My brother and I were talking a while back about things to make out of NES controllers, this inspired me to make a wallet out of the one i had sitting in my attic. After looking at the two instructables on here(the only other two on the web that I could find) I decided that I wanted to make my own, as I didn't like that both of them were really thick. So here is my NES controller wallet, no thicker longer or wider than a standard NES controller, and it fits up to two credit cards. I apologize in advance for the crappy pictures.

Step 1: Tools

The tools that you should need are: your favorite rotary tool - mine is a GMC, but anything that can spin at variable speeds and use a grinding wheel, sanding drum, and small drill bits will work. Next is a razor blade, it really helps to remove excess pieces of plastic from the grinding/sanding Also along the lines of removing extra plastic is a small file, not really needed, but it helps to clean up rough edges. Needle nose pliers and wire cutters are very helpful, but not necessarily needed.

items not pictured (because I forgot):
A small phillips head screw driver. 2 post (not hanging or loopey) earrings with that you are willing to destroy. A small tube of super glue. A length of ribbon, about 3/4" wide and the length of the controller on the inside. And lastly some super tacky craft glue. Oh yeah, and a NES Controller.

Step 2: Opening the Controller

First off you need to open your controller, via 6 little Phillips head screws. After removing the back you should find a very simple circuit board, remove this and set aside, it will be a brace for the buttons later on. You will also want to remove the buttons and their rubber contact parts.

Step 3: Grinding

See all those little posts, yeah, we're going to have to get rid of most of them. Refer to the second picture to see which ones are left standing. Smoothing out where they were standing is a good idea as you don't want little sharp bits sticking up ripping your money.

After you're done removing the posts, you need to cut out your credit card hole. Now if all you're going to be carrying in this wallet is cash, you can totally skip this, but it's good to have it just in case.

Step 4: Button Holder

I regret to say that I have no pictures of me cutting the button holder, but I do have the finished product picture. It took me a while to figure out how to get the buttons to stay while having them feel normal when depressed. I finally figured it out when I went to put the whole project away one night and realized that the thing that originally held them was exactly what I needed.

SO, cut away excess circuit board with your rotary tool and cutting blade. I found it best to cut out chunks at a time, like the small piece at the bottom there, that was four little pieces rather then one long dangerous one.

Now, after making this piece, don't go on installing it, because with it in it makes it hard to get the hinge in place.

Step 5: Fabric Hinge

This part kept me up for 2 nights strait...well, not really, but it did take me a long time to figure out how to keep the top and bottom together. Initially I had an actual little metal hinge, but it just didn't work out.

I used this red ribbon only because it was all I had and I wanted my wallet done today, the only requirement for the ribbon is that it is long enough to hold secure, it isn't so thin that the glue won't have anything to bind, and that it is wide enough to grip to a good amount on the top an bottom of the controller parts.

First off you'll only be gluing half of the controller at a time. You're going to want to put a small line of glue on one of the halves of the controller then firmly press the ribbon onto it and keep pressing until it holds itself to the controller. After the first half has dried put the controller pieces as you see below, the bottom piece is slightly thinner, so you might want to put some paper below it to make the tops even. You need to keep the halves how they are when gluing the second side so that your wallet will be able to open to this full 180 degrees.

Glue the same way for the second side as you did the first, but keep an eye out for rouge glue that tries to glue the plastic to plastic. Before the glue sets too much though make sure that the edges are lined up perfectly, so that the little ridges around the edge will fit into each other when closed. I also found that it helps to spread the glue with a toothpick and to put extra glue under the edges.

after you're done all your gluing and your hinge works well, you can put your buttons back into place with their brace. I cut off excess parts of the rubber with a razor blade so that they wouldn't be in the way, but that's just me.

Step 6: Closing

This part is probably going to be the most confusing part for everyone. The earrings serve as a method of clasping the wallet closed so that it's contents don't end up in your pocket. Magnets could possibly work, but that's kind of scary to be putting right next to a debit/credit card.

The earrings that I used had a long post that goes threw the ear, then a little flat part, then a little more post...something like this: --------|- if that makes any sense. I really have no clue how to explain how this works, but if you look at the pictures you should be able to figure it out.

Step 7: Done

Now hopefully if I was good enough at writing this Instructable, you too should have your very own NES Controller Wallet! It isn't nearly as practical as a normal wallet(slow to open and close, everything falls out when it's open.) but it's a hell lot better looking.