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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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.