what you need:

1. sevaral N64s and a controller
-you'll probably fry some N64s

2. screen
-this guide will be using a psone/verge screen (they have the same guts). you can use others but psone screens are good and know how to hack them. if the video doesn't work, don't worry, you can fix it.

3. battery
-any 7.2v-9v battery or battery pack will work. you can go higher if you use a screen that needs more. portable DVD player batteries are great but you can also get AA holders at radio shack

4. solering iron (15-30w suggested for electronics), desoldering iron, solder
-use flux or lemon juice to help it stick. hot glue whatever you solder to protect it

5. wire
-ribbon cable is best for this kind of project: there are lots of wires in a ribbon, ribbon keeps it organized so you know what set of wires go where, they're light, small, and flexible. i've heard bad things about the newer kind with teeny tiny itsy bitsy wires so use the older kind.

6. something to get 3.3v
-this guid uses an Iru120633 voltage regultor and 2 10uf tantalum avx capacitors. you can use some car 3v adapters but i've heard 3v gets some sound and video distortion. of course, there are many other ways to get 3.3v, but i only know a few and this is the one rawls showed me and he seems to know a lot about this stuff.

how to make it:

1. get everything to run on batteries. if the psone/verge screen has inverted colors, give it slightly higher voltage and that will hopefully fix it. make sure the 3.3v line gets enough amps (around 1-1.5). if you're using rechargable AAs, they're 1.2v, not 1.5v. the pinouts are in the diagram in step two.

2. wire everything together using this diagram. the separate power switches for the N64 and screen are only needed if you include the AV in/out jacks. you can bypass plugs and desolder them if you want to save space but you don't have to. for the controller, split the controller or extend the buttons with tact switches to get the buttons and joystick where you need them.

3. make a case. whether you make a new case or modify your N64/screen case, you'll need to open the N64. if you use the melting pen method, use the kind with clear plastic because it's stiff and works best. if you hate money, you can get a nintendo screw driver. be very very very very careful with N64 motherboards, they fry very very very very easily! always wear a grounding strap when handling them and try to handle them as little as possible. if you want the cartridge to be somwhere else like sliding down the back like a gamboy, relocate it. when you're done with all the case-making and wiring and all that stuff, put it in the case and you're done

The End
if you have anything to add, tell me
someone should sticky this or put it on POD or something

well this is interesting.....

nice work.....mine will be a bit more thorough....well yeh

will this Battery work to power the n64 board with the 3.3v line

yes

i was going to make mine more thorough but i couldn't think of anything else to add to it

lol....also on the power diagram you should say the switch is on the negative just before the battery

that would work too

its better it cuts it off totally so there is no power left anywhere

If I want to power the N64 motherboard using rechargeable AAs like these:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... d=23%2D528
How many should I put on each power line?

Also, because it's kind of hard to tell in the picture, how should they be hooked up? If we number the spots like this:

1 2 3
4 5 6

Where should the positives and negatives each go? It's hard to tell with all of the overlapping lines drawn in that picture.

I'm thinking of building an N64 portable, I already have an N64, am good with a soldering iron (willing to completely rewire the cartridge connector because of it), and have an idea for the battery pack: use two 7.2v NI-MH packs from RadioShack in parallel for a grand total of 6000 mAH, use the aformentioned regulator to get 3.3v and use a PSOne screen as the display. I've heard the N64 RGB output is weak, is there a way to amplify it? (I don't feel the need to use the white LED mod if I have 6 AH of power, so the brightness mod is unnecessary) The controller layout I'm thinking of is identical to that used in the GameCube (including using a GameCube control stick if possible), except for the lack of the X and Y buttons, and also swapping Z and L.

3 1.2v batteries should work. i thought the pinouts on the diagram were pretty clear . 3.3v goes to pins 1 and 2. positive is all the red lines and negative (ground) is the black lines


according to POD, put 200uf caps on the RGB lines. GC joystcks won't work on official controllers but there's a third party controller (or so i've heard) that you can use it with.

Ok, so three batteries for the 3.3 circuit and eight for the other?

And let me see if I have this right (simplified picture with only power lines):


Would that power an N64?

You only need 6 AAs on the 12V line.

something i forgot to mention in the guide is that the 12v line has a 7805 so it can take anywhere from 7.2v-thirty something. you only need 6 AAs for the 12v line.
edit: beat me to it

my cousin came over today and reminded me i have a website . i'm gonna make a much more thorough guide on my website but until then, the one i posted earlier will have to do

So, I just need 6 and 3? Good. I can then use the 6 to also power a Psone screen for the display.

My idea for a N64p is a semi-handheld. I'm thinking of a box with the N64 board and the screen in it, meant to be propped up on a table. I would leave cut outs in the box for access to the cartridge slot and controller ports, which I would leave untouched. This would allow me to do multiplayer easily.

I probably won't start this project for awhile, but gathering the info early can't hurt. A couple more questions:

What's the battery life like for an N64 and screen running off a 6 and 3 config of AAs like this?

How's Super Smash Bros multiplayer on a 5-inch screen? Good?