It's amazing what I find in my attic. In a box collecting dust lies my old Super Nintendo. I spent way to many hours on that little machine, I couldn't just throw it away. But all the cartridges were destroyed and the SNES wouldn't turn on, it was dead. I had to bring it back to life. All I needed were some small PC components and an operating system running a Super Nintendo emulator. VIA is known for tiny PCs parts, and the ARTiGO, an all-in-one system is the perfect solution for jump starting my SNES.
Step 1: Inside the ARTiGO
The ARTiGO is tiny! It fits in the palm of my hand, yet it has all the feature of a regular desktop. Go to VIA.com For the full specs. I quickly threw the ARTiGO together ( there's nothing to it) for a test run. It's no hard core gaming rig but its going to do just fine with emulators and watching some xvid movies. The Artigo is so cool looking and small I almost want to leave it that way, but my SNES need a new engine.
Step 2: Gut the SNES
I opened and dismantle the inside of the SNES. Once I was down to the shell, I figured out where I was going to place everything. I removed anything sticking up using a Dremel. Sliced open the right side for the DVD ROM using a hobby knife. And poked a few holes using a soldering iron for the switches, LEDs and power plug.
Step 3: A quick test
After dismantling the ARTiGO, I reassembled it inside the SNES body for a quick test fit and using a different power supply from MINI-BOX
Step 4: Fitting everything inside
Here's the fun part, fitting everything inside the SNES.
Because of the limitations of the ARTiGO's wire lengths, my plans for placement were confined to the back of the SNES. A bit of rethinking was in order. I decided to use the SNES as a dummy shell, for nostalgia. It's too bad I want to use the big start switch on the top for power and replace the front joystick ports with USB ports. Maybe I'll rewire it later on.
Here the re configured instructions.
The DVD ROM is held in place using double sided tape.
I replaced the DC converter board that came with the ARTiGO with one from MINI-BOX and added the power supply switch to the back of the case.
On the left back side of the case I install the USB ports and the audio connectors.
Place the Mobo and hard drive inside the case and screw it in, connect all the mini connectors.
Because of the limitations of the ARTiGO's wire lengths, my plans for placement were confined to the back of the SNES. A bit of rethinking was in order. I decided to use the SNES as a dummy shell, for nostalgia. It's too bad I want to use the big start switch on the top for power and replace the front joystick ports with USB ports. Maybe I'll rewire it later on.
Here the re configured instructions.
The DVD ROM is held in place using double sided tape.
I replaced the DC converter board that came with the ARTiGO with one from MINI-BOX and added the power supply switch to the back of the case.
On the left back side of the case I install the USB ports and the audio connectors.
Place the Mobo and hard drive inside the case and screw it in, connect all the mini connectors.
Step 5: Close up the SNES
With everything secured in place, it's time to close it up and install and operating system. I'm not going to bore you with the details of "how to install the OS" My choice of OS is the latest edition of UBUNTU and the SNES emulator is, ZSNES! I've used ZSNES on my XP laptop and its awesome! At this point I've got UBUNTU loaded and ZSNES running, I'm still fiddling with the configurations, but I've got my Super Nintendo back!
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the mini-pc idea was a great one!
just saying, but your Snes looks terrible!
if you see how the plastic is two-toned, its because of a fault of nintendo's, where an incorrect ballance of flame retardant in the mix caused oxidization which was sped up by sunlight exposure. there is no way to reverse it.
ARTiGO