All That Remains of the Original is a Couple of Transistors and Some Plugs

The original Super Nintendo console was a complex device with many intricate components, but after years of use and upgrades, it's now reduced to a few transistors and some plugs. The fact that this remains of the original console can be considered special, especially when compared to other retro gaming consoles that have been revamped and upgraded for modern use.

The Question of Whether it Still Constitutes a Super Nintendo

One might wonder whether this collection of components still constitutes a Super Nintendo console. After all, the original device had a distinct shape and design that set it apart from other gaming consoles. However, the reality is that most of the core components have been removed or replaced over time, leaving behind a more basic version of the console. Nevertheless, the fact that this remains of the original can still be considered special, especially for enthusiasts who appreciate the history of retro gaming.

Playing Super Nintendo Games on it

Fortunately, despite its reduced state, one can still play many Super Nintendo games on this device. This is thanks to the built-in mobile discret graphics, which enable smooth gameplay and fast frame rates. The console also features 8 GB of dedicated VRAM, making it possible to play games at high resolutions and frame rates.

The Mini Form Machine: A Repackaged Device

This collection of components is actually based on a mini form machine, which has been repackaged into a new device that resembles the original Super Nintendo. The mini form machine was originally designed as a retro gaming console, but it has since been modified to fit the original Super Nintendo's hardware and design. While this may have compromised some of its original functionality, it has allowed for the creation of a unique and interesting project.

The Addition of New Components

Some new components have been added to this device, including an integrated Logitech unifying receiver, which allows for easy connectivity with other devices. A small auxiliary cooling fan has also been added, which helps to reduce noise levels during gameplay. Additionally, the DRR5 memory remains easily accessible, making it possible to upgrade and customize the console as desired.

The Challenges of Cooling

One challenge that arises when working with retro gaming consoles is cooling. The original Super Nintendo was designed to run hot, but adding a small auxiliary cooling fan helps to reduce noise levels during gameplay. However, even this may not be enough in some cases, particularly for more demanding games. Openly revising the design of the console could potentially improve cooling, but this would also compromise its original aesthetic.

The Power of 3D Printing

One of the most interesting aspects of this project is the use of 3D printing to create custom components and accessories. The addition of 3D printed buttons, a new controller, and other features shows just how versatile and creative the 3D printer can be. This highlights the power of DIY projects and the potential for enthusiasts to create unique and innovative solutions using readily available materials.

Adapters for PC Use

For those who want to play Super Nintendo games on their PC, there are many adapters available that can convert the proprietary signal pattern used by the console into standard USB signaling. One such adapter was used in this project, which allowed for easy connectivity with a PC and enabled smooth gameplay.

The Level One Community: A Hub for Enthusiasts

This project is just one example of the many amazing DIY projects that can be created using retro gaming consoles and other hardware components. The level one community is a hub for enthusiasts who share their creations, offer advice, and provide support to others. For those interested in taking on similar projects, there are many resources available online, including tutorials, forums, and social media groups.

The Mini Form HX100 G: An Updated Version

For those considering building a retro gaming console like this one, it's worth noting that an updated version of the mini form machine is now available. The mini form hx100 g features many improvements over its predecessor, including faster processors, improved cooling systems, and enhanced graphics capabilities. While this may not be as DIY-friendly as the original project, it offers a more comprehensive solution for those who want to create a retro gaming console without sacrificing performance or aesthetics.

The Conclusion

All That Remains of the Original Super Nintendo Console is a fascinating example of what can be created using retro hardware and creative problem-solving. While some compromises have been made in terms of design and functionality, this project showcases the power of DIY enthusiasts to breathe new life into old technology. Whether you're an experienced DIYer or just starting out, there's always something to be learned from projects like this one.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's special about this it's a Super Nintendo on the desk and what's that noise and then it gets weirder and weirder the longer you look at it doesn't it wait wait a second is he playing cyber Punk on a Super Nintendo so the hardware platform that gets this done AMD and minis Forum Min Forum machine just like this one with built-in rdna 3 Graphics buil-in USB 4 yes you could run an external egpu enclosure for this or an external USB 4 network card or whatever this basically repackaged into a hollow. Super Nintendo but the buttons have been modified and everything interfaces the original interface USB to original Super Nintendo controller yeah that's in there there's also an at Mega 324 U that is a microcontroller that interfaces some of the original Hardware so that when you hit the power button it acts just like an ATX power button and the reset button will actually reset and clear the BIOS this is actually Giga sters project for the last couple of months he uh took one of my mini Forum machines and was like hey let's modify it into a Super Nintendo and so we have at the rear we've got two HDMI One USB type-c that is a USB 4 connection and our 2 and2 gig ethernet and it's in the original Super Nintendo connection now it's still got the external power brick so it's got the giant mini for power brick but this is a mini for a machine crammed into a Super Nintendo this is not a super difficult project to do either you can get the models for this uh amber put together some of the 3D printable models for this we were originally going to try to put a screen here so there's a really nice 3D printable model for a taller version of a Super Nintendo cartridge so you could have a little screen here or something like that but but had some mishaps so the screen didn't work out but bottom line yes this is eight cores 32 GB of upgradeable ddr5 memory and rdna 3 in a tiny package and yeah because it's a PC you can run Steam games you can run Super Nintendo games you can run whatever you want this is a real Super Metroid cartridge that has real bits of ROM it is a real owned physical piece of media that can be enjoyed on our ship of thesis console here you know the patent on the Super Nintendo shell expired is only patents are only good for 20 years like the shell can be made by anybody at this point because the patent has expired we have this crazy world where copyrights last forever basically but patents are only 20 years like how crazy is that that you know the music of Miley Cyrus will be in copyright long after I'm dead but if someone were to invent something as useful as a flush toilet well that patent only good for 20 years we're also getting into this weird world where like you could copyright the design of something and that'll outlive the actual design of something which is really sort of untested Legally but that is the uh tomb that we find ourselves uh being encased in as someone is applying us with a Monaro and uh talking about how amazing our family is and before we know it we're trapped in the catacombs and there's nothing we can do it's already like that with copyright thanks Sunny Bono it is sort of an interesting question if you start with a console and you just keep repairing it and replacing Parts with modern equivalents and you end up with a modern PC that's a that's a little bit ship of thesis but does that cross some sort of line like does this have any special rights if you started and you upgraded and you replaced and you upgraded and you replaced and you upgraded and you replaced and this is what remains All That Remains of the original is a couple of transistors and some plugs and you know does this still constitute a Super Nintendo would you you know can you play Super Nintendo games on it oh you can you can I don't know if it's okay but you can you can play a lot more thanks to the built-in mobile discret Graphics yeah 8 GB of dedicated vram in this so you can game at 120 FPS in fact you can check out the full review that I did of the mini form machine on which this is based it's just been repackaged into this with some different IO connectors hot glue on the motherboard definitely wouldn't have been my first choice but it does have an integrated Logitech unifying receiver and you can see that a small auxiliary cooling fan has been added which is where most of our noise comes from the ddr5 Memory Remains easily accessible as does the m.2 and then everything else is just Port extensions flexible flat cables for the HDMI extensions and a special USB 4 right angle extension to wrap around and just an Ethernet extension from the back Port here if we really wanted to do this right we probably D and resolder but uh for the purposes of this it's totally fine this also gives us some about how we could do the cooling a little better if we were willing to sacrifice some Aesthetics it actually would cool a lot better if we opened up the sides um the sides do have a small gap which allows some air flow but it really would be a lot better if we just open the sides up completely maybe replace the side with a a similar 3D printed gray tinted plastic that sort of matches but is actually an air vent at that point it' be pretty obvious that wait a minute that's not a Super Nintendo at all but even from just a few feet way you'd be hardpressed to notice that there's anything unusual about this Super Nintendo unless you look directly at the back and you look at the ports for the buttons and the eject lever add 3D printed accessories the 3D printer really does the heavy lifting here you can just get creative with the 3D printer and it really just solves a lot of problems how does the Super Nintendo controller show up on a PC and make it usable fortunately that's a tail as old as time there are tons of uh different adapters out there that will convert the signal pattern that the Super Nintendo uses into just good old standard hid USB so USB has a standard in it for joysticks and so there's a little microcontroller that will take the proprietary Super Nintendo signaling and convert that into a USB joystick signaling and that's that's really the magic and yeah it's two port and it uses the original connector PCB so it's pretty easy to modify there's a lot of projects out there that do that in this case this was about a $4 conversion kit and some soldering and wires and some other stuff that you get into never underestimate the power of someone with unlimited free time and also a 3D printer and also lots and lots and lots of Hardware laying around lots of Hardware so much hardware and this this is what the level one Community is all about mods and building and making things and having the agency to think for yourself and enjoy the things that you've paid for because that's your right and you should and it's exciting and it's a lot of fun so if you have a project like this or you decide to pick pick up a Mini's Forum machine because gosh darn it it just looks looks like a super amount of fun come to the level one forum and hang out it's kind of a lot of fun and also you can show pictures of your projects and see what's going on and see a lot more of the the process that went into this and you know gigaba can answer your questions too I don't have time for that but he can it'll be good if you're thinking about doing this with a modern version of this well I would encourage you to take a look at the mini Forum hx100 G this is the updated version of this that's available now and we've got a full review of this as well so you can take a look at this and physically it's the same case same design same Min Forum thoughtfulness absolute Madness that's how we do it at level one I'm W this is level one I'm signing out you can find me and Giga Buster in the level one forums good job nice job on the project there's there's some rough edges there's still some work left to do here maybe we can revisit that screen all right I'm signing out and I will see you laterwhat's special about this it's a Super Nintendo on the desk and what's that noise and then it gets weirder and weirder the longer you look at it doesn't it wait wait a second is he playing cyber Punk on a Super Nintendo so the hardware platform that gets this done AMD and minis Forum Min Forum machine just like this one with built-in rdna 3 Graphics buil-in USB 4 yes you could run an external egpu enclosure for this or an external USB 4 network card or whatever this basically repackaged into a hollow. Super Nintendo but the buttons have been modified and everything interfaces the original interface USB to original Super Nintendo controller yeah that's in there there's also an at Mega 324 U that is a microcontroller that interfaces some of the original Hardware so that when you hit the power button it acts just like an ATX power button and the reset button will actually reset and clear the BIOS this is actually Giga sters project for the last couple of months he uh took one of my mini Forum machines and was like hey let's modify it into a Super Nintendo and so we have at the rear we've got two HDMI One USB type-c that is a USB 4 connection and our 2 and2 gig ethernet and it's in the original Super Nintendo connection now it's still got the external power brick so it's got the giant mini for power brick but this is a mini for a machine crammed into a Super Nintendo this is not a super difficult project to do either you can get the models for this uh amber put together some of the 3D printable models for this we were originally going to try to put a screen here so there's a really nice 3D printable model for a taller version of a Super Nintendo cartridge so you could have a little screen here or something like that but but had some mishaps so the screen didn't work out but bottom line yes this is eight cores 32 GB of upgradeable ddr5 memory and rdna 3 in a tiny package and yeah because it's a PC you can run Steam games you can run Super Nintendo games you can run whatever you want this is a real Super Metroid cartridge that has real bits of ROM it is a real owned physical piece of media that can be enjoyed on our ship of thesis console here you know the patent on the Super Nintendo shell expired is only patents are only good for 20 years like the shell can be made by anybody at this point because the patent has expired we have this crazy world where copyrights last forever basically but patents are only 20 years like how crazy is that that you know the music of Miley Cyrus will be in copyright long after I'm dead but if someone were to invent something as useful as a flush toilet well that patent only good for 20 years we're also getting into this weird world where like you could copyright the design of something and that'll outlive the actual design of something which is really sort of untested Legally but that is the uh tomb that we find ourselves uh being encased in as someone is applying us with a Monaro and uh talking about how amazing our family is and before we know it we're trapped in the catacombs and there's nothing we can do it's already like that with copyright thanks Sunny Bono it is sort of an interesting question if you start with a console and you just keep repairing it and replacing Parts with modern equivalents and you end up with a modern PC that's a that's a little bit ship of thesis but does that cross some sort of line like does this have any special rights if you started and you upgraded and you replaced and you upgraded and you replaced and you upgraded and you replaced and this is what remains All That Remains of the original is a couple of transistors and some plugs and you know does this still constitute a Super Nintendo would you you know can you play Super Nintendo games on it oh you can you can I don't know if it's okay but you can you can play a lot more thanks to the built-in mobile discret Graphics yeah 8 GB of dedicated vram in this so you can game at 120 FPS in fact you can check out the full review that I did of the mini form machine on which this is based it's just been repackaged into this with some different IO connectors hot glue on the motherboard definitely wouldn't have been my first choice but it does have an integrated Logitech unifying receiver and you can see that a small auxiliary cooling fan has been added which is where most of our noise comes from the ddr5 Memory Remains easily accessible as does the m.2 and then everything else is just Port extensions flexible flat cables for the HDMI extensions and a special USB 4 right angle extension to wrap around and just an Ethernet extension from the back Port here if we really wanted to do this right we probably D and resolder but uh for the purposes of this it's totally fine this also gives us some about how we could do the cooling a little better if we were willing to sacrifice some Aesthetics it actually would cool a lot better if we opened up the sides um the sides do have a small gap which allows some air flow but it really would be a lot better if we just open the sides up completely maybe replace the side with a a similar 3D printed gray tinted plastic that sort of matches but is actually an air vent at that point it' be pretty obvious that wait a minute that's not a Super Nintendo at all but even from just a few feet way you'd be hardpressed to notice that there's anything unusual about this Super Nintendo unless you look directly at the back and you look at the ports for the buttons and the eject lever add 3D printed accessories the 3D printer really does the heavy lifting here you can just get creative with the 3D printer and it really just solves a lot of problems how does the Super Nintendo controller show up on a PC and make it usable fortunately that's a tail as old as time there are tons of uh different adapters out there that will convert the signal pattern that the Super Nintendo uses into just good old standard hid USB so USB has a standard in it for joysticks and so there's a little microcontroller that will take the proprietary Super Nintendo signaling and convert that into a USB joystick signaling and that's that's really the magic and yeah it's two port and it uses the original connector PCB so it's pretty easy to modify there's a lot of projects out there that do that in this case this was about a $4 conversion kit and some soldering and wires and some other stuff that you get into never underestimate the power of someone with unlimited free time and also a 3D printer and also lots and lots and lots of Hardware laying around lots of Hardware so much hardware and this this is what the level one Community is all about mods and building and making things and having the agency to think for yourself and enjoy the things that you've paid for because that's your right and you should and it's exciting and it's a lot of fun so if you have a project like this or you decide to pick pick up a Mini's Forum machine because gosh darn it it just looks looks like a super amount of fun come to the level one forum and hang out it's kind of a lot of fun and also you can show pictures of your projects and see what's going on and see a lot more of the the process that went into this and you know gigaba can answer your questions too I don't have time for that but he can it'll be good if you're thinking about doing this with a modern version of this well I would encourage you to take a look at the mini Forum hx100 G this is the updated version of this that's available now and we've got a full review of this as well so you can take a look at this and physically it's the same case same design same Min Forum thoughtfulness absolute Madness that's how we do it at level one I'm W this is level one I'm signing out you can find me and Giga Buster in the level one forums good job nice job on the project there's there's some rough edges there's still some work left to do here maybe we can revisit that screen all right I'm signing out and I will see you later\n"