Introduction: Play Anything From NES to Xbox With the Skittlespider A.T.S Aka "The Contraption"

By www.skittlespider.com
About: I consider myself an average guy. I have a bachelors in graphic design and an associates in web design. I like tv, movies, music, video games, and anime. I do some video editing and animation as a hobby, bu…

This Instructable is for the Skittlespider A.T.S (All Together System) also known as "The Contraption"

This project turned out to be harder than I expected. In a few ways it was easier too, so I can't say it was an overall hard or easy project. The difficulty varies between the steps. I thought it was a lot of fun. I've still got some finishing touches to do, but I think this is good for now.

Basically I took an old broken computer monitor and cleaned out everything. I kept the empty shell and put an LCD TV in the front. Behind that is a Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Playstation, and an Xbox. All cleverly disguised as a standard CRT monitor. (Unless you see it from the sides, or get in close)

This All-in-one system takes up much less space and surprises the heck out of people when they figure out what it is!

Here are the supplies that I used to make this:
-Old Monitor
-Nintendo Entertainment System
-Super Nintendo
-Nintendo 64
-Gamecube
-Playstation
-Xbox
-LCD TV
-Video Switcher
-A wide assortment of screwdrivers
(standard flat-head and Phillips, a precision set, a TORX star screwdriver, a tri-wing screwdriver for those Nintendo screws, and a set of Nintendo bolt screwdrivers)
-A dremel with cutting bits and plenty of cutting wheels
(They get stuck in the plastic and break often, because the plastic melts as you cut.)
-A jigsaw
-Plenty of hot glue and epoxy
-lots of screws and standoffs
(I used some meant for computers, so all the screws are the same type and size)
-A little bit of Energon and a lot of luck
(Sorry, but I was watching a lot of Transformers while making this)

These instructions are not exactly in the order that I made this. I did this project sporatically and when I had time, so I did different steps all at once. In order to make this more coherent, I simplified the steps to make it easier to follow. (Feel free to improvise and expand upon my methods) Also some of the pictures for each step are of the finished setup, because I didn't take enough pictures while making this. So if you see things suddenly plugged in, that is why.

Also, just to warn you, most of these steps contain similar information, because I did pretty much the same thing every step. Many times the beginning and end of a step are almost exactly the same. However I put the information there just in case some people skip steps. This way they are still getting the information.

One of my biggest inspirations for this is the infamous Yoshi Boxx from the old Tech Tv. After seeing that I knew I wanted to try something similar someday. Many thanks to Ben-Heck who was also an inspiration to me to try something like this. Looking through his site gave me a lot of ideas. Even though everyone is making systems portable these days, I thought I would go the other direction. Also thanks to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft for supplying the hardware that made this possible.

Also, for those interested in making one of these, here is a cost estimate for the project:

Total cost - $400-450
(If you had to buy everything. If I had just made this with my existing systems, it would have been about $300. Or the cost of the TV and the building supplies. If you don't have the tools used, they will need to be factored in too.)

Parts:
Monitor - Free (You could probably call some local companies and see if they have any broken/unwanted monitors.)
LCD TV - $200-250
NES - $21
SNES - $26
N64 - $25
PS1 - $25
Gamecube - $26
Xbox - I used my own, but probably about the same as the other consoles.
Video switch - $5
Epoxy - about $10
Hot glue - about $5
Latches - $12
Extension cord - $10-15

I actually owned a copy of each system I used in this project, but I bought one of each (Except the Xbox) on Ebay to use. That way I didn't destroy the systems that I knew and loved. Also most were owned by my family and not just me. Just remember, the key to Ebay shopping is patience. You set a goal for what you are willing to pay and wait for an auction that meets that goal.

**Update 9/25/09**
Thank you very much Instructables! I finally have myself a featured tutorial. Hopefully it will not be my last, because I've got a few things planned for the near future (if I can find the time).

Step 1: Empty the Monitor

We had an old broken monitor at work, so I took it home and took it apart. I tried to recycle the inside parts of that monitor, but I could not find a local recycling center that took mixed material objects. (The inside parts are metal, plastic, circuit boards, and glass) Since nobody wanted it, I had to take it to a landfill. (By the way, you really should be careful taking apart a monitor. There can be some very high voltages stored in them, so be careful.)

After taking it all apart, I took the front of the frame and cut a lot of it out with my dremel. This was to allow enough space to put the LCD TV inside of the monitor. I was not confident enough to take apart the TV, so I cut out large notches to put the TV in. I also allowed enough space to have access to the video input panel and the button panel.

After I had made the cuts for the TV, I took apart the consoles that I would be placing inside. I set up a sample layout using the main parts of the systems and temporarily holding them in place with duct tape. Be careful not to put the tape in a way that gets any important parts sticky. (Game slot, controller port, etc.)

Once I got started, I had to alter this layout a bit to allow for easy access and cords. If you compare the two, you can see that many things changed in the final layout.

Step 2: Playing With Power

After all the preparation, it was time to put the systems inside the thing. I decided to put the NES in place first, because it seemed like it would require the most work. As a habit, I normally do the hardest thing first so that the easy parts go by fast and seem much easier. I was right, because it took about twice as long as the other systems to install. (Due to the large game slot, required space to allow the game to push down, etc)

The first thing I did was to test and make sure that the system worked outside of its case. To avoid the static electricity of my carpet, I put everything onto a piece of cardboard. I made sure to find the Player 1 port and mark it for future reference.

To make inserting the games easier I decided to go in from the top instead of the side. (So, my layout from the last step was changing already...) I took my motherboard standoffs and put them on the corners and anywhere else that felt like it needed support. I drilled holes for the standoffs in the monitor case so that I could screw them in place. [Be sure to only tighten the screws by hand, because you will be taking this apart a few times before you are done] I also cut the game slot with my dremel.

To strengthen the game cartridge connector, I put a small bolt and nut into each hole. These holes used to screw into the case, but without a case, there was no support. It would not do me any good for the game connector to come loose, so I made sure it was not going to.

After putting the main board in place, the power/reset buttons and the controller ports needed to go somewhere. I tried to put them somewhere that made sense and was nearby the console itself. I think I picked a good spot for both. Then I cut the holes with my dremel.

IMPORTANT - Do not permanently attach any parts yet! If you do, you will be getting everything all messy when you cut the holes for the other systems. You might even ruin the NES all together.

Step 3: Playing With Super Power

With the NES still in place, I decided to put the SNES in next. After looking at my first layout I realized I had made a bad decision the first time and swapped the positions for the SNES and the N64. (I'll explain what the mistake was in the next step, since it is related to the N64.) This way my SNES could load from the top just like the NES.

Before you do anything regarding mounting the SNES, go ahead and take the NES out. I put mine in a Wal-Mart bag to keep the finished parts together, safe, and separate from the other systems. Then I put that bag in a safe place.

The first thing I did was to test and make sure that the system worked outside of its case. To avoid the static electricity of my carpet, I put everything onto a piece of cardboard.

The Super Nintendo seemed like a challenge because of the ribbon cable that the controller ports are connected with. It is not long enough to be moved very far from the main board. After playing around with different ideas, I decided to put the controller ports on top of the main board and next to the game slot.

Just like the NES, I needed to mount this with the standoff method. Unfortunately, the main board's screw hole were slightly smaller than the screws I planned to use. So I took a drill and very slowly and carefully made the holes wider. I then took my motherboard standoffs and put them on the corners and anywhere else that felt like it needed support. I drilled holes for the standoffs in the monitor case so that I could screw them in place. [Be sure to only tighten the screws by hand, because you will be taking this apart a few times before you are done] I also cut the game slot with my dremel. After that I measured to see how far from the game connector I needed to put my controller ports. Luckily, the hole was roughly the same size, so I took the system out and extended the game slot to leave room for the controller ports.

To strengthen the game cartridge connector, I put a small bolt and nut through the holes on each end of it. These holes used to screw into the case, but without a case, there was no support. It would not do me any good for the game connector to come loose, so I made sure it was not going to. These also had to be made a little bit wider so my bolts would fit. For an extra measure of support I added a piece of a square wood dowel to the underside of the main board. This is because without the case, the cartridge connector felt a little flimsy. I chose wood, because it does not conduct electricity, but is sturdy. Since this goes across the entire main board, I did not want any parts to get shorted out or anything. If only I had though about things shorting out later ... (Foreshadowing)

After putting the main board and controller ports in place, the power switch and reset button needed to go somewhere. I tried to put them somewhere that made sense and was nearby the other parts. I think I picked a good spot for both. I put them under the controller ports and roughly where they used to be on the original system. Then I took everything out and cut the holes with my dremel.

This is where I met with an unfortunate tragedy. I accidentally killed my first SNES. I wanted to test and make sure that everything still worked, so I screwed it in place and plugged it in. Apparently I had not allowed enough space between the controller ports and the main board. Some of the small metal parts were touching the board when I turned it on, so I fried the system. I think I can fix it someday, because I found a site that sells replacement parts. I'm pretty sure I just blew the fuse. In my frustration I accidentally broke the power switch too, so I'll need a new one of those when I try to fix it.

IMPORTANT - Do not permanently attach any parts yet! If you do, you will be getting everything all messy when you cut the holes for the other systems. You might even ruin the SNES all together.

Step 4: Get N or Get Out

With the SNES still in place, I decided to put the N64 in next. During the last step, I realized I had made a bad decision the first time and swapped the positions for the SNES and the N64. The reason for this was that the N64 controller ports are mounted on the front of the board instead of through wires like the NES and SNES. So I had to make sure the controller ports would be easy to access. Otherwise they would be useless.

Before you do anything regarding mounting the N64, go ahead and take the SNES out. I put mine in a Wal-Mart bag to keep the finished parts together, safe, and separate from the other systems. Then I put that bag in a safe place.

The first thing I did was to test and make sure that the system worked outside of its case. To avoid the static electricity of my carpet, I put everything onto a piece of cardboard. While doing this, I found that sometimes your N64 power cord can get finicky. Apparently it has a special fuse in it. To reset that fuse, you just unplug the cord for 10-15 minutes and it should work again.

Also because it is so big, I took the shell off of the memory chip to make things smaller. IMPORTANT: Make sure to make a note somewhere on which direction to put this in!!! I had it in backwards at first and that is why the fuse in the power cord went off. I thought I had fried another system at first, and it made me sad. Luckily I unplugged everything and tried again later. I found out that if you look closely, you can tell which direction to put the memory chip, because of how the connectors are facing. After leaving it unplugged for a little while, and flipping the memory chip around, it all worked!

To strengthen the game cartridge connector, I put a small bolt and nut into each hole. These holes used to screw into the case, but without a case, there was no support. It would not do me any good for the game connector to come loose, so I made sure it was not going to.

Oddly enough, this system went in pretty quickly compared to the last two. Being all one piece helped a lot. The first thing is to drill the holes for the controller ports. This is a little tricky, because you have to drill a little bit to the side of where they seem to go, because the standoff holes are not drilled yet. This requires a lot of measurements to make before drilling. After that was over, I cut out the cartridge slot with my dremel and drilled the standoff holes like normal. I also made a small slot where the memory chip is to allow extra space for it, because it sticks up off of the board and I really didn't want that to break. To make the power cord easier to attach, I took the shell off of it and pulled the actual connector part out. It has a long enough wire to stick out of the shell. Then I put the power cord shell back together. Now the power cord was a little bit more flexible. This actually helped it to stop setting that fuse off, so that was a relief.

IMPORTANT - Do not permanently attach any parts yet! If you do, you will be getting everything all messy when you cut the holes for the other systems. You might even ruin the N64 all together.

Step 5: Playstation

Now that the hard part was done, I decided it was time to put in the Playstation. This layout was going to be much easier to work around than the Nintendo systems, so I set it up without having any other systems in place. This way I could just place and cut instead of working around things. Since the Playstation is made of several different parts, this made the layout much easier. Also not having to worry about cartridge slots was a nice change.

Before you do anything regarding mounting the Playstation, go ahead and take the N64 out. I put mine in a Wal-Mart bag to keep the finished parts together, safe, and separate from the other systems. Then I put that bag in a safe place.

The first thing I did was to test and make sure that the system worked outside of its case. To avoid the static electricity of my carpet, I put everything onto a piece of cardboard. If it does not power on, don't worry. There is a small button on the main board that tells the system when the lid is closed. I have marked it in my pictures. To fix this problem, I just put a piece of Scotch tape over it. Now it should work without a case just fine. As for the disk you practice with, use a trash/extra/unreadable disk. This disk will be scratched up (probably very scratched) by the time you are done.

The mounting process was so much easier than with the cartridge systems. Besides the standoff holes, the only holes I needed to cut were for the power button, the reset button, and the disk reader. Now cutting the hole for the disk reader was actually quite challenging. Mostly because the area of the monitor that I wanted to put it was not perfectly flat. After much debate, I decided to put it near the top edge so that I would only have to worry about half of the disk making contact with the new case. See the pictures to see what I mean.

Cutting the hole was actually kind of hard too, because it is an unusual shape. I had to use my dremel, jigsaw, and drill to get this hole to work right. The rest was very easy. At first, I was going to mount it in place with screws, but no matter how hard I tried, my practice disk would not spin. Since I was not ready to set this part in place permanently yet, I tried holding it at certain angles. After a few tries, I found the proper angle to hold the disk reader so that my disks would spin freely. I figured when it came time to mount this, I could just put a lot of epoxy on it and hold it in place for a while till it dried.

IMPORTANT - Do not permanently attach any parts yet! If you do, you will be getting everything all messy when you cut the holes for the other systems. You might even ruin the Playstation all together.

Step 6: Gamecube

My original idea for the gamecube was going to be very complicated, so I had to plan some more. At first I had planned to separate all of the main parts like I did with the Playstation. Little did I know that that would be a task well beyond my skill level. The Gamecube is set up, well to be a cube. The parts stack up on top of each other AND plug into each other. So the best idea I could come up with was to pretty much just cut a big hole and push the system through it.

Before you do anything regarding mounting the Gamecube, go ahead and take the Playstation out. I put mine in a Wal-Mart bag to keep the finished parts together, safe, and separate from the other systems. Then I put that bag in a safe place.

The first thing I did was to test and make sure that the system worked outside of its case. To avoid the static electricity of my carpet, I put everything onto a piece of cardboard. Just like the Playstation, there is a device in place so it will not work if it is open. This time it is a small set of switches instead of a button.

The hole for this was actually very easy to cut. I almost got it right on my first try. Also when I pushed it into the hole, the open/closed lid switches were held down without me having to rig something up. Mounting it in place was the only difficult thing, but even that was easy. I just got some long bolts and two leftover pieces of wood from my SNES brace. I made a simple cross brace and tightened the nuts onto the bolts. That was it. It sticks out more than I had hoped for, but as long as it works, I'm happy.

The system is actually pretty sturdy and did not need any reinforcing. The only thing left was to put the controller ports in and that decision was made very quickly.

IMPORTANT - Do not permanently attach any parts yet! If you do, you will be getting everything all messy when you cut the holes for the other systems. You might even ruin the Gamecube all together.

Step 7: Xbox

For the Xbox, I was able to separate all of the main parts like I did with the Playstation. This worked out very easily and was probably the easiest system to work with. (It surprised the heck out of me, I figured Microsoft would make taking this apart a difficult process) Not only was every main part separate, but most of the wires were about twice the length they needed to be.

Before you do anything regarding mounting the XBOX, go ahead and take the Gamecube out. I put mine in a Wal-Mart bag to keep the finished parts together, safe, and separate from the other systems. Then I put that bag in a safe place.

The first thing I did was to test and make sure that the system worked outside of its case. To avoid the static electricity of my carpet, I put everything onto a piece of cardboard.

The hardest part of putting this into the case was finding places for all of the parts. To make sure there was enough room, I put all of the other systems into place. Then I arranged the parts of the Xbox in a way that made sense. For some parts there was only one place it could go, because of space constraints. However, most parts were able to be put anywhere I wanted.

The main board went on the bottom of the monitor case. The bottom was a perforated metal plate. I had hoped to simply use the existing holes to mount the main board, but unfortunately they didn't line up. I could have tried to drill through the metal, probably made a mess of things, and broken my drill bits. But instead, I made some standoffs out of epoxy by molding it around the screws and pushing the motherboard onto the metal plate.

After the main board was secured and in place, I plugged in the cd drive and hard drive. Then the best way to attach the cd drive seemed to be to stick it to the back of the case and have it open through the side. The hard drive fit nicely underneath the cd drive. The hard drive also seemed to help support the cd drive. (Sorry for the repeated use of the word "drive" in this paragraph.)

All that was left at this point, was to find a spot for the power supply board, the power/eject buttons, and the controller ports. There was a nice flat surface at the bottom of the side panel right next to the main board. So I put the controller ports in a line down there. I put the power/eject buttons above those. There was some extra space on the side next to the NES, so I figured that would be a nice spot.

Then I went through the process of taking everything out of the case again. After that I cut some holes for the last time. These were the easiest cuts to make too. A rectangle for the disk drive, two holes for the buttons, and a series of small rectangles for the controller plugs.

I had one problem though. When I measured the distance for the power/eject buttons, I had them upside down. When I flipped them to be correct, the wires were facing the wrong way. I had to extend them by a few inches. I used an old ribbon cable from a broken stereo as the source of the wire extensions. Then I simply twisted the wires together and put electrical tape on to cover up the exposed copper. To be accurate, I only worked with one wire at a time. That way I did not accidentally cross any wires. I plugged everything in and re-tested it. Both buttons still work, so I did a good job.

Now you are finally almost ready to put everything inside of the monitor case!

IMPORTANT - Do not actually attach any parts yet! If you do, you will be getting everything all messy when you cut the holes for the other systems. You might even ruin the XBOX all together.

Step 8: Put It Together

There are still a few holes to drill before you can put the drill and dremel away. I had to drill four holes for buttons on my video switcher. After that, I tried to clean the inside of my monitor case. There were a lot of little bits of plastic and things like that to clean out.

Now is the moment you've been waiting for. Time to put this together.

- NES -
Installing the main board was as simple as tightening a few screws. I installed the power/reset buttons by holding it in place with some epoxy and hot glue. Then I put the controller ports stacked on top of each other and held in place by a generous amount of hot glue. I made sure the player 1 port was on top. The reason I used hot glue was that it is sturdy and flexible. That way it will stand up to some abuse from plugging and unplugging controllers.

- SNES -
This one was pretty simple. I tightened the screws to attach the main board. The power switch, reset button, and controller ports were already in place.

- N64 -
This was also pretty easy. Since the controller ports are part of the main board, all I had to do was tighten a few screws.

- PS1 -
The first thing I did was go ahead and attach the main board and power supply board with the screws. I put the controller ports in the same way as I did the NES ones, lots of hot glue.

The disk reader installation was next. My idea about the epoxy was a little tougher than I predicted, because I had to constantly spin my disk to make sure the epoxy hardened while the disk reader was in straight. For some reason, it kept trying to move around, so I had to push down pretty hard with one hand and periodically spin the disk with the other. After about half an hour, I took my hands away and flicked the disk a few times to make sure it would spin. Luckily my half hour was not wasted. It spins nicely!

Just in case, after I was finished, I applied more epoxy so that it shouldn't ever move again. This time I didn't have to help it harden in the right position.

- Gamecube -
Since I had already made the bracings and drilled the holes for the bolts, there wasn't much to do with this one. All I had to do was install it and tighten the screws. I also had to make sure those open/closed switches were pushed down.

- Xbox -
After installing the main board, I just had to install the other components. I was running low on epoxy, so I ended up using hot glue for a lot of the parts. I glued the power supply board, power/eject buttons, and the controller ports on the side. As for the cd drive and the hard drive, they were a little harder, but still pretty easy. I glued the hard drive onto the bottom of the cd drive. I then glued both of them to the back of the monitor case. Just in case, I put a small bracket in for extra support.

Now that all the systems are in place, I glued the video switcher onto the side with the buttons lining up in the middle of the holes.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures on this step, I got excited that I was almost done and forgot to stop and document what I was doing.)

Step 9: Wire It Up

This was mostly the easy part. I took an extension cord that I had laying around and glued it onto the back of the monitor case. I ran the power cord out of a small hole in the side of the case. Then I just started plugging things in. I went with the NES and SNES first, because their power cords are huge. Next was the N64, because it has a large power cord too. After that, I plugged in the rest of the power cords and put the video cords in too. I hooked the N64, Gamecube, PS1, and Xbox into the video switcher. I plugged the NES and SNES in through the cable via RF switch.

I also made sure to plug in any parts of the PS1 and Xbox that I had forgotten to plug in before.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you do not have the extension cord plugged in while wiring things up. Not only can you potentially ruin your systems, but also hurt yourself. I was testing one part and forgot to unplug it. Then I accidentally touched the bottom of the PS1 power supply board and got a nasty shock. It even burned my thumb a little, so be very careful.

During this step, I would recommend have some cable ties or rubber bands. Even keeping the cables short and organized, things will be getting messy and confusing.

I did encounter one problem while plugging the parts in. I did not allow enough space between the back of the SNES and the bottom of the N64 board. To fix this, I carefully cut the rubbery plastic protective covering off of the ends of the power and video connectors. I then slowly bent the wires down to fit between the two systems. Then I put some hot glue to hold the cords in place. That way it won't scratch the N64 board in the places where they touch.

Step 10: TV Time

The last part was the TV. I had to cut the front off of the stand so that it would fit inside the monitor case. (Just be careful, because now your TV won't stand up on its own again.) After that, it fit into the case nicely. All I had to do was plug the video cords into the back and I was done! Or so I thought...

I couldn't seem to get the front panel of the case to stay on, so I bought some latches that I could easily latch and unlatch as needed. They are originally meant for use on windows, but they work nicely for my purpose. I just wish they were not as noticeable.

After getting the front panel secured, I noticed that for some reason, the bottom metal plate with the Xbox main board on it was loose. So I put some cable ties to hold it in place.

I also had forgotten to make a hole for the remote sensor, so I had to take the front panel off and drill one last hole. After that, I plugged it in and gave it a test drive. All the systems are still up and running after it is all together, so that makes me happy.

I was unfortunately not able to keep the swivel mechanism, because the weight is not distributed correctly anymore. When I put it on the old monitor stand it just leaned backwards. I may try and add some weight to the front sometime to fix this issue.

Step 11: What I Learned

This project taught me a lot. I'm not sure if I'll be doing this the same way if I ever try another one of these. If I do, I will definitely take the TV apart. That way it will not stick out of the sides.

One thing I learned is to be very careful when testing systems to make sure no parts are touching each other, unless they are supposed to. R.I.P. - Super Nintendo ... hopefully I can fix you.

Another thing I learned is to make sure everything is unplugged BEFORE you stick your hands inside.

***I will add a new step for my finishing touches whenever I get a chance to make them***

My cousin asked me if I could make something like this for him. I think I will put all of the systems inside a computer case next time. He has a much bigger LCD TV than I do, so it would be harder to make that look like an old TV/monitor. But we'll just have to wait and see.

Also, if anyone wants some old system cases or parts, you can have my leftovers. I did not throw them away, so please take them off of my hands if you want anything.