a PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and GameBoy Advance SP so that you can play every game currently on the market with one box! I'd call it the XcubeStation Advance. :)
It looks like he took a hacksaw to his dresser drawers...
Ok, call me crazy, but I bought a Gameboy Advance SP so I could play games when I wasn't infront of my TV. And, when I am playing games on my TV or computer, I don't want to be playing gba games. If I recall correctally, they make a thing, that you stick on the bottom of a gamecube that lets it play gba games, its probably cheaper and more effective then sticking a whole gameboy into a console.
Speaking of a gameboy in a console, how did he end up hooking it up a tv? Last time I was at best buy looking around, I didn't see any way to connect it, and I was looking for cube cables, so I believe I would have seen the adaptors if there were any.
In nature, there are neither rewards or punishments, there are only consequences.
Takes a good bit of imagination.. more than I've seen in most of the posts about it.
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Now I want to see him do the same for the joypads by combining them into one big fuck off fat controller.
Hahaha. It looks like he superglued 4 consoles together and covered it in wood.
Now he has a 40lb console that would look completely awful if you actually plugged all the controllers and power supplies in.
Is it just me, or does this thing look a lot like a toilet for an outhouse?
Aside from the GameCube, you could easily build a rather nice PC with the appropriate emulators. Heck, even an X-Box would do the job. There are nearly flawless emulators for the NES, SNES, GB, GBA, and N64. The end result would be much cleaner, and a properly configured game controller setup would make it feel like the real thing.
-- n
Completely ugly, too big and useless. Is it really THAT HARD to just buy a damn video signal switcher for $20?!
YEESH.
I use the Xbox to play all the old Nintendo games. It might seem wrong, but I didn't have to pay $100 for a GameBoy Player either.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
I never understood why they didn't make nice computer cases out of wood. People have these nice solid wood desks, with leather chairs, and hardwood floors in their offices, and their computer is made out of sheet metal and plastic. I would love to get a wood, or even wood-look computer case.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Call me a spoiled kid with a big TV, but Nintendo's systems since SNES have had the capability to support s-video cables, and I love it on my TV. Great picture quality... Even on NES, I can't be bothered with using anything but A/V out, and have successfully rewired my Atari 2600 to support A/V cables.
As for the merits, I don't really like this mod. I wouldn't call it "The Ultimate Nintendo Console", that's for sure.
After learning about the Gameboy Player that attaches to the bottom of the GameCube, I had a dream about this other attachment that allowed inserting of SNES cartridges on the left side, NES cartridges on the right side, and N64 cartridges in the middle. Technically, I believe that this is entirely possible as the GameCube has enough computing power to emulate all these systems. Except that in my dream, I could insert Sega Genesis cartridges in the back, but in reality, that would be somewhat of an oddity...
Lasers can be dangerous, so you warn people about them. Same thing as toxicity warnings on poison. No shit, it's poison, of COURSE it's toxic, wouldn't do much good if it wasn't.
The US is just really lawsuit happy thesedays, so you cover your ass as much as possible. I mean there might be some way to injure yourself with that laser. Maybe you pump more power through it than normal and stare right at it for 5 hours. Stupid? Yes, but better the company be able to say "we told you not to do that" than to loose a multi-million dollar lawsuit over it.
"This food is problematic."
Way to take a bunch of cool consoles and turn them into something that looks like a reject from Ikea!
mirror
Wood is expensive, even just particle board with a nice veneer on it costs far more than a plastic or metal case. Computers are expected to be cheap, and a wood case would add a significant amount to it, espically if it were something nice like solid cherry.
If you want a wood case, and are willing to drop som cash on it, find a local woodworker (they are out there, frequently they do construction jobs) and comission them. It will be expensive though.
Wood also tends to insulate much better than aluminum or even steel... which is not what you want with a stable system.
On the other hand, it strikes me that a nice wooden case would dampen sound better, so if you had half a dozen fans in it forcing air through, it might work nicely. If you wanted an expensive custom-designed job, anyway.
The pain was excruciating and the scarring is likely permanent, but that just means it's working.
after submitting his creation to them--they were quite impressed!"
;)
Translation, they sent him a cease & desist letter.
Yoshi from TechTV has already done this, and it looks a hell of a lot better. See it here.
UUUGGLYYY... and WHO would want one of these? I mean who actually plays video games that much?
To be quite honest, I was expecting something more like an arcade cabinet. Oh, well, it was neat idea, but the case is horribly ugly. And I bet it would be horrendous if a decent percentage of the controllers were plugged in at once It would be way cooler with some sort of cable management system and a little door behind which to store the controllers.
On the aside, I have always wanted to take one of the three Atari 2600's I own and condense it to the size of a Nomad so I could play on the road.
anybody else get NEC confused with the NEC that created the TurboGrafx line of consoles?
The difference in heat dissipation is negligible, no matter what the material (assuming equivalent air circulation). The reason they are made of metal is because they reduce the electromagnetic interference. A metal case is a Faraday's cage.
Wow, and you allowed the system to add your karma point for this comment?
Too bad it's in the games section, it is doubtful anybody with mod points will see it to mod it down.
Just out of curiousity, how much did you pay for your XBox mod chip?
And did you buy the XBox at $150 or $180?
I fail to see the advantage of his box. It weighs a ton, is really loud, and it doesn't add any functionality. You'll notice if you RTFA that he didn't actually take apart gameboy guts and stick it in his box, but rather relies on the GG's GBP to run DMG/GBC/GBA games. By combining all of Ninny's consoles together in one box he's created a bloated piece of eyecandy that has the functionality of a newt. (XBOX anyone?) I fail to see any instance in which he's used any special electrical abilities at all, and his carpentry is pretty shotty too. It would have been cooler if he had integrated the guts of his consoles into a tv - for instance - he could use the tape portion of a tv/vcr combo for the NES, and place the guts of the other consoles around in the empty space around the crt for a truely useful conglomeration. How is this stuff that matters?
Sure it works, but it's hardly elegant. Just because you can pull some pastic off a few consoles and put the boards in one wooden box doesn't mean you should.
Sorry to be so critical, but I personally don't think it turned out to be worth the trouble. Now if it was a really small box it would be interesting.
"Mini-me.....stop humping the 'laser'.....honest to god......why dont you and giant 'laser' get a freakin room.
Dr. Evil
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Will it run Linux? (I guess on the GC) Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of those things? In Soviet Russia, Nintendo system build case to put all of you together.
We dont want to publish anything that will get us sued by dumbasses.
Some people are building MAME consoles, basically a PC and a TV in a cabinet, loaded with the MAME emulator software and arcade ROMs. Add the emulators for Nintendo etc. and it would be an awesome experience.
So i _would_ doubt the stability of this thing.
Secondly, assuming you can get enough cooling off the surface of these chips, you have to give thought to the actual airflow inside the case, even with a big fan, with all these bits everywhere it's very possible that the air will take the path of least resistannce, there'll be dead spots and not cool the chips effectively. just my speculation, but he doesn't say whether he's tried it. Apart from this, the GCN will probably be fine 'cos he left that pretty much intact, and IIRC the NES&SNES don't produce much heat (could be wrong, been a while since i handled those).
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
If he really had the skill to do what he wanted, he would have made the ports flush in a tighter matrix and not recessed like the chasm that is the SNES and GB Player slot. I'm sure that things weighs a ton, I know it's noisy and it's a waste of consoles.
And what's with the huge knobs? Short notice? Was he rushed? You want to take your time on these things.
Too bad it'll never happen, so the technically 'illegal' abandon-ware ROMS will have to do (but it's actual work collecting them).
--
Power to the Peaceful
I went ahead and mirrored it here.
Except individual computer components are FCC certified, otherwise thay wouldn't be user upgradable. They sell plenty of all plastic cases.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
As someone who collects classic consoles, I think this was a horrible, horrible, idea to start with. Forget the execution completely.
If you want a consolidated system, every one of those systems (and more) with the exception of the GC could have been emulated on a single, much smaller PC. And, it won't be forever before there's a working PC GC emulator too.
As is, it's just a big bulky frankensystem.
Sure, it's fine for everyone to be ruining all these old systems now... There's tons of them, right? Appearance of the console has nothing to do with nostalgia, right?
Worst, idea, ever.
Logan has already gotten a response from Nintendo after submitting his creation to them--they were quite impressed!"
And they answered him:
Dear Logan, We are quite impressed by your resourcefulness and ingeniousity. Its always remarkable to see that individuals with limited resources can make more original and inspiring toys than the average established big corporation. Nevertheless your limited resources guarantee us that you probably wont be able to defend correctly in court against a giant monster with unlimited legal war chest like us. For that reason we simply decided to sue you ass to the bone.
Surrender immediately (and by immediately we mean in the next 15 minutes) all the Nintendo modified material, the tools you used to do your exploit, the residence were the manipulation of our proprietary design as been done and your first new born girl.
Any attempt to delay or negotiate the terms of this request will be considered as an hostile act against Nintendo Corp. and all of is partners. We are currently seeking permission from court to shoot you on sign and this formality will be accomplish in the next minutes. Our black suited agents in black SUV's are already on their way to your home
Resistance is futile
Again, congratulation for you impressive fun home made gizmo and have a nice day. Sincerely yours.
Al Suy Ouras
Nintendo legal department director and VP of the kitties and puppies crushing department
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
how bout just get an xbox with all the emulators installed. hello? mod-spot.com
A similar project was done by Yoshi on TechTV a few years back.. He combined a PC, X-Box, Game Cube, PS2, Atari 2600 and 8-Bit Nintendo all into one.
I swear, the way he designed the box the cd access lid makes it look like an old fasion toilet.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
the-elite.net
...hook together an XBox, GameCube, PS2, PS1, SNES, NES, N64, Sega 16, Sega Saturn, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, Virtual Boy, Game Gear, and Nomad. A hard drive completes the collection.
Then you load a custom cartridge/CD in each system that is a fragment of the main game loop. Each console's firmware has been modified to execute things like glTriangle and stuff very efficiently (ask John Carmack to do it).
Then custom-machine a motherboard and bus that takes in the inputs from the consoles and at the same time manages them for parallel processing. A video output to the TV, connect a controller, and BAM Doom 3 on your TV!
*runs*
Mmm, yeah. About that certification. This is technically UK based, but I belive that it's essentially the same.
The FCC certification states that the part will comply with EMI regulations, when assembled as expected. That 'as expected' is critical, but I'll come back to that.
In the UK, it is illegal to sell a computer that is not certified to meet EMI regs. There are two ways to do this - one is to test a system (expensive!), the other is to say that each part shouldn't cause a problem, and the assembly shouldn't, so it's fine (and kinda handwave passed it). Unsurpisingly, the latter is what's done.
On the 'as expected', if you dig into it, you'll find that the parts are only specified as confroming to regs when in a metal case. Basically, they haven't given them a full test (expensive!), but stuck them in a steel or aluminium box, booted it, and waved a meter around, and noted that it was under the limits.
The important point that it's illegal to _sell_ a computer that doesn't conform - so you can buy an all plastic case, and that's all fine. But you can't sell a computer in an all plastic case, unless you either test, or certify, that you have reasonable cause to belive that it meets the EMI regs. Case on its own - that' fine, not a problem (provided the power supply is either separate, or in it's own metal box (Faraday cage).
For this reason, I doubt you'll find anywhere that will sell a computer that's not in a Faraday cage (and I suspect that selling computers in a windowed case is boarderline). It's just too expensive to test, and they don't have 'reasonable grounds' to think that it will pass.
Actually, to run those consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GC, Gameboy), you only need N64 and Gamecube (or probably only a PC, if you use emulators), because:
. txt],r _game_boy.txt],4 .txt],b oy_player.txt]
Using a converter...
- NES games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/tri_star
- Game boy games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/file/supe
- NES and SNES games can be played in a N64 [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/tristar_6
- All Game boy (GB, GBC, GBA,...) games can be played in a Gamecube [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/game
(So... all you need to play those consoles is actually N64 and Gamecube).
There have been too many stories here about people cramming things in a box. I want to see something new. Something like a Nintendo with a hard disk with all the games ever made for the NES on it. And, a good interface to navigate those numerous titles.
And at less than 1mW? That's nothing. A laser pointer is more damaging to the eye.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
and it doesn't even play DVD-Video.
Someone finds a way to get a computer, motherboard, CPU, video card, drives and all into one convenient box.
I was a little disappointed when I read what the guy had really done. He's just de-cased his consoles and put them in a big box.
I imagined some clever wiring/electronics to have all the consoles driven by one set of four controllers, with one SCART/Component output for all of the consoles, a cleverer switch setup that doesn't boil down to having one reset button for each console, etc. Now that would have been neat, although
I suppose hardcore Nintendo fans would balk at the idea of using the wrong kind of controller with the wrong game -- a Game Cube controller for the NES? NOOOOOO! I assume, also, that the GC controllers are a bit more complex than just some pushbuttons hooked up to some wires as the old controllers were. Still, it would have been cool!
OK, just wondering. Thank you for clarifying.
Clearly one (or both) of these posts are somewhat mis-informative, since you took the trouble to correct your first post.
Tsk tsk, slashdot mods.
They couldn't call it the Nintendo Entertainment System, because that was taken (NES), and definitely wouldn't do the system justice. They thought they were safe with Nintendo Entertainment Console - but that's taken too (NEC).
Give me a Cube with a gameboy player, and an N64 with a Tristar 64
The images won't load for me, so I don't know what the case looks like, but my question is: Do you still have to blow into the thing to get the NES to work? :p
That actually exists. There was a networked version of the NES used for onboard airline entertainment systems. Games were downloaded from a server somewhere in the aircraft. It's on some older Virgin aircraft. The user-end unit is in a box under the seat, reducing legroom.
My old NES might just work if I knew where or how to accomplish this task. Any good places to get a new one? Instructions on the replacement procedure?
Later on we will see, that the military's newest rifle is actually a gamecube strapped to a broomstick. This new weapon is the sniper rifle of the future. Just aim at the targets retina and WHAMO! blinded...
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=HRGn
If I had money I might wish for one. But since I don't, nevermind.
This has to be one of the ugliest mods of any kind I have ever seen. It being ugly wouldn't be so damn bad if it wasn't such a fucking stupid idea. You just butchered all those game systems just so you could put them in a difficult to carry hunk of freaking wood?! It just gay, and a waste of bandwitdh. I wonder how many good stories were turned down in favor of this crap. I think I could have made a better "NEC" from the systems, and some glue.
If you must!
Wow. He killed all of his image links, making his site pretty much pointless. The reading is fine, but people want the images too, and without the images, the reading is also pointless.
emphasis mine...
nuff said
Looks more like the ultimate Nintendo commode to me.
Some people don't want to have to worry about their batteries running out and making a trip to the store to buy new ones. It just adds an extra expense most people don't want or need. If you've got the cash $$$ to burn that's great but I think its more convenient to have controllers that will always work /w no interference from multiple wireless controllers. So the cords may get wound up or knotted from time to time but this could be alleviated using better plastic casing around the wire so that isn't prone to twist and knot.
I used to have that problem, until I formulated a simple rule:
After playing a game, unplug any controllers you have plugged in, wind the cables round them, and put them in a box sat next to your TV for that specific purpose.
You'll never have wires all tangled everywhere, and it only takes two minutes. Sure, with n consoles plugged in to the TV you'll still have a cable jungle around the back, but at least it's not sprawled all across your living room / bedroom floor.
Again, he's not internally consistant with his own story. You can quote and I can quote and we'll end up with two different values for the class of the laser because he lists two different values himself. I posted on the topic because there was no way a class I laser could cause ANY harm and I knew it. I still think they're being dumb for not publishing because the interlock was circumvented and a class II laser is now potentially exposed. It's visible light and your blink reflex will prevent vision damage.
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!
I amazed how long it took for someone to point this out. This truly is an apalling mod. The guy has some woodworking skills, but you could have made a better mod by nailing all the systems to a tree.
I always wondered what would happen to those kids that took "Shop" 20 years later...
Stop the madness.
Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.
My ultimate gaming console is a modded XBOX with emulators for all the Nintendo consoles, and a 160 gig drive to house the emulators. Much easier to install, and heck, you can play XBOX games too :)
I agree with these two posts. Well except the "gay" part.
So stacking the consoles isn't a mod, but putting a wooden box over the stack is.
The article sounded interesting when he said that the consoles use different voltages, but then he just decided to put each console's power supply inside the box...
The travesty is that this guy took apart a much rarer SNES-2 system, instead of selling that one on eBay and picking up a classic SNES for next to nothing. I realize it's smaller than the classic one, but given the final size of this "console" did it really make a difference?
At least he didn't rip apart an NES-2 toploader. Those things routinely go for $80 or more on the collectors' market.
The SNES, 64, and GameCube all us the exact same A/V cable. When I want to switch between these systems, I just make sure they have a power supply, and switch the A/V cable around accordingly... The onyl drawback is you won't be able to play GC in Progressive Scan
Reminds me of the puzzle box in Hellraiser. Move the analog sticks counterclockwise and you'll summon Pinhead Mario?
He couldn't use thinner wood and make the external ports flush? He doesn't have room to plug in the Wavebird wireless port for Gamecube!
What an 1D10T!
Super Noah's Ark 3D
You were looking for this http://sealiecomputing.com/retrozone/ perhaps?
I think it would be cool if Nintendo released a Gamecube disc with all the nes games ever made burned onto it. A person wouldn't need an internet connection to a server, and would also be able to use the wavebird controller as well.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!