Last weekend at MAGfest I had a little time to poke around the dealer room. Tucked among the tantalizingly rare carts and JAMMA boards were a few folks who offered gaming inspired handicraft. There were knit hats that looked like Mario World mushrooms, some pixellated looking paintings of scenes from favorite games, as well as other examples of gaming gone artsy-craftsy.

Ebay seller hellokitty11111111111 (maybe that's binary for Badtz Maru?) has brought gaming art full circle. Her (?) paintings depicting scenes from favorite classic games are painted directly onto NES and SNES consoles. There are about a dozen different painted Nintendo and PS1 consoles available on Ebay starting at a "Buy It Now" of $75. We've all seen those decals that you can apply all over your console to get a similar look, but that's still not as cool as owning a little piece of one-of-a-kind custom art. Now if only I can convince her to paint the graphics from Microsurgeon onto my Intellivision...

Check out these custom painted NES & PS1 units on Ebay
Here are some more painted Super Nintendo consoles

related:

Breakfast with Nintendo
Borg Nintendo Famicom
NES console hack fits inside NES cart
Vintage handheld game guts

We’ve seen our share of DIY projects made from old Nintendo cartridges, but this one is really sexy. It’s what a camera should look like. It will void your warranty, so only do this when it runs out.

But the question remains, could you destroy a Cart of FF III? I’m not so sure I could.

[Technabob]

We’ve seen our share of DIY projects made from old Nintendo cartridges, but this one is really sexy. It’s what a camera should look like. It will void your warranty, so only do this when it runs out.

But the question remains, could you destroy a Cart of FF III? I’m not so sure I could.

[Technabob]

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Gaming

Famicom cart camera provides its own smile-catching technology originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For those who have played Final Fantasy III might think twice about gutting their precious relic from the past, but apparently this guy has no second thoughts about ripping up his copy since he never played the game and got immersed in it. What makes this cartridge so special? Well, he has merged it with a Sony point-and-shoot digital camera, where the innards of the camera has been retro-fitted into the hollowed out cartridge perfectly. It is a pretty good looking project, I must admit, but do this only if you have already voided the warranty on your camera and use this as a spare instead of your primary shooter.

Permalink: Famicom Cartridge Turned Into Digital Camera from Ubergizmo (US, FR) | Good deals | Hot: CES 2009, Jan 6-11

I’m not sure I could bring myself to gut a copy of Final Fantasy III, but goteking, the modder behind this project, never played the game, and so felt no connection to the beloved RPG. He can be forgiven, however, because the game makes a pretty good-looking camera.

The BenHeck.com forums are jammed with people fascinated by the idea of turning things into other things, but goteking is apparently an old pro. He posted pictures of and links to a number of projects, including a DS Lite redone with Sony Vaio branding,

Apparently, he has a knack for taking good-looking items and making them even more interesting.

[goteking's blog via BenHeck.com forums]

These cheap-o fakes come courtesy of the shady sounding Rodisson Technologies Company, who only ask that you place a minimum wholesale order of 10,000 pieces if you want to get your hands on one of these 8-bit versions of popular modern-day gaming systems. Note that the Xbox 360 fake dons the “Happy 360″ moniker, presumably to help them avoid Microsoft’s lawyers - but I not sure that’s subtle enough. The PS3 clone goes by the name “Play Power 3,” which really isn’t much better.

Each 8-bit fake comes complete with old-school 9-pin joysticks and a light gun, which lead me to believe that the built-in games (all 512 of ‘em) are old Famicom or NES bootlegs. Caveat Emptor and all that.

Maybe you can finally play that game of Duck Hunt you’ve been dying to play on your 360 or PS3.

The unshakable NES owned the late 80's video game scene. Not only did they bring gaming back to living rooms to stay, they went from strength to strength for at least five whole years (though games continued to be published until 1995, and the Famicom was still manufactured in Japan until 2003!) - an eternity in technology years.

Arcade rival Sega tried to counter with their own 8 bit Master System home video game, but made little mark. Sega wouldn't pose a serious threat until 1989 when they unveiled their 16 bit Mega Drive system (Genesis in the US) and shook up Nintendo's dominance. Mega Drive had superior sound, tremendous speed, and increased graphics horsepower (we can all chuckle today at the "High Definition graphics" label stenciled onto every American Genesis). It took a number of years for Nintendo to catch up, and in terms of sales the Mega-Drive is the last time that Sega really counted in the console game.

Hard to believe that this battle for home TV screens raged on 20 years ago. To commemorate the fight, Sega has released this nylon bag with the proud countenance of a Mega Drive on it. This item is for sale in Japan's Sega-owned Joypolis shops, but it's now also available in the states for $55 plus shipping. That's several times the price of a used Mega Drive unit, but then again you can't carry around your lunch inside a game console. Not around here, anyway...

Order a 16-bit bag of your very own

related:

Please ask Santa to bring me a Sega Nomad
Beggar Prince - first Genesis homebrew game
Sega Game Gear had little chance against Nintendo's Game Boy
Tiny Sega handheld by Coleco

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

Like many of you, I grew up on the NES, SNES and Sega Genesis. Much of my childhood was spent playing these three consoles, and there are times that I think about dusting them off to relive the good old days. The only problem is that of the three, only my SNES is still in working order. I’ve considered trying to find an old NES and Genesis that are still in good working order, but when you’re talking about consoles that are upwards of 20 years old, they’re still going to give out eventually. No, what I need is one of these FC3 Plus systems from Yobo.

This awesome piece of hardware combines the three greatest consoles from my childhood into one generic-looking plastic shell. Sure, it doesn’t look like much, but remember kids, it’s whats on the inside that counts. This thing could look like complete garbage and I wouldn’t care, because it’ll let me play games from my NES, SNES and Genesis collections. You get two fairly generic controllers (no, you can’t plug in the original ones) and a light gun for use with the NES. Much like the original Nintendo Zapper, this isn’t going to work with LCD and Plasma TVs, so don’t be too surprised.

The biggest issue I have with this console is its availability. I can’t seem to find anywhere to order one, and the Yobo site will only sell them to me if I’m a retailer. They’re already popping up on eBay, so that’s one option. I’ve seen a couple of Famicom clones down at my local Game X Change, so maybe I’ll check with them about getting one.

[ Yobo ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

The SNES has certainly proven to be one of the most popular consoles to get the portable treatment among those go-getter console modders out there, and it looks like it's not showing any signs of losing that status, with this so-called SNEP (Super Nintendo Entertainment Portable) only the latest to pop up on our radar. As you can see above, this one is a tad less portable than some other handheld SNES mods we've seen (it also apparently needs to be plugged in), but it does at least do better job than most at staying true to the SNES's (or, more accurately, the Super Famicom's) instantly-recognizable appearance. There's no plans available for building your own, unfortunately, but you can check it out in action in the video after the break.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

Continue reading New SNES portable is heavy on the SNES, light on the portable

New SNES portable is heavy on the SNES, light on the portable originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.