Instead of waiting for Nintendo’s Switch, this awesome gamer made his own portable Super Famicom

Sure, Nintendo’s upcoming hybrid system looks cool, but retro gamers are already gushing over this cool customization of a classic console.

As someone who’s bought every generation of PlayStation, I think I’ve spent more time playing games on hardware from Sony than any other manufacturer. That said, like a lot of people my age, it was Nintendo that first really got me into video games, and after watching this awesome video of a Nintendo handheld system, I’m feeling a mixture of nostalgia and excitement.

While it’s a bit on the large side for a portable system, it still qualifies as a handheld, with the integrated unit containing the display screen and controls along with the processing unit. And even if it is a little bulky, it’s hard to hold that against the system when there are currently hundreds of games available for it.

What’s that? You say there are only a dozen or so launch titles scheduled for the Nintendo Switch? Oh, okay. But I wasn’t talking about the Switch. I was talking about this.

友達がスーファミ改造して持ち運び式にしたらしいで見せに来た https://t.co/yv4PmVdZ3q

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クオーレ･モモ (@huxarufaxara) February 28, 2017

Japanese Twitter user @huxarufaxara’s friend decided to take an old Super Famicom (as the Super NES was called in Japan) and stick a full-color screen into it, cutting an opening through the unit’s casing so that the display would be visible right behind where the cartridge slot is usually located. He also embedded one of the system’s iconic controllers, although doing so blocks the standard index finger-activated L and R buttons, which have now had their functions transferred to small buttons on the side edge of the system.

In its heyday, the Super Famicom was both an aural powerhouse as well as a graphical one, and so of course this handheld version has speakers, with their volume seemingly controlled by a knob at the back corner.

Also worth noting is that the system plays authentic Super Famicom cartridges instead of emulated ROMs stored on flash memory like many less faithful do-it-yourself electronics projects. In addition, no wires can be seen running from the system, and shining under the controller’s face buttons is a red light, something that isn’t present on the original Super Famicom and implies that this overhauled system from @huxarufaxara’s friend has some sort of internal power source.

It’s not clear from the video whether or not the system supports two-player play. Given that it has the working guts of a normal Super Famicom, though, as long as there’s still a controller port somewhere, it should be just a matter of plugging in a second pad.

“This is the true Super Game Boy,” declared one impressed online commenter, and with Nintendo on the brink of its next step into the future, serves as a fresh reminder of its illustrious past.

Source, images: Twitter/@huxarufaxara

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