nintendo entertainment system
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Working NES squeezed into ... an NES cartridge
All right, we'll admit that headline is a little inaccurate. The heavily modified Super Mario Bros. cart shown above actually plays Japanese Famicom carts (like the not-at-all-bootleg Super Bros. 5), not the slightly larger American NES carts. Semantics aside, we're sure you'll share our sense of awe at the accomplishment of fitting an entire video game system into what, at one point, was used to hold the data for a single game. All the pieces are there, believe it or not, including A/V outputs, a svelte power switch, and two controller ports sticking out at the bottom of the cartridge. The machine seems like a one-of-a-kind hack, and doesn't look like it's going to be sold any time soon. It's a shame, too ... we' d love to get our hands on one of these, if only so we could plug in our Flash Memory PowerPak via an adapter to create the ultimate NES-cartridge-shaped hacking monstrosity. [Via Engadget]
39 sealed Power Gloves, a great gift for nearly 5 octopi
All right, here's the situation: You're staging an NES-themed musical (off-Broadway) and the big finale requires a shiny, new Power Glove for all 40 members of the chorus line. You already have access to one unopened Glove that your grandmother gave you as a present in 1995 (way after it was a hot-ticket item), but you need the other 39 before the end of the month or the opening night of your show will be ruined!This is the only situation that we could think of to justify anyone bidding on the lot of 39 sealed, Japanese Power Gloves that recently showed up as a bulk lot on eBay. Apparently we're not imaginative enough, though, because the Australia-based auction already has four bids with a high offer of AU$90.88 (not including the hundreds of dollars in shipping costs). Maybe we're just not "bad" enough to realize the economic and cultural potential of owning what is most likely the world's largest collection of sealed Power Gloves in one place. So we leave it as an open question to our commenters: What would you do with 39 Power Gloves?[Via GameSniped]
iPhone + NES emulator = zOMG, hello Mario
NES emulation on the iPhone already? Watch the video and see how it's arrived already. Granted. it would be a lot better if you could swivel this thing into landscape mode to really make it work like an old-school Nintendo controller, but the fact that this is up and running is fairly impressive itself.The Unofficial Apple Weblog has the deets on this emulator, and we're looking forward to playing around with it. The only problem is, with a screen that small, can anyone really see what they're playing? Not if the controls stay like this, but we're hoping things get turned a little sideways and they crack the sound issue.
NES-playin' Taiwanese smartphone comes gamepad-equipped
Oh my -- we're fallin' in love. Our always-inventive pals in Taiwan have developed a "PDA Phone" called the Century Sutra 1688 that comes complete with a gamepad controller (not Bluetooth, darn) and an NES emulation system. If you're fond of "Super Mario Brothers" and "The Legend of Zelda" from the NES craziness of the 80s, you'd probably hand over a month's paycheck for one of these beauties just to take a trip down memory lane. We know we would. The gamepad for Windows Mobile isn't exactly a new concept, but add in NES emulation -- even though there are a ton of portable NES emulators out there -- and we're sold.
Today's duckiest video: Rockin' Duck Hunt
Retro love is everywhere these days, including this hard rockin' Duck Hunt video, complete with sounds and graphics from the Nintendo classic and clever usage of the light gun as a microphone. Plus, if that isn't enough, the guy's name is Robby Roadsteamer."I got a Duck Hunt, in my brain! Ready to take you out!"Classic.
Mashup: NES meets DVD and wins
Joystiq reader Zach has just spent countless hours, amounts of sweat, and possibly even ounces of blood by mashing up a Nintendo Entertainment System with a portable DVD player. The end result is a pretty swanky DVD player that even has a controller hooked up to it via USB to serve as the remote. It also plays nice with his PlayStation Portable, making this a completely bizarro world where Sony and Nintendo work things out and just get along.Check out his Flickr album of the whole project here, and then swing by and check out the video of the whole thing if you're so inclined. It's an impressive amount of work and looks pretty darn cool. He even has the original Nintendo bag as a little carrying case for it! In fact, if these were for sale, we'd buy a couple of 'em. This may have just inspired us to dig the old NES out of the garage and give it a whirl. One day the sweet day will come when someone mods a PS3 into one of these things
Today's retroest game video: NES Batman
Today's video pick, an overview of the NES classic, Batman, is the top-watched segment at GameTrailers. The game follows parts of the Tim Burton movie, and we agree with GameTrailers that it's among the best movie-IP games of all time. The batarang rocks.Top off your nostalgia-meter -- and hope for a Virtual Console release -- after the break.
Today's hottest game video: NES on PS3
It's either Sony's worst nightmare or Nintendo's bad dream, but here we have Mario Brothers circa the Nintendo Entertainment System apparently running on the PlayStation 3 for today's hottest game video. We reported this earlier today, and while we don't know if it's real or not, chances are it is. The PS3 has only been out for three days now, and we're just seeing the glimmer of the tip of the iceberg wayyyyyy off in the distance.Look for new homebrew efforts on your favorite $600 console soon. Video after the jump.
How did you blow your NES cartridge?
Gamers from the first Nintendo era know all about blowing that NES cartridge. There was something stupidly magical about blowing the cartridge and suddenly it all worked. For those too young, here's a quick breakdown: Before PlayStation and Super Nintendo -- there was the NES, which universally had an issue that you'd stick in a game and get a blank or messed-up screen. Then you'd proceed to take out the cartridge and using various blowing techniques get the thing to work again.Beyond1nfinite has written about various techniques he recalls from the "old skool." We certainly recall "The Harmonica Blower," who would blow into the cartridge like it was a harmonica and get spittle on the insides. Another one that brought back memories was "The Banger," who wouldn't blow, but just bang the cartridge, although can't remember that ever working. The most frighting one on the list is "The Alcoholic." Did people really ever put alcohol on a Q-tip to clean their cartridge? That just sounds like crazy talk.Anyway, the protocol around here was to blow and then follow it up by putting the cartridge almost all the way in. Then press down and make the cartridge pop in the rest of the way. Worked every time. Anybody remember other techniques?
Control the NES R.O.B. with your PC
There are a lot of mods out there for the NES controller that claim to be practical, but if we admit it they're only just thinly veiled excuses for mature adults to relive their wasted childhood. This latest mod, that makes Nintendo's Robotic Operating Buddy or (R.O.B. for short) controllable via a Linux PC, makes no claim to functionality: basically a guy called Fred managed to get R.O.B. to follow commands sent to it from his Linux box -- kind of the opposite of what R.O.B. is used to doing: interacting with a NES deck. We're not exactly sure how he did it, but we are certain it involved a lot of coding, soldering, and enough coffee to get Fred's doctor to class him as a technical insomniac -- but who needs sleep when you've got a little grey chip-hording robot to order about?[Via MAKE]
NES alarm clock; hit Reset to sleep in
An intrepid hacker has turned an otherwise broken NES into this marvelously nerdy alarm clock, garnering the jealous affection of fanboys the world over. It still needs some work--"alarm time and other parameters have to be set by manually shorting Player 1 controller input contacts with wire jumpers"--but he hopes to someday have it controlled with the paddles gamepads. Ideas: get that Power button to turn the alarm on/off, require the Konami code to shut the alarm off, add in some classic Nintendo alarm tones. Alright... we're nerds.[Via BoingBoing]
