Help Ben Heck Finish His Portable N64!

It's better to make it simpler

*****Image taken from the internet****

It's better to make it simpler

*****Image taken from the internet****

I think it is very easy for anyone to get hung up on the details of making something more portable. Mr. Heckendorn would do well to not seek perfection of portability and forsake more costly gaming systems in the process of chasing the ideal "portable" (specifically with marrying the indirect RAM extension card to port). In other words, he shouldn't use existing architecture. Fiddle around with a blank pin-out board instead of the sourced motherboards, that way further carnage is not executed up the growing death-toll.

Daniel Bautista's design is essentially the thinner mother board of the N64 with out it's plastic shell. I think this suugestionscould salvage the existing project.

As Ben Heck had observed in the first episode of this series, the Nintendo 64 was adorned with an elaborate and ornate plastic outer case that forces it to be the gaming appliance center-piece of the home. The N64 was to rest above your VCR, as if to assume an heir of privilege & place itself upon the throne of every living room as the crown jewel of any entertainment center. This engineering decision by the clowns at Nintendo forced the hand of design to borrow multi-lateral space from the top-end of the architecture.

This is a tragic dilemma for Mr. Heckendorn: On one hand there is the finite and diminishing quantity of motherboards. There are only so many Nintendo 64s that were manufactured over a five year gestation period before project dolphin (GameCube ceased productions of all N64s). The original factory stock gray cases have become the last bastion for every after-market Doctor Frankenstein hoping to jerry-rig the unit. Wanting to modify the console is totally understandable. These antiques first went on shelves last millennium during the Y2K virus patching. In other words, it is a the belief of those belonging to the millennial generation that the video games have not stood well to the test of time. Perhaps they have a point. Are we clinging onto a bastardized amalgamation of hubris? If so, how do we teach a new dog the old N64 gaming tricks that we so very nostalgically adore?

On the other hand we have the delicate nature of security lock out chips, proprietary CPU codex chips, and the risk of sending a collector's piece to the shop floor beside the rubbish bin. It is a foolish gamble to break the factory seal of any N64 in working condition. Simply because you have fabricated a novel pinball table and own a triangle-tip drill bit for backwards engineering intellectual property, does not inherently grant utmost efficacy to the home-brew bootlegger.

Philosophy and economics aside it seems to me the most compact solution (if not Daniel Bautista's clever proposition), would be to go straight back to the drawing board and ask Rasberry Pi for another product placement. You will need to have compact sim card with an emulator (the larger community will thank you for pre-installing Project64.exe) along with a USB 3c with recharging li-po battery packs. Imagine the fruits you will bear as testament to your labor (raspberry pi pun not intended )

As a fellow professional tinker that loves to restore vintage kitchen appliance to an enhanced state of their former retro glory, I do recognize and embrace the trial and error process that the Ben Heck Show broadcasts. I only feel a tinge of remorse when I consider my own carbon footprint as I outsource replacement parts.