I built an all-in-one NES stand, please take a look!

[+GoldenWheels]

I always wanted one of these things as a kid:

 

 

A dedicated NES stand. I've seen this thing twice as an adult, or at least a version of it, and they were both (unsurprisingly I guess) kind of beat. Like, really beat. And wobbly. So I got a Philips TV the other day by chance and I noticed it was a very nice Nintendo grey. Then I happened to look at a laptop cart I had in the shop. It was also a nice NES grey, or damn close. This thing:

 

 

And I figured OK I can just make some version of a NES cart myself using those metal brackets. Now it got WAY off what I originally intended it to be (projects can be like that as you know) and I ended up with this:

 

 

 

I mounted the Four Score flush on the bottom. As a kid I could not stand to have controller cords dangling in front of the screen and still can't. The other benefit is I therefore have turbos for the stock NES controllers; but a drawback (which I did not realize at the time!) is that Zappers do NOT work through the Four Score.

 

 

I wasn't SUPER happy with the quality of the bottom chrome decals (bad stickem) but you order non-licensed decals from Greece over eBay, I guess you take your chances. The white decal on the games section was much higher quality.

 

I had two of those old Nuby cart holders in a box so a few coats of spray paint later they were a nice touch. It can hold 20 games total, not counting the one IN the NES.

 

It is ROCK solid but heavy as a load of bricks, mostly because of the TV but I also used dimensional lumber and 3/4 inch ply scraps I had lying around to build it so there is some wood weight there too. So it's portable (part of my original concept) only on one floor (thanks to the wheels) or if you have two strong dudes to pick it up! The power strip is mounted to the wood and with the extra connections open it is very easy to plug any old console you have lying around into this thing.

 

I used a metallic/hammered spray paint for the dark gray which has a nice effect but the camera didn't pick it up much. Oddly, I sanded the bejeezus out of the joints up top and thought they were GONE but the paint revealed every single one. Damn.

 

You might notice it is very low to the ground....I did this largely for safety reasons (I have two young boys who would love to tip over a heavy TV on their heads) but it also works as when I recline in my chair it give me the perfect angle. And I will say there is just something about sitting on the floor to play NES that just seems.....right. Quick, someone get me a yoohoo!

 

I keep calling it "this thing". I feel like it needs an official name. The Nintendo Entertainment Center? The NES Mothership? The Nintendo Gamecube (it is a square!) ? I dunno, but please let me know if you have any ideas and give your thoughts in general. I am always looking to improve my next project!

 

Edited November 27, 2013 by GoldenWheels

[SRGilbert]

Pretty sweet, nice job!

[TheGameCollector]

Cool, now all you need is an RCA 1 female to 2 male audio coupler so you can make that NES audio come out of both speakers instead of just the left.

[+GoldenWheels]

Pretty sweet, nice job!

 

Thanks very much!

 

Cool, now all you need is an RCA 1 female to 2 male audio coupler so you can make that NES audio come out of both speakers instead of just the left.

 

I thought I WASN'T going to have to but I may actually have to do that. The TV seems to have a mono mode which devotes both speakers to the white in--very nice right? Problem is every time I turn off the TV the setting resets to the default--stereo--setting. Or maybe it when I unplug it completely, but either way very annoying! Easy fix though with the adapter as you say.

[The Usotsuki]

Leet.

[+Yurkie]

Sweet NES set-up!

 

Here is a dual mono cable. I bought one like this for myself.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NES-NINTENDO-TV-AV-CABLE-STEREO-AUDIO-RF-RED-YELLOW-CORD-BRAND-NEW-HIGH-QUALITY-/400571276453?pt=US_Video_Game_Cables_Adapters&hash=item5d43e89ca5

[godslabrat]

I'm really impressed. I'm probably looking at some cabinet fabricating in the future... you've inspired me!

[MaximRecoil]

Cool, now all you need is an RCA 1 female to 2 male audio coupler so you can make that NES audio come out of both speakers instead of just the left.

 

My TV, a 32" RCA CRT-based TV that I bought new in 2005, has the front A/V jacks labeled:

 

Yellow: Video

White: L/Mono

Red: R

 

If you plug the NES's mono output into the white RCA jack, the sound comes out of both speakers. If you plug it into the red RCA the sound only comes out of the right speaker. So it works as you'd expect from the labels, and it does it automatically (no settings to configure). I just wish it was the red jack for mono instead of the white jack so that it matched up with the color the NES used for the mono output jack; plus my RCA cables are yellow and red too. They are pretty old, so I wonder if red used to be the standard color for mono:

 

[carlsson]

Perhaps you can call it a NESwagon? As for mono sound, I think that is pretty much standard among most newer devices taking stereo input that the left channel alone doubles as mono. However if you look e.g. at the back side of a Commodore 1084 early model, the mono audio input is red, composite/luma yellow and chroma white.

[NinSEGA]

I like how that Atari Flashback 4 in the background is jealous.

[+GoldenWheels]

 

My boys getting some playtime on it with (I think) Rampage.

[+GoldenWheels]

I like how that Atari Flashback 4 in the background is jealous.

 

Ha! I have very much considered making a Sega version of this thing (with probably a SMS and Genesis) or an Atari version (with a 7800 I suppose, kill two birds with one machine) as well....but the CHEAP part of me wants to make one out of the plug and play 7800 and 2600 I already have. Wouldn't need carts then (or have to buy another 7800) and could just keep some Genesis controllers in the thing.

 

But then it would be emulation so....I dunno.

[Dr Manhattan]

That looks great! I would have loved having something like this as a kid.

[Atariboy]

I had that same Philips tv. Bought it at a Wal-Mart about 2005 or so. Always had geometry issues and eventually areas of the screen would show discoloration. Then 2 or 3 years later, the picture started to go out and would return but without any audio.

 

A nice used Trinitron took its place.

[ledzep]

Wow, that's impressive! A game-playing droid. You do realize you have inadvertently built the precursor to the drones from "Silent Running", right? It's just missing legs.

[Algus]

This is a pretty amazing DIY. Thanks for sharing!

[+GoldenWheels]

I had that same Philips tv. Bought it at a Wal-Mart about 2005 or so. Always had geometry issues and eventually areas of the screen would show discoloration. Then 2 or 3 years later, the picture started to go out and would return but without any audio.

 

A nice used Trinitron took its place.

 

Hmmm, I'll have to keep an eye on it....though it's working fine now at it's advanced age, my buddy also said it had been turned on all of twice in the last 10 years and was never heavily used.

 

I happen to have a 19 inch mono Trinitron as well...was thinking that would make a good tv for my Atari 7800 version of this. Yeah I know I could get the 7800 modded to composite but I won't. Mono works with what I got.

[+pboland]

Awesome NES rig! I really like the four player plug-in panel on the bottom. It really makes it feel like it was meant to be used that way as part of a rig like this.

[Atariboy]

Hmmm, I'll have to keep an eye on it....though it's working fine now at it's advanced age, my buddy also said it had been turned on all of twice in the last 10 years and was never heavily used.

Mine was heavily used and lasted a long time (I made a typo and meant to say that it died two or three years ago). And it didn't have a ton of room to breath.

 

So I bet it lasts you a long time. I just thought it was neat to see the same model tv in a picture here.

 

When it was younger, other than imperfect geometry, I thought it was pretty nice. I didn't like that the rear composite, s-video, and component ports shared their audio inputs as I recall. And the side composite jack wasn't independent but instead was shared with the rear composite jack rather than serving as its own composite input. So it really only had 1 of them.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Atariboy

[+GoldenWheels]

Mine was heavily used and lasted a long time (I made a typo and meant to say that it died two or three years ago). And it didn't have a ton of room to breath.

 

So I bet it lasts you a long time. I just thought it was neat to see the same model tv in a picture here.

 

When it was younger, other than imperfect geometry, I thought it was pretty nice. I didn't like that the rear composite, s-video, and component ports shared their audio inputs as I recall. And the side composite jack wasn't independent but instead was shared with the rear composite jack rather than serving as its own composite input. So it really only had 1 of them.

 

sonofa! Just looked at it....you are right!

 

I have a grey 2 way switch I am going to add in there somewhere....what a weird way to do connections on a TV! Shared ports wth.

[TaskenLander]

I love it! And I have that same TV. I love my old philips CRT flat screen. Wish I had room to hook it back up for retro gaming...

 

Nice work!

[TheGameCollector]

Huh, none of my TV's do the automatic mono to two speakers output. I always have to use a splitter. I mostly have Philips and Magnavox brands though.

[+GoldenWheels]

Huh, none of my TV's do the automatic mono to two speakers output. I always have to use a splitter. I mostly have Philips and Magnavox brands though.

 

Maybe there is a setting in the menu? (Oddly I always wondered why anyone would select mono on purpose but I guess this is why the option exists--never made that connection until now).

[onmode-ky]

but the CHEAP part of me wants to make one out of the plug and play 7800 and 2600 I already have. Wouldn't need carts then (or have to buy another 7800) and could just keep some Genesis controllers in the thing.

 

But then it would be emulation so....I dunno.

Plug-n-play 7800 and 2600? Do you mean the Atari Flashback (the first model in the series, that looks like a mini 7800)? If so, that's not emulation, because [there's no translation going on, and] those aren't really 7800 or 2600 games; they're ports to that system's Novatek NT6578 NES-on-a-chip microcontroller. Basically, they're NES games. And that, I suppose, means you should play them on the lovely NES stand that you've already built.

 

For future clarity on the term, "emulation" in computing vocabulary specifically refers to the real-time translation of software of one instruction set so that it runs on hardware of a different instruction set. E.g., running NES ROMs on your x86 PC. It does not encompass either:

 

- games ported to (i.e., rewritten for) a different instruction set, running on hardware of that instruction set (Jakks Pacific's Atari joystick plug-n-play system (but not their paddle system) follows this model)

- games running natively on hardware that speaks the same instruction set, even if that hardware is wildly different in physical implementation from "the original" (the Atari Flashback 2 and 2+ are like this, as are many Sega SMS/GG and Genesis plug-n-play systems)

 

onmode-ky

[Osgeld]

looks great