nPod
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Benheck one-ups himself with portable nPod 2
Just as Nintendo has dropped the unwieldy designs of their past in favor of svelte, smaller designs, so too has hacker-extraordinaire Ben Heckendorn (that's Benheck to you kids). He's gone and updated the dated retro-Nintendo look of his original nPod with something decidely more Apple modern-Nintendo like. Behold: the nPod 2!The Geppetto to this Pinocchio writes, "[The nPod 2] uses a different kind of NES on a chip motherboard and is actually even smaller than my original nPod. It has an easy-to-use sliding battery pack (4 AA's that last a long time) and clean, simple styling. And lo and behold it has a headphone jack! Customization would also be possible, such as all the gray parts could be a different color, for instance."Just how small is it? "Think of 2 NES carts stacked atop each other, and that's pretty much it." Not bad, and bonus points for using Nintendo's metric of x amount of something stacked atop each other. Better still, you won't have to settle for ogling it through the dense and unloving prism of your computer screen. You'll be able to throw $250-300 (he guesstimates) down and buy one for yourself (or a loved one). Whaddya say? For the price of a Wii, are you buying?See also:Top 10 custom-built consolesNES Micro by Ben Heckendornbenheck does it again - the portable N64[Via TechEblog]
Ben Heckendorn's new, improved nPod
Never one to rest on his laurels,the great Ben Heckendorn has taken his already-stylin' nPod portable 8-bit Nintendo console and reworked it around a smaller "NES on a chip" to come up with a unit that's even more polished and compact than the original. Like the nPod 1.0, this new version is only slightly bigger than those bulky plastic cartridges it plays, yet still manages to include a headphone jack and convenient sliding battery pack powered by four regular AAs. As usual, the talented Mr. Heckendorn is happy to part with the prototype (for the right price), but this time around he's also seeking feedback to gauge the market for a potential limited production run of these devices. If the NES emulator on your smartphone just isn't doing it for you anymore, then head over to Ben's site and let him know how much you'd be willing to throw down for one of these -- he may even equip them with such niceties as a system link and TV out if that's what his adoring public demands. Keep reading if you want to catch a tantalizing glimpse of the nPod 2.0 from behind...[Via Make]
Ben Heckendorn's latest, the nPod
This guy is just out of control. After taking a brief break to work on his own independent film, Ben Heckendorn is back to his old hardware hacking ways, this time cramming a portable NES system into form factor barely larger than the cartridges it plays. Titled the "nPod," his new creation has a 3.5-inch screen, runs on four AA batteries, and is based on one of those "NES on a chip" joysticks. It's obviously about as small as a unit can be and still manage those beastly plastic game carts, but we're sure Ben will find another way to display his leet hacking skills before too long.[Thanks, ThinkRandom]
