I know; the title is not really saying a lot. Who needs a DVD player in their NES? Well, nobody really. But it sure is fun to see what you can cram inside a NES case and make it still look as much like an authentic NES as possible. It was only after I completed this hack that I bothered to see if anyone had done something similar before. It turns out that somebody has, but in my totally biased opinion, not nearly as well.

Despite my pride in my creation and the “ultimate” in the article title (I like to exaggerate sometimes for dramatic effect), it doesn’t mean that a NES DVD player design couldn’t be improved. I am particularly proud of my unit’s exterior — how the NES’ look and feel was preserved without drastic interruption. However, the internals could have probably been pulled off with a lot more elegance if one had better tools, better materials, and more experience in doing this sort of thing. All that being said, here are some nice features of my particular NES DVD Player:

NES Power Button turns DVD Power on/off.

NES Reset Button ejects DVD tray.

Fully functional remote control…control.

Infrared receiver (for remote control) inconspicuously placed in first-player controller port area.

Upon ejecting or retracting the DVD tray, the NES cartridge slot door opens/closes automatically.

Stereo RCA audio left and right output jacks positioned on right side of unit where former NES composite video and mono audio RCA jacks were.

RCA Composite video output jack positioned where former NES RF output was.

Optional S-Video Output jack where NES channel 3-4 switch was.

AC Power cord firmly attached where NES AC Power Adapter used to plug in.

Yes, it really plays DVDs.

Now with all of that out of the way, sit down, relax, and I’ll tell you the story of how I made this beast.

Prepare for lots of pictures after the break…

Prologue: Breakfast of Champions

Monday, February 27th, 2006 – 11:00 AM

It all started at the breakfast table. It seems like everybody is turning a NES into a something else these days, and I wanted to take a crack at it. I pulled out a NES, plopped it on the table and brainstormed. Like most of my best ideas these days…they come from my fiance.

Up to that point I was trying to figure out how to turn a “toaster” NES into a real toaster. Of course, putting Nichrome heating elements inside a plastic case with less than one inch of clearance on one side is not a particularly good idea. I then thought about doing it anyway — building a NES toaster that would toast bread only once, shortly before dramatically melting into a puddle of NES-colored goo. I would video tape the entire process, put it on the Net and become famous for being a complete retard.

So there I was, staring like a zombie at a NES, lost in worlds of fame unknown, when my fiance suggested that I turn it into a DVD player. “Wow, how simple,” I thought, snapping out of my trance. I even had a cheap, crappy, small DVD player sitting around that I could use! So I grabbed the DVD player and an old, nicked-up NES that was already apart and got to work. I wouldn’t see my significant other again until about 2 am the next morning — I had twelve straight hours of intense, exacting work ahead of me.

Most hacker stories start something like this: “I grabbed a bag of [popular junk food] (Cool Ranch Doritos) and a twelve-pack of [ super-caffeinated soft drink] (Mountain Dew) and got to work.” But I grabbed nothing, for I would not be eating food that day. No; food is for pansies. I would be eating pure electrons.

Epilogue: The Dull Roar of Success

Friday, March 3rd, 2006 – 3:56 PM

Well, that’s it. I am now the proud owner of a DVD player that is shaped like a Nintendo Entertainment System, and you are the proud owner of scads of new technical knowledge of a dubious nature. Now go back the the beginning of the article and watch the video again, gaining new appreciation of the NES DVD Player’s precision Swiss-timing operation. If you build one yourself, let me know! By the way, does anybody want to hack up a NES control pad and turn it into a DVD remote for this thing? Maybe that should be my next project — we’ll see. Thanks for reading my ramblings, and have fun hacking.

(Update – 06/25/2006: The NES DVD player featured in this article is now for sale on eBay.)

(Update – 07/05/2006: The NES DVD player auction is over. The final price was US $282.73. Kinda makes you want to build your own, doesn’t it?)