Just a thought (whilst I'm supposed to be writing a report for work, so my mind is wandering), but I've never been bothered about the way consoles look (so no case mods or painting the console for me), as to me a console is just a machine for playing games, not looking at in itself. As long as it works, I'm not too bothered how it looks. I have bought some consoles or joypads with transparent covers, but only because I wanted the console or the particular joypad, the transparent cover didn't attract me much, as I don't really see the point of being able to see the motherboard/wires/resisters/etc. It does (to me) look better than an opaque casing, but not by much. But I do like the way clockworks look, with all the cogs interacting and everything, so I was wondering if any console had been made to have clockworks in it. Of course I don't mean anything to do with the console's functions being performed by clockwork (sadly a clockwork console would only be possible in fiction), but as an aesthetic thing, say with a transparent case, and with moving clockworks visible underneath, to give the illusion that the console is clockwork (probably not a convincing illusion, but that's beside the point). It would probably be much too much work for too little reward, but some modders take real pride in how much work and expertise they put into a project, so I was wondering if there were any photos or videos of such mods?
Maybe if you built it using very low-power CMOS and used a big enough spring (like an anniversary clock spring) you could actually run the game off the clockwork....
It would have to be a huge console, with enough empty space to put in the clockworks. Maybe like and Xbox with the HDD replaced with a laptop HDD or flash memory. Or a custom PC case.
Some, depends on how big of a clock you're thinking of. Of course a lot of the space on the top is taken up with the cart slot, so slim that down and you've got tons of storage.
You could get rid of the mechanism that makes the carts go down, it's just detrimental to the life of the connectors anyway.
Obviously there is no way a console could be powered from a clockwork mechanism however no reason you couldn't give the illusion of it by incorporating a set of random gears and springs to move around but do nothing; the gears of course would need to be powered by voltage unless you also included a mechanical clock which you'd have to manually wind up each time (would be far harder to build too). However, what's the point, unless it's a handheld you won't be looking at the console anyway when you're playing your games!
Yeah, I've heard there's something to do that. Haven't looked into it cause I'm not really big on the NES.
... or attach the generator to a waterfall to make hydroelectric power to run an Xbox! (this thread is getting a bit daft now, lol)
I think it would have to be pretty low power - I just ran the spring in my clock all the way down and then wound it up again - my ballpark number for the amount of energy stored (based on the force needed to wind the spring at the 50% point) is about 1200 joules. For comparison, a CR2032 coin cell has a nominal capacity of about 225mAh @ 3V - 0.675Wh or 2430 joules - so the spring has roughly half the power capacity of a single coin cell, even ignoring conversion losses.
At this point it's just for the novelty and the illusion of having something mechanical power a console, so why not have a wind-up mechanism that's simply powered with electricty? It would be able to consistently wind the mechanism and maintain a cool effect.
There is no point, true. I just started the topic as a way to wake my mind up from the tedium of writing the report, and even if I had the skills to make a (good) clockwork mod for a console, I wouldn't bother, as I'm not bothered console mods myself. But some people are, and some of them seem to have a lot of talent, so it wouldn't be too surprising if someone has done this. I've quickly googled, as DeChief suggested, and haven't found a mod with moving clockwork (some nice mods at http://www.shortlist.com/tech/gaming/20-of-the-best-custom-consoles inclusing a clockwork, but not moving, effect) but I haven't looked extensively.
I just thought it would be more fun to actually make it run off the clockwork - but it looks like you would need a very large spring to store a useful amount of energy - thinking a bit more about it, using a thicker (and hence stiffer) spring would get you more return than making the spring longer, so perhaps I'm looking at the wrong kind of spring (since a 400 day clock requires very little torque).
Punch card/clock synchro ->Vacuum tubes --->An organized table of operations ------> Interrupts (would be blatantly visible in real-time) ---------> 8 I/O switches (D-Pad, Start, Select, A/B) Is a start. For the apparatus... Player Piano (to make up for the lack of digital sound) -> Run through properly-timed conveyor to play in parallel with the machine code CRT screen to manually draw and manipulate vectors with the punch-cards Means of power: Steam-powered motor (regulated by another clock) that regulates the clock speed -OR- Big Ben Nuclear reactor -> Cooling tower ------>Puppies and the tears of children
