Modder shoves emulator, ROMs into actual NES controller

This one has been around the block a time or two, but considering you have absolutely nothing else to do on a Sunday, you might as well dust off that DIY kit and get to work. What you're looking at above is a genuine (albeit modified) NES controller playing a bona fide classic on a laptop. Amazingly, all of the software required for such a marvelously good time is stuffed tight within the controller itself. Take a step back and digest that -- your very own NES emulator (with ROMs), shoved inside a Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Does it get any more awesome than that? Hit the read link to start building your own and let us know. Video of the action after the jump.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

[who? @ Jul 20th 2008 4:43AM]

Sweet, but wasn't this done before? Maybe not...

[who? @ Jul 20th 2008 4:47AM]

Oh, I remember now! Like over a year ago on Digg: http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/1/15/6629

[who? @ Jul 20th 2008 5:38AM]

My link goes to one that can HOOK UP TO A TV and do what this one can only when hooked up to a laptop, and the one I posted is from January 2007...

Did I mention you can plug NES cartridges into the back of the mod I found for the controller? Admit it, I got you beat. Come on. Say it SAY IT!

[Kurian @ Jul 20th 2008 5:54AM]

I could have sworn Engadged wrote an article about a NES controller with a LCD screen built in. All you needed was the controller.

Why are they posting news that is inferior to previously posted news?
I mean, its like posting an article about a brand new Athlon XP 2500+.

[brickwood @ Jul 20th 2008 6:19AM]

better than no news, right? besides, this will entertain those without knowledge of any prior made hacks and inspires those with the skill to try new things.

[monkfishbandana @ Jul 20th 2008 7:19AM]

@ who?

"This one has been around the block a time or two..."

Oh, I remember now! Like, RTFA.

[Pepsipoint @ Jul 20th 2008 9:24AM]

"Why are they posting news that is inferior to previously posted news?"

LOL are you new here? Have you read some of the other posts. It's what they do here sometimes.

[R @ Jul 20th 2008 11:33AM]

Actually, TVs pretty much suck more now. SO THERE. :p

[Matt E. @ Jul 20th 2008 1:51PM]

They both have their merits. One plugs into the TV and is great for parties. the other uses USB to plug into your PC, which could then be plugged into a TV for parties. I for one would like to see the ultimate hack and see one controller that could do both.

[Konstantin @ Jul 20th 2008 4:45AM]

Sweet! Gotta try this one.

[Seanross @ Jul 20th 2008 4:59AM]

Tag. I must do this eventually.. I have every NES rom

[neofolklore @ Jul 21st 2008 8:13AM]

yeh screw you noobs on the pirate bay i got my roms from SUPERNOVA back in the daaay

[Andrew Borem @ Jul 21st 2008 8:54AM]

SUPERNOVA!!

Those were good times.

[Schfelzerberg @ Jul 20th 2008 5:01AM]

Uhh... What's so special about this? I have a 8 GB USB flash drive with an SNES, Genesis, and PS1 emulator with a bunch of ROMs and ISOs and it allows me to play them on any post-2003 computer with Windows XP. If that controller ain't a flash drive, I'll take back what I said.

[andres @ Jul 20th 2008 6:01AM]

the controller has a flash drive inside that holds the roms, but the controller still functions as a controller to play the games

[Colin Potter @ Jul 20th 2008 5:03AM]

Engadget, please stop posting articles like this just to fill a page. This is the umpteenth time you guys have posted an article about a cool mod, and its getting a bit old and I wouldn't really call it gadget news anymore... same with the articles about generic PMPs and cellphones, we love you engadget, but you're getting a little stale.

[andres @ Jul 20th 2008 6:04AM]

i wouldnt call it news either, because its a blog.
honestly, if you dont like the article, then dont click on it.

[andres @ Jul 20th 2008 6:25AM]

by news i meant not a news site

[Paul @ Jul 20th 2008 5:19AM]

i think the novelty of it being an NES controller is what is cool
its basically a flash drive

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 20th 2008 5:25AM]

Either NES was that good, or Nintendo had added some LSD (or other addictive) to their consoles.

Reading thru looser plumber fans comments and flames on Joystiq - and now this guys too - I'm feeling something wrong with all the people, who can't let the past go.

Or something's wrong with the people - or with the past.

[Tom Reinke @ Jul 20th 2008 8:35AM]

Or something is wrong with you because you can't spell lose. D:

[ishism @ Jul 20th 2008 8:40PM]

It was that good. If it wasn't for the NES taking video games to the next level, there would be no interest in making better systems. genesis, snes, playstation or xbox, would not happen. You must be a youngster. If not, then you can't see the dynamics created by such a simple concept.

[neofolklore @ Jul 21st 2008 8:14AM]

WAIT WAIT WHAT

NES WAS AN ACTUAL TANGIBLE SYSTEM?

oh man, oh man what the heck

[invent @ Jul 20th 2008 5:58AM]

Someone is having fun... Looks like the mod is well done!

[inVent @ Jul 20th 2008 6:06AM]

Console mods are seldom my favorite gadget information...

[Kawaiipikachu @ Jul 20th 2008 8:02AM]

I don't see contrubuting to the $2 billion lost to pirecy each year cool i see it as sick & evil .
Buy legal copies not download tickets to prison .
There are plenty of nes titles for purchase on the Wii's shop channel at a very good cost .

[deyanimay @ Jul 20th 2008 9:56AM]

or maybe just buy them used on ebay or something for like $1 each, then you can legally play roms because you own an original copy.

[Zorque @ Jul 20th 2008 3:47PM]

So, which division of Nintendo do you work for.

[ishism @ Jul 20th 2008 8:25PM]

why buy the cow.....?

[hiko36 @ Jul 20th 2008 8:56PM]

I fail to see how NES Piracy affects anyone nowadays. Nintendo isnt making a profit, gamestores are barely making anything on them. It's when talking about Current and last gen consoles that it become a problem...

[kagai @ Jul 21st 2008 12:04AM]

Thar be gold in them thar NES softwares sales! ARGGHH!

[Mag Li @ Jul 22nd 2008 11:08PM]

You can see it that way, or, you can see it as all these "Piracy" is giving the NES immortality.

What is a few billion bucks compared to immortality?

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jul 20th 2008 8:10AM]

Sweet. Nintendo should market it.

Though, if you want to get rid of the controller and the notebook, just grab your iPhone or iPod touch and run it on those. Keep the whole mess in your pocket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PGB9YXxqk8&feature=related

[Hooterman @ Jul 21st 2008 10:35AM]

Yeah cuz who doesn't love to play old console games on a touch screen with no real buttons. Oh right, most people.

It's pointless for me to even tell you to quit trying to bring up the iphone in every topic, so I won't. But a PSP referrence would of been more suitable for this one.

But props to this guy, I'd love to have one of these!

[icepop4who @ Jul 20th 2008 9:30AM]

That nostalgia never dies eh?

[SuperSexyErik @ Jul 20th 2008 11:52AM]

iPod touch/iPhone users can get all kinds of emulators for their devices:

Nes, genesis, gba, gb original, ps1, etc :)

[kevin @ Jul 20th 2008 11:56AM]

No kidding.

And thanks for bringing it back to the iPhone.

[Christian Walters @ Jul 20th 2008 12:38PM]

@kevin, HELLO! This is Engadget! This site CANNOT have a single story without an iPhone related comment!

[SuperSexyErik @ Jul 20th 2008 1:12PM]

Lol. Yupp iPhone does it all :)

Sing with me ! : iPhone, iPhone; iPhone, iphone, iPhone .

[jupiterthunder @ Jul 20th 2008 1:44PM]

@Christian Walters

Sure they could. They could disable comments entirely so people who waste time belly-aching about what someone else posts can't post their equally irrelevant responses.

[digitallysick @ Jul 20th 2008 12:55PM]

DO WANT! how amazing it that years ago we had to have a cartridge for every game and now a huge list of games can be played directly from the controller. thats amazing really

[thedesolate1 @ Jul 20th 2008 1:15PM]

I think they should do a contest to see how much shit you can do with an SNES. I still have a alot of games I have yet to play. I have to admit all these NES hacks are amazing.

[ZeroCorpse @ Jul 20th 2008 1:41PM]

I don't understand all this nostalgia. I used to own every console released in North America, and I got them *when they were originally released*, but at some point I realized that I never played the older ones, and sold most of them.

NES games bore me now. Truly bore me. Most of them have been rehashed as Flash games or minigames in better, bigger games. Most of the NES era was side-scrollers, puzzlers, and other platformers... And although I enjoyed them when they were new, I find them old-fashioned and silly now.

If we're going to do older games in a small packaged, what I'd love to see is a Commodore=64 game collection packed into a small device that hooks up to the TV. I suppose it would actually have to be C=64 in shape (but smaller) because most games used the keyboard at some point, but something on flash memory that loads instantly would beat dragging out the old computer and waiting for the 1541 to find data. . . Slowly.

Yeah. Through most of the NES era, I was on the C=64 or C=128. The bigger, better games on the Commodore computers just blew the NES out of the water. I liked the NES (it was faster loading, at least, and had some fun, unique titles) but the C=64 was a lot more fun.

Give me THAT in a small, light package, all the C=64 ROMs included, and I'll be happy.

[Adeptus @ Jul 20th 2008 10:53PM]

There is (was?) a commercially available C64 joystick you plug into your TV that had about 20-30 games on it.
It was called C64-DTV (or something obvious like that...)
Apparently it was easily modded to connect a second joystick, a PC keyboard (PS/2), and I think even a 1541 if you still had one...

[Hooterman @ Jul 21st 2008 10:38AM]

So because some peoples nostalgia doesn't line up with your nostalgia then they shouldn't be allowed to make hacks like this?

[Patrick @ Jul 20th 2008 4:08PM]

And you love to play Decathlon now?

[Dave @ Jul 20th 2008 8:11PM]

While admire the ambition to tackle such a project, I prefer having my NES emulator on my laptop then connecting it to my 42" TV and using a PC game pad.

But that's just me.

[Tiguru @ Jul 20th 2008 9:01PM]

I wish this was for sale!! Nintendo if you read that....

[richard knights @ Jul 21st 2008 6:22AM]

Thats nothing, I have a full Amiga emulator built into my co*k

[CosterMonger @ Jul 21st 2008 11:03AM]

cook?