https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/thundervolt.62...
That is pretty insane.
- you can get Wiis for very cheap nowadays, perhaps cheaper than the parts themselves
- the original board makes heavy use of serpentine tracks. If they are not just to equalize track length, it’d be very hard to account for all delays in a redesign.
ofc I’m not a part of the community so their reasons might be complete different
Modern VRMs also reduce output voltage when the CPU draws more current. That way when the CPU later draws less current, the voltage doesn't inductively spike up and damage the CPU. Overclockers call this LLC (load line calibration), but don't google that because electrical engineers don't use that term and most articles and reddit threads explain this ass-backwards. Google "Active Voltage Positioning" instead to find correct documentation.
If your VRM is close to the chip, voltage droop will be ~0 and LLC can be ~0. This allows you to undervolt more and save power without instability. This is probably why most server CPUs have voltage conversion inside the chip (FIVR, Fully integrated voltage regulators)
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+Wii+Teardown/812
https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/ewv3yZPOujCRpKEj.hug...
That's it. And they didn't include the controller ports and other bits. For instance, I don't think it has Bluetooth or WiFi antennas, so it can't connect to Wiimotes or a network.
So if you wanted all of that back, it would be a little bigger. But not by much. Probably the size of the Game Boy Advance in the picture. If that.
But if all you wanted was Smash Bros on a keychain, here you go.
You can use any two sources of infrared light instead!
So you can replace it with candles as they emite infrared light as well!
Also man do I feel old - coming up on 15-20 years since that and I actually remember HN discussion about it from the earlier days.
Turns out all the smarts are in the controllers, the bar is just there to show a couple of fixed points for positioning.
Buuuut yeah I thought similarly - there's no video output, power input or any way to connect controllers without that dock.
Compare it to one of the other tiny builds - https://github.com/loopj/short-stack - which seems to support wireless remotes, has HDMI and takes USB-C for power.
Some components in this build are reconnected to the board using a flexible PCB connector, but the core is just a cut down OEM Wii board.
And it still has the original controller/memory card ports!
[1]: https://github.com/loopj/short-stack previously discussed 3 months ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40071826
I don’t believe the Wii you linked includes an IR bar, which is what your statement led me to expect.
I don't think it's worth the huge amount of effort extra compared to a simple trim.
Hell, it has about the same footprint as a gamecube disc.
For straight up modding: definitely the Xbox. The 007 and Mechwarrior bugs blew everything wide open, and the fact that it was just a PC with real (upgradeable!) storage spawned projects like XBMC, now known as Kodi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodi_(software)
And also piracy was rampant, but not the Swapmagic or Modchip kind. You could just upgrade the drive, _backup_ your games on there, and play 'em all of the drive.
The Wii and 3DS are also suuuuper open and hackable though. The homebrew scenes on both are incredibly impressive, not to mention the whole ecosystem of full blown launchers and shells and stuff. (Which, now that I think about it, was also a big deal on Xbox.)
With cable connected one you are just looking for a console that would be dragged left and right every time you pull a bit with the controller.
https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/game-boy/#anti-pir...
Playstation2 used something similar. ( https://github.com/mlafeldt/ps2logo )
I suppose it gave companies in question additional legal leverage - they could not distribute copies of games without violating the trademark laws.
Using a brand name like this just makes things easier when Nintendo attorneys barely have to roll out of bed when sending a cease and desist order.
Just call it Kawaii and stay slightly under the radar. Sadly, Nintendo will probably come for you anyways.
Still not in prison.
Needless to say, they are pretty safe from Nintendo. If these guys aren't selling the schematics, and posting them for free, Nintendo has a lot less of a leg to stand on.
Consistent inaction against infringers can lead to the public perceiving the trademark as less distinctive. This can make it harder to protect the trademark in the future, and can encouraging further infringement.
That's commerce.
Now, obviously: Their target market knows exactly what they're buying, and they aren't going to be confused by any of this at all.
But trademark law (and the surrounding case law) may not see it that way.
It's easier (and a lot less fear-inducing) to cease-and-desist before Nintendo's IP lawyers send a nastygram than it is to do so afterward. (And in order to keep their trademark intact, they pretty much have to send that nastygram. Trademarks are very much a defend-it-or-lose-it thing.)
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"Sorry guys, the first order had to be scrapped along with all of the money we collected and spent on it. If anyone is still interested, the price is still $55 for a shell without the logo if we can get another 30 orders in again."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi#Design_philosophy
appropriate username, btw, but that console is for another topic!
SNES... Somewhat? I think there were tradeoffs here between that and the genesis; You got more colors and could get better sound out of the SNES... On the flip side people did -amazing- things with the YM2612 and for all the SNES RPG Soundtracks I love, they don't slap like the Streets of Rage series or Sanic.
N64 had pretty good perf but the Cartridge format made it -very- expensive to do anything very fancy; this is one of the reasons that lots of folks feel PS1 had better looking games despite N64's superior specs.
GameCube... Sits in a very weird spot IMO, but that whole generation was a bit Zany due to how everyone was experimenting with different 'paths to faster/better 3d'. Dreamcast had lots of 'special' stuff, GC was unique in it's own right, PS2's biggest stumble IIRC was too little ram for the GS...
To me, the bigger 'paradigm shift' that Nintendo made with the Wii was preferring more COTS-y stuff versus more special custom things...
NES had the Special Ricoh 6502 variant. SNES had the SPC. N64... TBH was mostly SGI based so possibly the exception. Gamecube had a custom GPU (Flipper)...
Wii is for the most part an 'incremental' upgrade from GC Hardware, and the Switch uses a not-that-special Tegra AFAIK.
My dude, the GameCube was released nearly 23 years ago.
There is a wider time delta betwixt the GameCube's release and today than there is between the NES and the GameCube.
Some things really take you by surprise as well.
I never saw Inscryption, Disco Eliseum or Hades coming, and I think nobody did.
And even oldish games still have great value. I still play LoL or Isaac, and they are as good as they were on day 1.
Plus, you get the Switch then the Deck refreshed portable gaming experience. The latter made emulation so nice as well.
With terrific communities, insane speed runners, devs coming up with crazy new concepts and hardware that never stop to get better, it's hard to complain except that with a busy life, you will see only 1% of those masterpieces.
I don’t think Hades came as a surprise to anyone who was already a fan of the devs from Bastion and Transistor.
GPU-powered dynamic lighting and LOD is also pretty crazy.
But apparently the golden age is ending, as big publishers this year and last canceled a lot of projects and closed a bunch of studios. Sad, but there's still a huge backlog of great titles to go through.
Hmm, like what?
I do sincerly miss the limited rendering aspect of old titles. The limitations gave ways to a distinct style, and kept the game a game, in a strange world. It also provided you with some surprises.. how did they manage to pull off some effect on a tiny 8 or 16bit machine. Hardware of today removes that wonder. There's less contrast.
But in the 90s, when you got home with your very first device capable of rendering "real time" 3D graphics for $200, you didn't really care that "real time" meant 12fps at times. We used to have pretty low standards for framerate.
Subnautica
Satisfactory
Factorio
Hollow Knight
RE7
Baba is You
Baldur's Gate 3
Elden Ring
Dead Cells
Hades
Ori and the Will of the Wisp
Disco Elysium
Dishonored 1 & 2
Orcs Must Die
Planet Coaster
Portal 1 & 2
Read Dead Redemption 2
Valheim
I dont' know what you mean by "modern," but these were all games I enjoyed recently-ish, and I'm sure I forgot some.
For home consoles I hope a single board computer flls this role one day. In fact I've been experimenting with the raspberry pi to try and turn it into a console for new games but just haven't spent enough time on the project yet.
Same thing goes for games that demand high performance rigs. It’s all about what you want in the end, and there’s no single answer for what makes a game fun. Some people really like beautiful, realistic looking games with high resolutions and frame rates. To them that is fun.
It feels like graphics in games have reached a sort of plateau now where the most visually realistic games are only marginally more realistic looking than something from nearly 10 years ago.
It's been a meme for a while and I unironically agree.
The cheapest way to make a small-batch aluminum enclosure is probably to base it off an off-the-shelf extrusion stock. I'd go on McMaster and find some C-channel stock that fits my needs, then I'd design a base plate that nests inside the C-channel. If you're trying to go for an upscale, professional look, you can have the machine shop run a wire wheel over the C-channel before anodizing it.
They have a network of vetted shops who bid on jobs when otherwise unoccupied.
