NES emulators for newer consoles

[horseboy]

Has anybody tried out the NES emus for the Gamecube or PS2?

I am planning on throwing something into a NES case to use as a dedicated NES emulator. I have seen people put Mini ITX's and such in there, but that is too much trouble and too expensive. I have also seen it done a couple of times with Dreamcasts, and this might end up being what I have to do.

I dismissed the XBox right off the bat because I didn't think there would be a chance in hell of fitting that beast into the NES case. I thought Gamecube would be cool because I could possibly use some of those NES to Wii/GC controller converters, and not have to modify the controller ports and/or the controllers. I don't know if I could fit a GC in the NES case either, though?    PS2 seemed like a good possibility since they came out with the little model, but as with the other solutions I would have to mod the controller ports and controllers.

So, anyhow, anybody ever try NES emus for GC or PS2?


Also any other input on the project would be great as well. 

[ChadTower]

I haven't tried the emulators you're asking about but I can tell you the GC should fit into the NES case.  You'd have to come up with a good mod for disc changing, if you want to do that, but if you stripped the GC down a bit I'd be surprised if it was hard to get into an NES shell.

[horseboy]

Just seem like it would be too tall for it, but I have never decased one so hopefully you are right. Gamecube would be my first choice here due to not having to mod the controller ports. That is if the NES emu for GC doesn't require those other buttons.

[ChadTower]

I have decased a couple Cubes... there is space in the bottom that could be eliminated.  The PCB isn't quite at the bottom of the case, it's raised up a bit on posts, and the GC case itself has a good amount of "waste" space where the expansion slot covers are located and where you would put the modem/BBA in.

The biggest challenge would probably be finding a good way to secure it within the NES case.  Not a huge challenge but you'd obviously want to do it in a quality way.

[Naru]

What part of this
project is an emu though?
It sounds like your swapping
another machine into an NES case.
Could you build a PC into the NES
and run Nintendo emulators?
That would be kinda' neat...

Oh wait, your going to swap
machines to run an NES emulator...
Now I get it...maybe.

Still it sounds cool,
can't wait to see it.

[horseboy]

Well, I had always thought the Mini ITX/laptop components thing was really cool, but it just always seemed like too much time and expense to justify me doing it. When I saw the dude stick a Dreamcast in there with a NES emu, the idea became much more feasible for me to do. I really think I could handle that project. I was just trying to improve on it a bit since he had to mod the ports and controllers. It looks great all plugged in, but it is just one little detail that kind of bugged me. He did a fantastic job with it, though.

[ChadTower]

I have played around a lot with the DC NES emus... unless you can find a way to get a real NES controller, or one that at least feels like one, you're not going to like it.  The DC and GC D pads aren't up to NES games.  They're just not.

[horseboy]

For sure. If I go the DC route, I would hack the controllers and ports to Sega/Atari db-9 style connectors like the guy did in the link. He made it look really nice, but it just one of those things that kinda bugs me.

[northerngames]

been awhile since I tore into the gamecube but if it plug's in board to board from psu on the bottom to mobo in the middle and disk drive on top it may be tough to set them left to right in a nes case instead of being stacked like stock becuase if they each plug into one another how you going to connrect them together again and if they are ribbon style connections you would have to mod all the ribbons with a old stripped pc I.D.E. cable or something I may be wrong though I have not got into one in over a year and having trouble remebering how they each connected stock.

[ChadTower]

You won't have to set them left to right.

[northerngames]

O well that would be cool I was not sure becuase I don't have either sitting here to tinker with at the moment.

perhaps cut a whole in the nes case top in a square or circle shape and hotglue the gamecube lid to it from underneith for a disk lid and if you wanted the open button function still you could probably dremel cut the top of the gamecube lid and caseing off but if your not use to case cutting I would not even try it. 

[horseboy]

Whatever goes in there will be decased. Also it will be dedicated to the NES emu, so there should be no need for disc swapping. The Dreamcast is really looking like the best option here. I am almost positive that navigating the Gamecube emu will require more buttons that the nes pad can accomodate, so it is looking like Dreamcast will be it here.

[sju4sju]

I've been thinking about putting my PSOne inside a NES shell, and using the "It Might Be NES" emu..
should definitely fit inside the case, with no modifications, other than wiring the power + reset buttons.
Have to hack the controllers too.

[syph007]

For what it's worth, an xbox does fit inside a NES case.  But just BARELY.  I'm doing this project right now.   No dvd drive of course, but the mobo, power supply and HD does fit.  I can show some progress pix tomorrow if you are interested.   I'll be hooking up the power buttons and just using 2 controller ports in place of the standard NES ports.  I chose the xbox because I had a spare one, they are cheap, and the NES emulation is excellent.

Cheers

[horseboy]

Interested? Yes. 

I am really surprised all that crap fit in there.

[ChadTower]

Me too, for the most part, unless he found a way to strip the power supply down.  The mobo itself isn't that but but the power supply is tall so it wouldn't be able to sit above the mobo.

[syph007]

Hey again,

I didn't forget that I said I had pictures, but I just finished posting what I've done so far over in the xbox-scene forums.  If you're interested you can check there for some pictures.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=603376

The stock power supply actually fits just fine... well with about 3 mm to spare

Cheers!

Edit: Hmmm well those seem down at the moment, so I'll add a couple of pix here so you can see...

[ChadTower]

Nice job... gotta put those missing parts back in, though.