NES-top Computer: Part 1

Hi guys SighFye here.

Over the last few days I have been playing around with the idea of building a blue-ray player/retro gaming system inside a Nintendo case. To do this I will build a PC inside the case. This will give me my blue-ray player and by using emulators I can fill the beast with emulators for Nintendo, Super Nintendo, N64, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, PlayStation and Xbox I can achieve the retro gaming system.

The main problems I can see straight off the bat are space and heat. Computers generate a lot of heat in general and then cramming it all into a space one tenth of the size will highly increase the chances of over heating.

So first steps to this whole thing is finding a NES. I found this one of Ebay.

THIS PAL VERSION NES CONSOLE IS SUPPLIED IN NON-WORKING CONDITION - IT BLINKS A RED LIGHT WHEN TRYING TO BOOT UP GAMES. IT SUPPLIED "AS IS" WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE FLINSTONES AND SUPER MARIO BROS. / DUCK HUNT GAME CARTIDGES ARE ALSO INCLUDED WITH THIS BUNDLE.

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO CONTROLLERS, POWER SUPPLIES OR CONTROLLERS ARE INCLUDED

 Personally I think it was a little pricey for something that's not working but I couldn't find anything better without the case looking like shit. I don't want to get one that is working as that will take one away from someone else who wants a working one. With this I do get two games I can sell to gain my money back. So I bought this one.

ITEM: Nintendo
PRICE: $78 + $20 postage
TOTAL CURRENT PRICE OF BUILD: $98 

Jumping onto Google I found the external dimensions of the NES.

• Height: 88mm
• Width: 254mm
• Depth: 203.2mm

I subtracted 5mm from all edges to estimate the thickness of the plastic and drew together a basic blueprint. Here is the current plan.

As you can see everything fits nicely. The motherboard will be a mini-ITX board, blue-ray player a slim line player and the fans 30mm fans. I also found you can get power supplies that are the size of two AA batteries so that won't take up much room either.

The next step is to do my motherboard research and find one that, 1) Fits and 2) Is powerful enough. I don't want this build to be weak.

So that's it for today. I will start my motherboard research and when the NES comes get some proper dimensions. Until then, geek it up readers.

SighFye

Read Part 2 Here