Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and have been lurking for years. I do all kinds of mods. I recently have been wanting to make a all in one box. My idea is to mount a N64, SNES, NES and Genesis motherboard into a pc case. I want to power it all with a computer power supply and regulate the voltages with some linear voltage regulators. I also want to custom mount the controller ports to a custom acrylic front panel. The top of the computer case will be modded to accept the cartridges. I will relocate the cart connector slots to the top of the PC with some ribbon cables. I also wanted to use a AV switch to merge all the signals.

My plan is to have all of my favorite cartridge consoles in one box using only 1 power cable and 1 video cable to minimize space and cable clutter. Here is a rough sketch of what I want to do.

I have a couple of questions regarding the N64 and the 3 voltages it takes. I was wondering if I could get some advice on what LVR's to use. I'll post some of the parts I have picked out for my build in a minute. Until then, here is a illustration of my idea. Thanks in advanced.

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/6597/superconsole.png

Not bad. I'd like to see a completed system.
Front of it looks like the Dolphin dev box, minus the disk drive.

If its already in a PC case then you should just use a computer PSU. The N64 requires 12V and 3.3V which you can grab off a normal PSU.

Thanks for the replies!! Here is what I have so far. I am a long way from completion. I already gutted the case I'm using. The bottom pic is of the power supply specs. My worries about the power is that the amps might be too high and fry something. I am new to using these types of components and was wondering if anyone would have any advice on what would be best. Thanks so far for the replies, I am super excited to hear suggestions. Thanks again!

LVR for 9v for the NES
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... 7809act-nd

LVR's for the SNES rev.2 mobo and Genesis 3 mobo
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... &x=12&y=13

LVR's for the N64 mobo
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... &x=10&y=14
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... 76-2228-nd

Use dev units of the systems your are going to put in the case and make good use of the back expansion slots.
But, if you use dev units, the cost goes from X to 20X.

But it would be cool to make this to look like an actualy dev box- search one up on the interent if you don't know what I'm talking about. It would be baller.

You definitely don't need the regulators for the N64 and NES and probably won't for the others if you just look at using a cheap ATX PSU for power.

So pretty much what you are saying is, that the voltage and amperes wont matter? I was scared that the extra voltages and amperes would damage the consoles if they werent exactly as the wall warts they came with from factory.

If you don't mind, could you please explain why it is safe to put 12v on a 9v system and such? Sorry, I just would like to know. Thanks.




That would be awesome but way too pricey for me right now. But yeah, I would like it to look like a dev box on steroids. Lol. Thanks for the input. Hopefully I can get this build done soon. Thanks!!

Most of the time, they say 9V because that's what they wanted- the components themselves are capable of handling voltages higher and lower if necessary.
For example- I just got a 3.5" screen and an audio amp off of a member here- both are capable of running off anything from 5V-12V. The components used are just capable of working with any voltage (within a given range).
Another- I recently did a capacitor replacement on my mother's iMac because she refuses to buy a new machine- The caps I used where Xuf (I can't remember the specifics) and 20V. I used 22V caps- the rating given to the caps are the MAXIMUM they can operate safely on. The caps themselves would just automatically work with whatever voltage (below the given limit).

Some things, though, are not capable of running off a wide range of voltages. The components in those are going to be more delicate and prone to damage from higher levels. Especially with amps- if you need to know, amps are how much energy is going across the wire at a given time. too much, and your device will catch fire.

Now here's what I'm not sure on- whether an ATX PSU will automatically regulate itself to send out the right power in amps. I'll have to find that out.

Apparently the NES just puts the 9VAC it gets through a bridge rec and then through a 7805. In that case it doesn't even matter the polarity in which you connect the DC. As far as the N64 goes it requires 12V and 3.3V so they're fine. If you don't feel comfortable with it you don't have to do it. Its just an idea to save time and money.

Awesome!! You guys ROCK!! Thanks for taking out the time to explain that to me. I was unsure but now I feel more confident. I'll save some time and money thanks to you people.

Ill do some research of my own as well to see if the PSU will regulate the amps.

Thanks again!!

Are you using a toploader or front loader NES? If it's a toploader, it'll be neat if you still include all of the spring loaded doors for each system. If you're using a frontloader, it might be neat to have the cartridge slot in a drive bay.

Also, I'm pretty sure this is my first post, so...hi everyone.

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Welcome! I'm new to the forum too. I was thinking of using a regular frontloader. That would be cool as hell to do. I was thinking of buying a game genie and removing the cart connector to use it in my build. Either that or I was going to find a knockoff top loading NES and remove the cart connector from that. I really like the idea of using the doors on the slots but I feel bad about ripping apart a perfectly good console case, LOL. I really think the idea of the front loader on the front panel would be insane!! The only problem is that the cart connector is unreliable. I might be able to make my own dust cover doors though. Thanks for the input, I'll definitely consider one of those options.

Thanks for the welcome. I've been reading for a long time, but this is one of the first projects on here which I've felt I had any good ideas for feedback on. There are so many possibilities here! You could integrate a 32X in the Genesis slot and it would be AMAZING if you could somehow make a SegaCD operate in a regular CD-ROM drive. Taking that further, it makes me imagine a tower with other disc based systems(Saturn, PSOne/PS2, XBox?) all wired to work the same way. You could maybe even have a TurboGrafx HuCard slot in a drivebay. Please document your project along the way with lots of pictures. I'm excited to see your results.

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As above, it would be simple to ad in a Sega CD into a drive bay- get the bottom attached Sega CD and position it so that the tray lines up with a faceplate from a generic CD drive. Make sure to add a Sega CD logo too!
PS2- same deal, but make sure it's a fat unit so that you can use an HDD for backups.
Xbox- Eh, unless you like some games on it, it'll cause some issues due to heat from that beast. It is laid out like a computer though, so it takes IDE disk drives.
Gamecube- If you wanted to go all out on this and sell it for a ton, you CAN get it to have a slot in a drive bay- grab a Panasonic Q and mod from there. Downside? They're highly expensive, hard to find, and collectible, so taking one apart and modding the internal system just isn't right.
All other consoles with cart slots- remove cart slots, and re wire with IDE cables so that you can have them lined up on the top.

Oh and add power buttons to the side of each game console game insertion area (be it disk drive or cartridge slot) so you don't have to have all running at once.


Quite frankly this is such a good idea I may pursue something exactly like this, as long as you don't mind.

This goes for me, too. How difficult would it be to convert some of the top-loading disc systems to work with slot-loading trays?

Also, could you theoretically do rgb mods on each system or mount some sort of vga box inside so that you get the best possible picture across the board?

The possibilities here are endless and very exciting.

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