Turn Your Old Video Game Systems into Awesome new Portables
Ben Heckendorn
SAVE THE ATARI
It's not extinct__Give your classic console a new life
You and Your Nintendo__Together again
It's not extinct__Give your classic console a new life
You and Your Nintendo__Together again
 |
| Hacking Video Game Consoles |
Born in 1975, a mere two years before the Atari 2600 came out, Benjamin J. Heckendorn is a
graphic artist/independent filmmaker/portable video game system builder who resides near the
middle of Wisconsin, U.S.A. In his leisure moments, he enjoys actually playing video games (a
welcome break from building them), doing karaoke, building cheap fighting robots out of
remote-control cars, and working on his really low budget movies and beer. His favorite food is
spaghetti and he hopes one day to visit outer space and do a voice for an animated film, but not
both on the same day.
Introduction
If you’re reading this, we can assume one of the following:
You have bought this book in order to make a portable.
You are studying the contents of this book intently while contemplating its purchase.
You have hauled all sorts of portable video game–making equipment (soldering irons,
band saws, and so on) into your favorite bookstore, where you intend to “browse
through” this book over and over until your portable is complete.
At any rate, you have an interest in making portables and you’re in the right place! This book
will give you the instructions and information required to hack up old video game systems,
make them smaller, build new cases and controllers for them, run them off batteries, and transform
them into awesome new portables that play all the original game cartridges and CDs.
The story of hacking portables so far...
On New Year’s Eve 1999, some friends and I were wandering around downtown Madison,
Wisconsin, waiting to start celebrating (typically around 3–4 p.m. in our state). During our
travels, we came across a used-game store and inside, they had a glass case containing Atari
2600 cartridges. Much to my surprise, some of them were quite expensive!
“Do people actually pay money for Atari games?” I asked the friendly shop manager. “Oh
yeah...” he replied, kindly pausing from his hamburger consumption to set my feet upon the
path of knowledge. “People buy that stuff all the time.”
This amazed me. You see, I’ve been an Atari fan as far back as I can remember, which translates
to approximately 1980. Because my parents had bought into that “it will ruin your TV!” myth, I
was pretty much the only person I knew who didn’t have one, but I still managed to play a lot,
thanks to my friends and relatives. A few years later, I managed to get an Atari 800 computer,
which held me over pretty well until, one glorious day in 1994, I plunked down $20 for my
first, very own Atari 2600 game system (complete with dust, grime, and flaky joysticks). Sure, I
played SNES and Playstation during the 90’s like everyone else, but I still kept the Atari
hooked up so I could squeeze off a round of Space Invaders or Asteroids if I felt like it.
Seeing those Atari games in that store got me thinking... maybe I wasn’t the last fan out there...
maybe I wasn’t alone. Luckily, the Internet (and the world) didn’t end at the stroke of midnight
as some had predicted, so I was able to do a search the next day. Sure enough, a huge fan base
for Atari existed, with people even programming new games for the 2600, as well as other old
systems! I felt vindicated!
At the time, I was working at a sign company, and we had recently acquired a new computer
numerical control machine that could cut any shape or part that you could imagine out of a variety
of materials. This got the gears in my head turning—I had always wanted to make something
that would be a sort of “love letter” to the Atari, and I realized that now I could. After a
few months of designing, hacking, wiring, and cutting, my first portable Atari 2600 was born!
After putting the portable on my Web site and getting deluged with fan mail, I concluded that,
without a doubt, the Atari was still alive in people’s hearts. I therefore designed several more
models and then branched off into portable Super Nintendos and Playstation 1 consoles as well.
When I was offered the chance to write this book, I jumped at the opportunity because I knew
it would answer one of the most frequently asked questions that I get: “Can you help me build
my own portable game system?” Because of time constraints and the level of detail required,
this was something that I had never been able to fully deliver on... until now.
Who this book is for
I wrote this book for people who love video games and want to bring their old systems back
into the world in new and exciting ways. I also thought it would be neat to give video game
lovers a “garage project” like those that people who work on cars have. Just think...
Guy 1: “Hey, what did you do today?”
Guy 2: “Put a 350 in my ‘91 Mustang.”
Guy 1: “Sweet. How ‘bout you?”
Guy 3: “Jacked up my ‘86 Metro.”
Guy 1: “Cool. And you?”
You: “I stuck an ‘04 screen on my ‘81 Atari and overhauled the joystick.”
All guys: “Awesome!”
I strived to write this book using the simplest terms possible, although rest assured—if I do
sneak in a big word like “potentiometer,” I’ll tell you what it means. As for the construction of
these projects, all potential problems and pitfalls have already been worked out for you—simply
follow along and you should be fine. If not, each project has a troubleshooting section at the
end to help you out.
Making these projects will be a test of your manual dexterity, as some of the soldering and cutting
will require a good degree of accuracy. As a basic rule, just relax and be steady... take your
time and remember that patience is a virtue. If you’ve got friends who are handy with tools or
soldering, you can always ask them for help as well.
Using this book
This book contains seventeen chapters and is divided into two parts. Part 1 includes Chapters
1 through 5 and is meant as a primer to get you ready for portable building. Think of it as a
boot camp, but with fewer push-ups. In Part 1:
You’ll first get an overview of the four game systems that are covered in this book:
■ 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System
■ 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System
■ Sony Playstation 1
■ Atari 2600
The advantages and the challenges of making each into a portable will be discussed,
along with a brief history of the game system itself.
Then we’ll talk about tools—what kind you need in order to make portables, and how
to best use them.We’ll also discuss soldering, which is pretty important when you’re
working with electronics!
After that, there will be an overview of basic electronics for portable building. This is mostly
so that when a term comes up in Part 2 (like “potentiometer”!), you’ll know what it means.
Following that, you’ll learn how to hack up pocket televisions—including the PSOne
screen—and use white LEDs to illuminate them. This prepares you for the projects in
Part 2, or you can also use the hacked TVs in a custom portable of your own design.
Finally, in Part 1 we’ll discuss CNC machines. CNC stands for computer numerical control
and refers to a type of machine that can automatically cut parts based on designs
stored in a computer. Half of the projects in Part 2 are meant to be created with this type
of equipment, so a basic overview of how they work will be useful.
Part 2 is the real meat of the book. This is where you’ll actually hack up the game systems,
make them portable, and build custom cases to put them in. Each of the four game systems has
a group of three chapters devoted to it, for a total of twelve chapters in Part 2. Each chapter
group is laid out something like this:
The first chapter details how to hack up the game system itself. You learn what you need,
how to run it off batteries, and how to rebuild the controller. From there, you have three
choices:
■ Make a hand-built case for the portable: You won’t need access to any fancy
equipment—just a hardware store and a hacksaw. This option is always the second
chapter in the group.
■ Use a CNC machine to create a case for the portable: This is a more advanced
and expensive option, but it yields great results. This is always the third and last
chapter in the group.
■ Create a custom portable of your own design: The system-hacking chapter will
provide you with enough information to do this, and you can also use the procedures
from Chapter 4—“Hacking Pocket Televisions.” Going through the other
two chapters in the group will also provide hints and ideas. Let your creativity soar!
All of this yields a total of eight different portables that you can build using plans from this
book, and a limitless number if you choose to use the general information to design one on
your own. So dust off your old cartridges, pull those systems out of the garage, and toss their
power cables in the trash... it’s time to set them free!
Screenshot
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Product details
Price
|
|
|---|---|
File Size
| 68,539 KB |
Pages
|
578 p |
File Type
|
PDF format |
ISBN
| 0-7645-7806-5 |
Copyright
| 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc |
Contents at a Glance
Introduction
Part I: So You Want to Make a Portable Video Game System, Eh?
Chapter 1: Choosing a Game Console to Make Portable
Chapter 2: Knowing Your Tools
Chapter 3: Learning Basic Electronics for Portables
Chapter 4: Hacking Pocket Televisions
Chapter 5: Using Computerized Cutting Equipment
Part II: Making Portable Game Consoles
Chapter 6: Making Your Nintendo Entertainment System Portable
Chapter 7: Building a Portable Nintendo By Hand
Chapter 8: Building a Portable Nintendo Using CNC Machinery
Chapter 9: Making Your Super Nintendo Entertainment System Portable
Chapter 10: Building a Portable Super Nintendo by Hand
Chapter 11: Building a Portable Super Nintendo Using CNC Machinery
Chapter 12: Making Your Sony PSOne Portable
Chapter 13: Building a Portable Playstation 1 by Hand
Chapter 14: Making a Portable Playstation 1 Using CNC Machinery
Chapter 15: Making Your Atari 2600 Portable
Chapter 16: Building a Portable Atari 2600 by Hand
Chapter 17: Making a Portable Atari 2600 Using CNC Machinery
Index
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Part I: So You Want to Make a Portable
Video Game System, Eh? 1
Chapter 1: Choosing a Game Console to Make Portable . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Advantages in making the NES portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Challenges in making it portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Advantages in making the Super NES portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Challenges in making it portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Playstation 1 (PSOne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Advantages in making the Playstation portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Challenges in making it portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Atari 2600 Video Computer System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Advantages in making the Atari 2600 portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Challenges in making it portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Finding These Game Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
What You Can Expect to Spend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter 2: Knowing Your Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Soldering Irons:Which End to Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Types of soldering irons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Types of solder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Using soldering irons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Desoldering Irons: Suck It Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Using desoldering irons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Maintaining desoldering irons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Multimeters:What They Are and Why You’ll Need One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Types of multimeters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Using multimeters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Tweezers: Your Friend and Ally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Drills and Drill Bits: The Hole Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Hot Glue Guns: How Did We Ever Live Without Them? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Types of hot glue guns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Using glue in your projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Hot glue tips and tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Other Tools You Can’t Hack Without . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Screwdrivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pliers—Needle-Nose and Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Cutters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
X-Acto knives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Helping Hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Wire strippers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Chapter 3: Learning Basic Electronics for Portables . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
How I Hack Up Game Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Volts and Amps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Volts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Amps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Rechargeable Battery Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Nickel-cadmium batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Nickel–metal hydride batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Lithium-ion batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Power Regulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Linear regulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Switching regulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Stranded wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Solid wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Ribbon cable: Really cheap, Really great . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Switches: Types and Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
SPST (single pole, single throw) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
SPDT (single pole, double throw) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
DPDT (double pole, double throw) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Pushbuttons: Types and Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Momentary switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Push On–Push Off button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Resistors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Potentiometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Chapter 4: Hacking Pocket Televisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Portable Screen Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Types of portable screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The parts inside a pocket TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Hacking a Casio EV-680 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Materials you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Taking apart the Casio EV-680 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Hacking a PSOne Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Taking apart the PSOne screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Installing the white-LED mod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Additional PSOne screen hacking notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Other Small Screens You Can and Can’t Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Chapter 5: Using Computerized Cutting Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
What Is a CNC Machine? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Three-axis CNC router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Laser engravers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
How CNC Machines Are Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Vector versus raster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
CNC machine settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Engraving versus vector cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Male cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Female cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Drilling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Cleanouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Choosing tool sizes for routers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Materials You Can Rout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Finding CNC Machines to Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
How you can get the best rates for routing/laser work . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Part II: Making Portable Game Consoles 111
Chapter 6: Making Your Nintendo Entertainment System Portable . . . 113
Ripping Apart the NES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Identifying the Internal Parts and What They Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Removing Stuff You Don’t Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Fixing Questionable Cartridge Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Powering the System with Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Batteries you can use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Which power regulator to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Power and audio/video connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Boosting the Video Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Working with Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 7: Building a Portable Nintendo By Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Electronic parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Parts for the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Decal graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Odds and ends you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Making the Front Half of the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Making the front plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Applying decals to the front plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Attaching screw posts to the front plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Making and attaching the front walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Making the Rear Half of the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Making the rear plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Making and attaching the rear walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Installing the PSOne Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Making PC boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Installing the PC boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Wiring the PSOne Screen to the PC Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Putting a power regulator on the NES board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Reattaching the controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Attaching the power connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Using a DC wall power adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Chapter 8: Building a Portable Nintendo Using CNC Machinery . . . . 175
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Screws, nuts, and washers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Other stuff you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Printing decorative decals for the unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Routing the Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Side walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Routing recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Hacking More of the NES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Hacking the cartridge slot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Reattaching the cartridge slot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Attaching the cartridge connector to the NES board . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Attaching the NES board to the center match plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Assembling the Parts of the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Front of the unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Screen riser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Control riser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Battery holder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Cartridge holder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Gluing and assembly tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Applying the decals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Building and installing the control board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Attaching the screen riser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Installing the TV screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Connecting power to the unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Connecting the built-in controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Modifying the battery pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Attaching the battery and battery holder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Rewiring the battery charger plug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Chapter 9: Making Your Super Nintendo Entertainment System Portable . . . 229
Ripping Apart the Mini-SNES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Using a Nintendo screwdriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
The “other” ways to open the mini-SNES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Taking apart the rest of the mini-SNES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Removing Some Things, Just Moving Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Rewiring all those darn capacitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Reconnecting the video and audio lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Powering the SNES with Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Easy way to power the SNES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Batteries to run the SNES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Rebuilding the Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Chapter 10: Building a Portable Super Nintendo by Hand . . . . . . . . 247
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Electronic components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Parts for building the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Screws, nuts, and spacers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Decals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Miscellaneous stuff you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Making the Front of the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Making the front plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Attaching screw posts to the front plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Bending and attaching the front walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Adding details to the front of the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Making the Rear Portion of the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Building the battery compartments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Installing and wiring the PSOne screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Cutting the PC boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Left PC board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Right PC board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Installing the PC boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Making the left and right shoulder buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Installing the SNES board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Installing the power jack and on/off switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Wiring the two halves together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Modifying the battery charger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Chapter 11: Building a Portable Super Nintendo Using CNC Machinery . . . . . 301
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Electronic parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Screws, nuts, and washers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Case-building materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Other random items you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Routing the Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Laser-cutting the plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Laser-cutting the side walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Decals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Assembling the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Front half of unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Battery compartment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Battery compartment to rear plate attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Making the screen riser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Making the control riser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Attaching the SNES board to the rear plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Making and installing the control board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Installing the Casio EV-680 Pocket TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Inserting the jacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Wiring the two halves together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Running the SNES portable off wall power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Chapter 12: Making Your Sony PSOne Portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Ripping Apart the PSOne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Identifying the Internal Parts and What They Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Desoldering parts off the board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Powering the System with Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Suggested battery to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Alternative batteries to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Connecting power to the PSOne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Working with Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Which type of Playstation controller to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Controller pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Desoldering and reconnecting the analog control sticks . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Chapter 13: Building a Portable Playstation 1 by Hand . . . . . . . . . 359
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Electronic parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Screws and fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Case-building materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Decals and graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Miscellaneous tools and parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Files supplied on the companion Web site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Making the Screen Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Cutting the front screen plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Applying the screw posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Bending and attaching the aluminum wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Installing parts in the screen assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Cutting and attaching the rear screen plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Building the Main Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Cutting the front case plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Attaching the aluminum wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Making the latch assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Installing mesh and speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Attaching the screen assembly to the main case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Making the Rear Plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Attaching the rear plate screw posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Making and installing the shoulder buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Installing the PSOne motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Mounting the CD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Making a new right analog joystick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Installing the PC boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Wiring the two halves of the case together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Modifying the PSOne’s AC adapter to run this unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Placing final decals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Chapter 14: Making a Portable Playstation 1 Using CNC Machinery . . . .. 413
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Electronic parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Screws, nuts, and other hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Case-building materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Files you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Decals and graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Routing the Parts of the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Laser-cutting the plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Laser-cutting the side walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Assembling the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Front half of the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Rear half of the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Making the PC control board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Installing the controls and board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Power switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Installing the screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Drilling holes for side-mount jacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Wiring the shoulder buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Extending the CD drive access cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Attaching the PSOne motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Connecting the halves together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Reconnecting the CD drive access cable wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Final decaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Screwing the unit together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Modifying the wall power adapter for this portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Chapter 15: Making Your Atari 2600 Portable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Ripping It Apart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Identifying the internal parts and what they do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Hacking Stuff Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
X-Acto knife method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Band saw method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Master Lead List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Bypassing connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Getting Audio and Video Signals to a Modern TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Fine-tuning the picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Powering the System with Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Power requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Using a power regulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Working with Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Difficulty switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Wiring paddle controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Chapter 16: Building a Portable Atari 2600 by Hand . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Electronic components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Screws, nuts, and spacers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Case-building parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Files you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Graphics and decals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Assembling the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Making the front half of the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Making the rear half of the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Battery holder and door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Making the PC control board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Installing the TV screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Wiring the two halves together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Running the unit off wall power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Chapter 17: Making a Portable Atari 2600 Using CNC Machinery . . . 493
Materials You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Electronic parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Screws and fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Files you’ll need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Decals (a.k.a., graphics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
The rest of the stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
CNC Cutting the Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Engraving plastic parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Quarter-inch material parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
CNC laser cutting recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Assembling the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Making the front of the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Attaching decaled front portions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Working with the rear plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Wiring the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Left and right control boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Installing the TV screen and speaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Wiring the front and rear of the case together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Testing and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Final Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Using a DC wall power adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Chapter in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
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