Description

The Nintendo 64, a modern marvel compared to previous generation 8 and 16bit consoles with a portablizing difficulty matched only by disk spinning consoles. The n64 for short is notoriously temperamental about input voltages and static discharge.

Introduction

Portable consoles started getting big in the late 1990’s and has grown many communities and modders into the productive warranty-voiding netizens you see today. This was my very first project and is characteristically and categorically the work of a beginner with both soldering and construction. Only a handful of pictures remain of a more extensive log I had once published for this project on freewebs. Using the internet wayback machine I was able to recover the images below.

This project used the venerable PSOne LCD that was an attachment designed for the slim down re-release of the original PlayStation. The LCD would bolt to the back of the PSONE, itself only about an inch longer and wider than 4 cd cases stacked on top each other. There were also batteries designed to power both of these and as memory serves I used one of these batteries as one of two batteries used in the n64xp.

Advanced case construction was out of the question and like many early modders I landed on using a large RadioShack project enclosure. Since I knew the size of the overall project would definitely not be hand-held I used the fact that the PSOne screen has hinges built in to create a sort of Nintendo 64 laptop. The association of it being like a laptop made more sense when laptops of the time were quite thick. At least the laptops that you would let a kid tear asunder.