After completion of my arcade cabinet project, I was unhappy with playing the old console games standing up (imagine playing Legend of Zelda while standing upright for hours on end). Thus, I decided a new project was in order: a console PC. Here were the requirements that I set forth:

• Have enough horsepower to run most modern emulators (including those for N64 and PSX)
• Able to be connected to VGA monitor or TV
• Compact and lightweight
• Nice to haves: DVD playback, Divx player, MP3 player

After doing some research I stumbled on a great project site, www.mini-itx.com. The Mini-ITX site showed a number of projects using VIA's EPIA mini ITX motherboard. The VIA EPIA M offered all of the features that I wanted in a nicely integrated, compact design. One project that I liked in particular was the NES PC. The NES case offered a great retro look! After further research, I came upon Tim Wasson's NES PC Tutorial site. Tim did an excellent job of documenting the build process of his NES PC with particular attention to retaining the original look and feel of the NES. I decided to use Tim's approach and started searching for the necessary parts.

CASE

It was not hard to find a broken NES system on EBay. I won the first auction I bid on and got a good condition case for $15. 

HARDWARE

Mainboard: VIA EPIA Mini ITX w/800 MHz C3 processor ($120)
Memory: 256 MB Kingston PC133 SDRAM ($50)
Hard Drive: Fujitsu 20 GB Laptop Hard Drive w/standard IDE converter ($100)
DVD Drive: Samsung Slimline DVD drive w/standard IDE converter ($100)
Power Supply: ACHME Flex ATX 150W power supply ($22)
Cooling: (2) CPU Fans ($6)

Total: $413

SOFTWARE

I decided to go with a config based on Windows 98 since it appeared to offer the easiest setup without a significant performance compromise. Here is the software configuration:

• Windows 98 SE
• ArcadeOS - multi-emulator front-end for arcade cabinets
• BRSMS - BrSMS is Sega Master System / Game Gear / SG1000 / SC3000 / Colecovision emulator
• ColEm - ColEm is a portable emulator of the old ColecoVision videogame system written in C
• KGen - a Sega Genesis Emulator
• MagicEngine - MagicEngine is a PC-Engine (TurboGrafx-16) console emulator
• Nescticle - NESticle is a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator
• z26 - an Atari 2600 Emulator
• ZSNES - a Super Nintendo emulator

BUILD

1. Let the transformation begin! Starting with a virgin NES case...

2. First things first: gut the NES except for the power and reset controls...

3. Checking the fit of the motherboard -- very nice!

4. The completed power/reset unit with soldered connections for motherboard.

5. Making room for the hardware. I've cut away any unnecessary plastic mounting posts using a Dremel.

6. Now it's time to remove the plastic 'T' from the base. This will provide an extra 1/4 - 1/2" of clearance in the case. Also, I've cut an opening in the backplane for the peripheral connections on the motherboard.

7. I mounted a piece of white plastic as the new base of the case.

8. Slimline DVD drive and laptop hard drive mounted to the top case with velcro (for easy removal).

9. With the case modifications being done, it's time to test the whole set up before assembling the final product.

10. Mounting the motherboard and power supply is complete. Time to put it all together!

THE FINAL PRODUCT

Booting up for the first time (like the custom splash screen?)

The familiar Windows 98 desktop...

A screenshot of ArcadeOS...

And, finally, a screenshot of Mike Tyson's Punch Out...

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or comments.