There’s a warm place in our hearts for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s too bad we don’t have that hardware sitting around anymore. But if you do there’s a chance it needs some TLC and there’s always room for a blue LED mod. [Raph] has a wonderful collection of NES hardware repairs and hacks that you should take a look at. These include replacing the power supply, fixing the cartridge connector, monkeying with the CIC chip, adding a reset button on the controller, converting the audio from mono to stereo, and yes, swapping in a blue LED. Oh, and as a side note, [Raph] gets a bit of extra hacker ‘cred for including “coded manually using VIM” at the bottom of his page. Classic.
What, no arduino powering that blue LED?
@Ryan
My Arduino has a NES system powering its blue LED
All of these are nice modifications except for the LED. Seriously, get over blue LEDs, especially if they don’t fit the styling of what you’re modding one bit.
I think the blue light looks damn good! Actually I’m having trouble in seeing how this mod does not fit and I think figured it out… You are just a very, plain and simple, fucking stupid person who talks shit for the sake of you being stupid. I’ll even bet that you think you’re smart. Pretty sure everyone on here likes this except you, and the blue light doesn’t look like it fits any differently than the red besides originality based on what you’re used to. Now a lot of people fear change and that’s okay, you just have to learn to grow up and get passed the little bitchness in negatively commenting on things that people are trying inspire others with and are proud of. You fear the blue light. You’re scared of it. But only because it wasn’t you that thought of it. I’ll bet that if you had come up with it, you’d be basking in the jizz of all the people giving you credit. I’m sure that if Nintendo had made their original console with a blue light instead of a red one, then you’d be talking shit about the red light mod. Now tell us why that is? Why do you feel the need to troll on people that are doing cooler things than you? Is it that they did it first and you wish you were getting credit? Well whatever it is, at least everyone on here can see that you’re a bitch, bitch.
Wow, I just got my NES from ebay.
and hacked and mod it thanks to his website. Funny to see it here again. Maybe I should post the websites I visit before someone else do.
Great website, It got me thinking of making my own NES cardrige and GB cardrige.
Nice belgian trick for another “Gamebit” http://www.nintendoweb.be/index.php/gamebit-schroevendraaier-maken.html
@CodeAsm: Thanks for that link, I was just going to say I really liked the bit about making your own tool for opening cartridges.
Hmm, I have 2 of these just sitting in the closet, and both work perfectly. Love the old Zelda.
I could buy a snes for as low as 50 USD. Hacking this would be much more fun than hacking an xbox or ps3. I hate that the new technology gets more and more complicated so only bitbrains can understand it anymore. Its no more fun to hack new phones and consoles not to mention to try to repair them, we rather throw them into the trash.
SNES,C64 and the others should release all their specifications for these abandonware hws with as much details that everyone could build one from scratch.
@daniel,
C64 specification was always public. Get hold of a copy of “Commodore 64 Programmer’s reference guide” from 1983.
You will love full hardware/software descriptions and even the fold out schematic diagram.
My copy sits next to my original machine I have owned since the early 90’s. It just needed a new PSU building up a few years ago as the Commodore units were pretty crap.
“I did not install a button at the other end, I just touch the wires together.”
For a reset button??? That’s going to be terrible 5 hours into metroid when the cat steps on them.
Everyone who uses blue leds for their mods needs to have their eyes stabbed out. blue leds are the equivalent of putting neon strips under your ricer car. you destroy the aesthetics by putting in something so glaring and unnecessary.
Blue LED’s are very aesthetically pleasing if done correctly. Personally, I run them on a low voltage with frosted plastic to give a nice soft blue glow, not the BRIGHT color they make when you run them around 3.2v.
@HackADay,
Why oh why do you make me tear apart everything dear to me? I know most things end in pure awesome, but still…
Does anyone else really want to add the cartridge hardware directly to the console with a larger chip and a flashing circuit built in? I’m thinking it would be a fun project to have a very original looking NES with perfect functionality… and not have to replace the game slot every few years.
Bet he still has to blow the cartridges out and wiggle it a little bit to get some games to play.
@Ryan
shutup about the arduino already – there are too many crappy projects using it posted on Hackaday anyways.
@smoker_dave
Thanks for the tip. Might pick a copy of the book up just for interest.
+1
Like it. Blue LEDs are still cool.
Case mod is needed tho…
I’m sure you can use a different color LED and still follow his instructions LOL. Get over it. Some people like blue leds.
the blue LED is a matter of taste, but the it’s/its confusion is brain hurting
Ben Heck did this a long time ago. He called a “super” Nintendo.
Raphnet is fantastic, I’ve used his articles many many times in the past for projects.
Also, that article has been around for some – its nothing new he has posted there, and I think there are some much better articles on his site, such as the lovely re programmable NES cart:
http://www.raphnet.net/electronique/nes_cart/nes_cart_en.php