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The “TinyTendo” challenge, which inserts a actual NES into a Game Boy-sized enclosure, is not for the faint of coronary heart.
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The {hardware} can play {custom} sport cartridges, although full-size carts can be playable with an adapter.
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The TinyTendo fees by way of USB-C.
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Once reduce down, the NES chips will be soldered to a {custom} PCB that is smaller than a Raspberry Pi.
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The NES PCB and several other different boards work collectively to make the system operate.
If you need a moveable console that may play previous Nintendo Entertainment System video games, the best choice is software program emulation, whether or not you are utilizing Nintendo’s official Switch app, a moveable PC, or some low cost knockoff emulator handheld. For those that need higher accuracy than software program emulation can present, there’s all the time the Analogue Pocket, which might (with present firmware) re-create the NES in {hardware} utilizing its FPGA chip.
But some purists are unhappy with something apart from original {hardware}—that is the only possible explanation for tasks just like the TinyTendo, which fits to extraordinary lengths to squeeze a whole NES into a moveable package deal roughly the size and weight of the previous grey monochrome Game Boy. The challenge is the creation of {hardware} modder Redherring32, who ultimately plans to open-source the challenge.
For miniaturization tasks like this, you typically see chopped-up or totally custom-printed circuit boards used with the original chips to contort the {hardware} into a new form. This panorama orientation mod for the original Game Boy or the original Analogue NT are each good examples. But extra drastic measures had been wanted to squeeze a whole NES into a handheld console, most notably the removing of cumbersome pins and ceramic that the original chips all use.
“TinyTendo makes use of actual NES chips which were bodily reduce and floor down smaller,” wrote Redherring32. “A easy run down is that I sand away the underside of the chip until I hit the die and leads, then I reduce the chip smaller with a Dremel. The finish result’s 10x10x2mm, and floor mountable.”
The hand-cut chips save a substantial quantity of house by shedding the pins and ceramic.
Soldering the hand-cut chips to a {custom} PCB creates a totally useful NES board that’s “smaller than a Raspberry Pi 3,” although the design additionally integrates a energy administration PCB, a button PCB, and different boards for audio and different features. The console has a built-in LCD display screen, fees over USB-C, and performs miniaturized (non-original) sport cartridges, although full-size carts may very well be performed with an adapter.
The draw back of this challenge is that it requires the sacrifice of an precise NES to make it work. This prototype was created from an NES with a “very damaged motherboard,” and we’d encourage anybody who needs to make their very own to harvest components from non-functional consoles relatively than destroying functioning {hardware}.
Redherring32 is answerable for a number of different modding and preservation tasks, together with open supply PCB designs for the original front- and top-loading NES motherboards and the “PicoPad,” a useful controller that is significantly smaller than the connector that plugs it into the NES.
Listing picture by Redherring32/Twitter