NES flash drive and USB port by fungus amungus
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The NES consoles and game cartridges have been used for many things, but I wanted to make some ridiculous system that utilized the slide-in action of the system. Of course what made the most sense was to put an 8 gig flash drive in the cartridge and make the NES the port. It had to happen!

And so it did. And here's how it happened.

Note: This NES was dead and sold to me as-is. I think the game cartridges still worked, but it's not like you can't play Tetris on everything.


 
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Step 1: Open a cartridge

nes3-8.jpg
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Get an old game cartridge and open it up. I used a special bit I got online that's made just for this, but I've heard of others having luck with making their own bits.
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johnnyjr100 says: Oct 25, 2011. 2:20 PM
i have a couple of recomandations for this.
1. make it so that it uses the original connecter and make a adapter in the cartrage.
2.make the controller slots work.
3. make the power button turn on or off the usb connection.
Thats all and this is a great instructible
fungus amungus (author) says: Oct 28, 2011. 1:29 PM
All good suggestions. I had this project on the back burner for a looong time. With so many things I wanted to do it just wasn't happening so I stripped it down to the easiest and bare essence. Of course there's plenty of room for exploration in this area if anyone else feels like doing it.
husamwadi says: May 23, 2011. 6:46 PM
LOL WOW, I WANT ONE!!!
ebayhax4u says: Apr 8, 2011. 9:00 PM
I am going to make this over the spring break but to make it more practical, after i've done what you did here im going to remove the two controller ports and add additional usb ports. and to just finish it off im going to take apart my controller, take out the guts, put in a flash drive, and connect an extension cable to the flash drive so it looks like a controller. Swap meet here i come!
Toastytoes says: Mar 6, 2011. 12:18 PM
You coud EASILY fit a 250 gig + SSD into one of those cartridges...
fungus amungus (author) says: Mar 9, 2011. 9:38 AM
If you are willing to give me one, I am willing to try it :)
killerjackalope says: Mar 17, 2011. 2:57 PM
Actually you could build it with a network drive inside, probably get the router in too - which would make for an awesome looking router...

Hide every cable you can inside with a single power cable and subtle aerials, for some reason routers always end up on show, might as well make everyone jealous...
Toastytoes says: Mar 10, 2011. 6:53 PM
Heh. If I had that kinda money...
TOCO says: Mar 13, 2011. 8:06 PM
I wish that i could get a 250 gig hdd for my laptop. but man ubuntu on an ssd would fly like the wind.
link4u_94 says: Mar 6, 2011. 12:27 PM
WHY DESTROY THE NES WHEN YOU EASILY COULD JUST HAVE UTILIZED THE PINS? AND THEN WITH A SMART CIRCUIT. SO YOU STILL COULD PLAY NES GAMES!
legless says: Mar 6, 2011. 11:12 PM
Did you not read the bit that said "This NES was dead and sold to me as-is"?
link4u_94 says: Mar 7, 2011. 1:01 AM
OK, sure i didnt read that, but, that is not very hard to repair!
i have repaired several old consoles, and only one is "super-dead".
roland985 says: Mar 7, 2011. 11:51 PM
Besides, not all of us want to play NES all the time... There are literally hundreds of emulators out there too...
link4u_94 says: Mar 8, 2011. 2:37 PM
Yes, true. But then again, a good conditioned nes is like a 100 Euro thing!

and as i said before you could make it compatible with the "usb" cart and play legit games at the same time.
fungus amungus (author) says: Mar 9, 2011. 3:08 PM
Yeah, but here it cost $10 for a broken one.
link4u_94 says: Mar 10, 2011. 3:36 AM
OK, sure ill' buy all of them!!
fungus amungus (author) says: Mar 10, 2011. 11:20 AM
Then ebay is your new best friend
link4u_94 says: Mar 13, 2011. 11:16 AM
Yea sure
crawlingdeadman says: Mar 2, 2011. 6:13 PM
remember how heavy The Legend of Zelda cartridge felt compared to the rest?
fungus amungus (author) says: Mar 3, 2011. 10:21 PM
Yeah, that was because it had a battery inside it.
crawlingdeadman says: Mar 9, 2011. 12:55 PM
yeah i know that now, at the time i thought it was a bigger game... because it weighed more...
roland985 says: Mar 7, 2011. 11:54 PM
Why?
brodyf says: Mar 8, 2011. 6:03 AM
to save data
roland985 says: Mar 9, 2011. 3:56 AM
Ah, was it because of volatile memory?
burn_seventh says: Mar 7, 2011. 1:12 AM
epic!! hahahahaha incredibly good (you could actually get the old 512 mb rams and load some roms's with it and actually PLAY the games on your laptop!!! (that way you could at least give it a spesific use)
zack247 says: Mar 2, 2011. 4:58 PM
i really enjoyed reading this! the nes started mostly all home gaming.

the only thing i would change is instead of cutting the cartridge and connector what you should have done is use the original connector and solder wires to the cartridge.

so like this:
usb drive > cartridge edge connector
cartridge socket > usb cable
zack247 says: Mar 4, 2011. 3:30 PM
just another thought here...

who here thinks that nintendo should start making the nes again?
perhaps instead of having to use game cartridges they could have all nes games pre-installed, or have the "new" nes have wifi and internet so you can purchase games over the nintendo network.

anybody think the same?
eagletjs says: Mar 6, 2011. 11:31 AM
i think they did remake the NES i could be wrong but i think its called retro system it will play the old NES cartridges.
zack247 says: Mar 7, 2011. 12:37 AM
no, you arent wrong.
im not sure but i think its called the retro duo, and it plays nes or snes and possibly other games.

from google there seems to be different brands of it, the other brands just call it something else.

i would buy one but luckily i still have a functional nes.
matstermind says: Mar 6, 2011. 9:36 AM
they sort of did that with the wii virtual console, but if they would remake the NES, I think having the games preprogrammed or downloaded would remove the classic feel of the cartridges. just my take on it
zack247 says: Mar 7, 2011. 12:38 AM
the only problem with the virtual console is that you have to buy special controllers for them and the controllers arent cheap in my area, let alone easy to find for some reason.

then what it you used game carts like memory cards?
Toastytoes says: Mar 6, 2011. 12:16 PM
Actually, nintendo has started producing the 64-pin connectors again. So, you can pop a new one in your old NES, and it works like brand new. It's muchos awesome.
bustedit says: Mar 4, 2011. 12:52 PM
"the nes started mostly all home gaming"
NOPE.
Fieldownage says: Mar 3, 2011. 4:08 AM
I was thinking along the same lines, but...

What if you would use a 4-port USB-hub soldered to the cartridge socket, and then four USB drives cartridge edge connector. But while we're on that subject...

I believe NES used 72-pins on its cartridges, so to do it the right way, we should utilise most of those pins and use sixteen (way nicer number than eighteen) USB drives and four 4-port USB-hubs connected to a master USB-hub. That would be pretty darn epic, wouldn't it?
zack247 says: Mar 7, 2011. 5:36 PM
imagine how many hubs you could have chained together!
its mind blowing!

you, sir, have just made me think about that, it makes me want to buy many, many hubs and see how far i can chain them before it doesn't work... :/
Fieldownage says: Mar 8, 2011. 2:03 AM
"...but because we can." :)
legless says: Mar 6, 2011. 11:15 PM
Wouldn't it cheaper and easier to just shove a 320GB USB drive into the thing?
Fieldownage says: Mar 8, 2011. 2:09 AM
Probably, but fitting a 2,5'' hard drive into the cartridge might be a bit hard... And it's way more fun to fit loads of hubs and memory sticks into it. :P
fungus amungus (author) says: Mar 2, 2011. 8:19 PM
Yeah, that was considered as well. I ended up not doing it because this way it's easier to salvage the parts if changed my mind. The NES was toast anyway.
hightekrednek2396 says: Mar 2, 2011. 6:18 PM
thats what i was thinking too then you wouldnt have to mes it up if you cut it
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