Music producers in search of that unmistakable 8-bit sound have a plethora of options available to them, but few are as authentic as Super Synth Drums - an actual cartridge that works on a real (or pirate) NES system. Granted, its sound palette is so narrow you could spit across it, and the Midines is a far better bit of kit, but it’s half the price and we always like to see more labor-of-love projects supporting discontinued hardware.
The Super Synth Drums cartridge is available from ElectroKraft for $49 plus shipping. Click through for a terrible demonstration video, which demonstrates as much of the demonstrators crotch as it does the actual product.
Got huge wads of cash burning a hole in your pocket? Check out this eBay auction for 741 NES cartridges, including all 670 Nintendo-licensed games released in North America.
The bidding is now at $3,600 however the reserve is not yet met. The shipping alone will set you back $400, but this is unlikely to bother anyone who spends this kind of money on piles of shitty old games.
Starting out with a cheap NES clone and a Super Mario Bros. cartridge, French modder Kotomi has created perhaps the coolest NES mod yet by squeezing the console into one of it’s own cartridges. It’s fully functional, with a cartridge slot, power and reset buttons, two controller ports and a composite AV out.
CollegeHumor has done it again. This time it’s a parody of Grand Theft Auto, set in the days we all thought Super Mario Bros. 3 was the bomb. You didn’t really think they’d let a massively hyped game hit the shelves without taking the piss out of it, did you?
A LiveJournal user by the name of studiojfish has found a massive amount of artwork from the original NES version of The Legend of Zelda lying around on his computer - and it’s of a completely different style than many of us have become accustomed to.
This NES port of Final Fantasy VII is far from your average rip-off. It’s the work of a gifted group of Chinese programmers, who utilized revolutionary techniques to squeeze a relatively complete version of the PSone classic onto a cartridge that plays on ancient 8-bit hardware.
Now that the Famicom support is discontinued you’ll probably want to not play it too much as to preserve its mint condition. Luckily you can still play the games on your DS, thanks to the Cyber Familator cart. Sure you could just emulate the games but it doesn’t hold quite the amount of street cred as walking around with the original cartridge. Although the Famicom and NES have different cart shapes you will be able to buy a converter for all your NES playing needs. No word on the cost, but it most likely won’t make it out of Japan.
Nintendo have done the unimaginable (mainly because we can’t believe it was still going on) and dropped support of the NES. After 24 years of service the little trooper is being laid to rest. This means that you’ll have to take extra good care of little Nessy now, as the big N won’t be helping you out when too much spittle gets blown into the cartridge port. On the upside, those with mint condition consoles just started getting a little bit richer. Nintendo have also let it be known that the SNES, Nintendo 64, Gameboy and Gameboy Pocket aren’t far from “going to live at a farm” either.
What happens when all the logical mods are done and when notoriety can no longer be achieved by some LEDs providing a nice glow effect? Well of course, you mod it into a shoe, which is exactly what someone has done with a NES and a Nike sneaker. The picture of the little beauty was allegedly taken in New York City at the end of the Sneaker Pimps’ nationwide tour.
This one is probably capable of speaking for itself, but if you’re already the proud owner of Mario & Luigi air fresheners, a NES tattoo and a Super Mario subwoofer - chances are you’re looking for something else to prove to the world that Nintendo played a more important role in your upbringing than your parents ever could.
Etsy comes through with the goods again, with this clock made from a Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge, yours for just $18 plus shipping.
