The game has brought joy to people of many generations, and during the pandemic, the billion-dollar industry has skyrocketed with families playing Nintendo game trends like Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons i Ori and the will of the warningsin the comfort of your own home.
But for a particular player from Waltham, Massachusetts, the excitement of the game comes from the console itself. His passions have now led him to build a device that is officially the world smore evil modified Nintendo 64 console.
Gunnar Turnquist (USA), fond of challenges and eager to break boundaries with innovation, said: “I was inspired to do this project since I loved the N64 and it was my first gaming console I grew up with.” .
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For those unfamiliar with the Nintendo 64, it was one of the original home gaming consoles in the mid-1990s and one of the last to use cartridges as main storage.
These devices are quite bulky and usually measure a height of 72.9 mm, a width of 259.8 mm and a depth of 190 mm, which makes the size of this equipment not an easy task.
Gunnar encountered obstacles such as cutting the motherboard to the tiniest size. To make sure the motherboard was working properly at a fraction of the size, he first had to carefully map the intricate connections and reconnect his small circuits.
Its end result bore fruit, as it was able to maneuver all the pieces with a record size of 8.4 cm X 11.8 cm X 4.50 cm (3.3 to X 4.64 to X). 1.77 a).
The modified console premiered on Gunnar’s YouTube channel, ‘GmanModz’, a channel where he explains how he builds portable consoles, synthesizers and other neat gaming-related engineering projects.
The LCD screen was measured at 3.5 “with a battery life of 1.5 hours. The new system also includes fully functional N64 controller buttons.
With his new success, many wonder how he managed to condense all the operating equipment into such a small framework.
It turns out that Gunnar first met other gaming fans creating his own individual portable gaming consoles at the age of 13. He was absolutely stunned with a project like this doable.
As a teenager, I was so baffled by the work of these game lovers that I was intrigued to create one of my own.
In the days following his discovery, Gunnar methodically studied the available online resources related to video game modification and electronics. During his free time from school, he studied and watched closely, learning how others directed and executed his unique electronic project.
Gunnar continued to practice and perfect his passion for building handheld consoles for ten years, studying and pointing out ways to improve his craft in each replica.
Over the years, Gunnar has received help and support from his high school teachers and friends who have guided him in his modding aspirations.
Years of work and technical studies finally motivated him to continue on this journey, pursuing electrical engineering in his own college studies. .
“I started learning electronics when I was 13 and when I saw online people building their own handheld consoles, I thought it was the funniest thing in history and I had to try it. There have been many friends and teachers in my life who have helped me along the way. High school teachers who were interested and guided me through my projects ”.
For Gunnar, the reward for achieving this record was not the record itself, but the skill and persistence in manipulating the limits of older gaming technology and mixing them with modern techniques such as 3D printing, microcontroller programming and printed circuit board (PCB). designs.
“Anyone can learn how to make their own handheld console and other DIY electronics projects. It can be a steep learning curve, but it starts with something basic and improves each project from there ”.