For a while I had been trying
to think of something that I could take and make into a
PC. I'd seen plenty of items modded into PC's; ammo cases,
an R/C Hummer, but most of those were beyond my level of
Dremmel aptitude. Then one day it hit me while sleeping
on the bus. "An old Nintendo would be a perfect fit
for an ITX board." I thought to myself as the driver
hit a bump and I was startled awake. Brilliant!
Of course, I wasn't the first person to think of doing
this, although at the time I thought I was (I was partially
asleep, remember?). A few days later I ordered the parts
I needed, and waited impatiently for them to arrive. In
the meantime, I went a bought a Dremmel, and some odds and
ends at Radio Shack.
Parts List:
VIA mini-ITX Board w/ 800Mhz Processor
512MB PC133 RAM
150 Watt Flex-ATX Power Supply
40mm Case Fan
6GB Toshiba 2.5" Hard Drive
Cannibalized power/reset wires from an old case
Blue LED
Dremmel w/ cutitng discs
Soldering iron
Immense amount of patience
To make a long story short, I don't have a steady hand,
so my cuts were a little less than perfect. Being most of
them are in the back, I'm not too concerned about them.
I also decided to go with an internal power supply, which
left no room for an optical drive. Again, not a big deal
because I honestly didn't plan to do much with it when it
was completed.
I made some brackets out of the piece of plastic removed
to make way for the power supply to in turn hold it in place.
Some super strong velcro secures it to the brackets and
top of the case. The power and reset buttons, as well as
the front LED are fully functional thanks to some old case
wiring and a soldering iron. The bottom had to be cut to
make room for the board, so I replaced it with a think sheet
of plexi. The black strip that runs down the right side
of the case is almost exactly 40mm, so I'm sure you can
guess where that 40mm fan went, can't you?
The controller ports are fully functional. I followed this
guide in order to get the wiring down right. I skipped
the parts about making a parallel port adaptor, and just
soldered all the wires directly to the port on the motherboard.
To get the original controllers working with the FCE
Ultra emulator, I used the PSX Pad drivers, which you
can download from here.
If you're planning on making one of these, my best advice
to you is to have a spare Nintendo. I had one already, and
bought a broken one on eBay for $10 just in case I mucked
the original one up, which I ended up doing. Also, wear
some form of respiratory system protection when cutting.
That 1980's plastic sure does give off a funny little odor
when it heats up. |
