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The Ultimate Nintendo Console

Posted by michael on from the callused-thumb dept.

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!"

18 of 354 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  2. Dealing with heat? by chrispyman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  3. Controller nightmare... by GarryOwen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  4. Nice Case by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Nice Case by the_weasel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I hear your complaint. Years ago, I was working at a place in Vancouver, supplying game companies and visual effects facilities with computers and software (3D Studio, Softimage, and computers to run them). Often we would also build personal computers for artists at these places.

      One day I get a personal visit from an art director with one of the movies filming locally. He explains that he wants a computer with a custom case - one that will match the decor. At first I thought he was talking about a prop for the show, but eventually it became clear, he wanted a working computer that he could put in his office at home.

      This was almost 10 years ago - No home computer was pretty, and most were just butt-ugly. If you could get a case in a color (other than beige), it was a shiny primary color.

      This guy had dropped almost 1,000,000 dollars on his new home, and the office alone had seen over 40,000 in renovations. As he described it, he would be damned if he was then going to put feature a very ugly computer in this very attractive office.

      I spent about a week looking for a source of attractive cases. There were none to be be found anywhere. So I called him back, and explained that we could do what he wanted, but the case would have to be custom fabricated, and it would be expensive as hell.

      To my shock, his answer was "If it comes in under 2,000 (Can) and you can work with my designer to ensure a perfect match, that would be fine with me."

      2000 Canadian for a case? SOLD. I got a deposit, and called his decorator/designer. The result of our discussions was an absolutely beautiful wooden cabinet for the computer hardware, made from the same oak that formed the desk, and the tables next to the couch he kept for clients. Total cost to my client, 1750, and I made GOOD profit.

      I made 7 more variations on cases like this, mostly with the same designer but different clients. There were a couple other word of mouths too. Some were wood, and one was made from bryushed aluminium. One was built into a console radio from the late 1930's (that was my favorite)

      I seriously considered going into this as a full time business. If a job had not appeared at the same time, doing something I had been dreaming of doing for years, I would have done it too.

      The moral of this long tale - there is a market for well designed computer gear, but its a very small one. The vast majority of the population would be unwilling to spend the kind of money it takes to build one of these, and even the rich don't tend to see computers as furniture yet.

      True custom manufactured computer cases are a novelty for people with plenty of disposable income.

      --
      - sarcasm is just one more service we offer -
  5. Worst part... no s-video... by Rahga · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  6. Re:Love by spinlocked · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sadly there's no such thing as mahogany any more. Not growing at least. It's one of the reasons Chippendale furniture is so jolly expensive.

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    # init 5
    Connection closed.

    Oh... ...bugger.
  7. Already been done by JuggleNuts · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yoshi from TechTV has already done this, and it looks a hell of a lot better. See it here.

  8. Must...have...cable...management! by 1337+Twinkie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  9. Re:Capability? by Jerf · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Well, it run several incarnations of Doom 1 and Doom 2:
    • Dooms 1 and 2 for the GBA
    • Doom "64" for the N64 (neither 1 or 2, so lets call it 1.5)
    • Super Nintendo Doom (~ equivalent to Doom 1)
    So if I'm doing my math right, this should support Doom 5.5.

    (What, you say it doesn't work that way...?)
  10. play every game, ever made, ever by Saeger · · Score: 2, Interesting
    An all-in-one Nintendo cabinet sounds great. The only thing missing is support for a few other classic consoles and a cheap and legal subscription to a server containing every game ROM ever made for those platforms (couple gig). Do that and then you've got yourself something!

    Too bad it'll never happen, so the technically 'illegal' abandon-ware ROMS will have to do (but it's actual work collecting them).

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    --
    Power to the Peaceful
  11. Re:Love by secolactico · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dang, I didn't believe you at first, but after some googling, I found out your are correct.

    While not yet extinct, it's almost there. Almost makes me feel bad for putting all that wooden furniture my grampa/grandma left me in a storage.

    We are truly killing this planet(*)... not that I'm doing anything to prevent it. :-(

    (*) In a manner of speaking. As George Carlin said, the planet isn't going anywhere... we are.

    --
    No sig
  12. hello? xbox!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    how bout just get an xbox with all the emulators installed. hello? mod-spot.com

  13. Just what we need. by JoshRoss · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  14. Re:It's 668 nm, you know, RED. by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not that a laser pointer is particularly safe.

  15. Re:MythTV by number · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually it's tending towards the opposite direction - as older consoles were less powerful, every last cycle had to be squeezed out of the CPU, along with every last little hard-to-predict nuance of the PPU itself. This makes the games much more susceptible to slight variations in the timing of emulated instructions/interrupts.

    As consoles get newer, more and more work is done in high-level development environments (somewhat with the SNES, almost all with the generation of consoles that followed) so that emulators have more leeway and more forgiving games. Heck, with new consoles like the N64, Playstation and even the Gamecube, you can recompile the game's assembly code into native x86 assembly (thus throwing off the timing) and reroute the graphics calls to DirectX, yet still have most games work properly, thanks to more modern, frame-skip-tolerant written-in-C-or-C++-with-frameworks console games.

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    - HOORAY!
  16. Re:MythTV by real_smiff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    yeah, you're not wrong, but it comes back to how fussy you are about the "real thing" issue that some people seem to get very anal about. witness the scanlines debates, filtering, and so on, some people will purposefully turn down options to give a more authentic experience.. i'm just happy for the games to look & sound as good as possible, but there's a significant number of people who played the originals who will notice every little thing that's 'wrong'.. and these are the poeple still messing with old consoles.. but yes arguably the SNES generation are the hardest to emulate because they were (and probably always will be) the most complex systems ever to use almost exclusively low level programming, custom chips in carts, direct hardware access, exploiting bugs for effects, and so forth.. but i have a feeling even if you get The Perfect Emu, you'll have people swearing on the Real Thing instead.. it's like Audiophiles or something. whatever floats your boat.

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    This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.

  17. Re:Wow - That thing is HUGE! by burns210 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Instead of a big wood box, he should have gutted an old coffee table... Heck, buying a 15 or 17 inch flat screen for the center, and you could have the games load on the front(where your knees would normally touch the table... Just find the right model/size table that has the room to hold the circui boards and hollow out (or similar) 1 leg for a single power(extension cord feeding to surge protector) and video cable and you are all set...

    A coffe table would look nicer, take up less room(hardly any, since you already have the table) and have been a cooler conversation peice... Besides, the kids could be playing that while the adults are watching the news in the same room.