When Nintendo announced the pint-sized NES Classic, people rightly got super excited about the little guy. Although its hardware limitations became more known over time, the gadget is just so tiny, cute, and cheap that it’s easy to look past its faults. But one hardware hacker named daftmike crafted the mini NES Nintendo should have made, and it will give you intense teeny console jealousy.



Like Nintendo’s upcoming system, daftmike’s Raspberry Pi creation is also tiny. But there is one hugely key difference: it also comes with tiny NFC-equipped NES cartridges. Since he’s running RetroPie emulators off of a Raspberry Pi, he’s also able to make cartridges for games that never launched on the original NES system like Pokémon Red and Blue.


The console shell, controller, and cartridges are all 3D printed, but what’s happening inside that gray and black box is the interesting part. With an NFC tag embedded in the cartridge, you can essentially write any game to that cartridge using the NFC Tools Android app. As demoed, you can switch between original Pokémon Red and the newer FireRed on the fly.

If you’re the ambitious type that loves to tinker, daftmike has graciously outlined his process. See? Told you you’d be jealous.


[Kotaku UK]