Netflix stuffed its video service into an NES cartridge

Netflix's experimental Hack Days often lead to wonderfully off-the-wall projects, but its latest might have produced the best example yet. Engineers Guy Cirino, Carenina Motion and Alex Wolfe have whipped up DarNES, a hack that turns the original Nintendo Entertainment System into a Netflix playback machine. The '80s-era console is unchanged -- the real trickery is inside a special 256KB cartridge. You probably wouldn't want to go on an Orange is the New Black marathon given the chunky 8-bit graphics, but it's nice to know that you can.

There are some other sweet projects emerging from Hack Day. BEEP harasses you into focusing on the TV, Netflix Earth shows activity around the world, Net the Netflix Cheats makes sure you only watch what your partner also wants to see, and Say Whaaat!!! shows subtitles for missed dialogue. Few if any of these will reach official apps, of course, but that's part of the point -- Netflix is taking the pressure off so that engineers can rejuvenate their creativity.