N64 3D printed replacement cartridge tray

Happy New Year everyone! I designed this part few months ago but only had the piece printed professionally at the end of December. After reading ASSEMbler's New Year message I thought I'll kick off this year with this piece. Granted, it cost just as much as what I paid for this particular N64 at a Goodwill store, I do share the same sentiment as ASSEMbler so in the end I feel it's still worthwhile to have it printed. While it's technically feasible to have a "complete printable case" as ASSEMbler forsees, unfortunately the cost will be prohibitive today as this tray demonstrates. Perhaps in a few years the price will improve. Meanwhile a small piece like this is still a good start.

I'm well aware I could of just Dremel the two notches off like what most people do or just simply get a Gameshark, but what's the fun in doing that? I don't collect PAL region games so this is good enough for myself.

 

Thats pretty neat It would be cool to have some blue parts printed to go with a 64dd dev drive.

 

Thank you Borman. I'm not a big N64 collector. I only own a couple of plain American N64s. I only have the tray dyed red to match the expansion memory pak. I'm sure other colors will match better with other exotic N64 colors.

 

That's pretty cool. Would you consider selling these at some point? I cut the tabs on my N64, and it works - but I was rather sloppy, so it doesn't look great. It almost doesn't matter, since you don't even see this part in normal use, unless you're looking for it. Still, I like the idea of a replacement part.

 

To be honest I think the price will scare most people away. That's the reason why I didn't have it printed for myself for many months.

 

Just out of curiosity, how much did a single print of this piece cost and where did you have it done?

 

The memory expansion bay cover would be a very useful part to print out

 

I'd like to know also. If we got a group buy, could the price go down?

 

If you aren't going to sell it, perhaps you could release the design files so people can 3d print them themselves. Looks completely plausible for a home 3d print even.

 

This piece cost about $23.00 USD (include polishing and color dyeing). I had Shapeways.com print the part.

There are actually plenty of mass produced cheap 3rd party covers available in the market. Unless you are looking to implement something custom, 3D printed version of the original design will not be be worthwhile.

Shapeways pretty much did away with bulk discount (batch printing) since they last implemented their pricing restructuring. They do have a flat rate shipping, so that's probably the only saving you will see if you order more than one part. Even with their new pricing structure they are still the cheaper place to get mid-end consumer grade (SLS) printing. Unfortunately there are really no other cheap alternatives in this market right now that I know of.

 

Is this the version you used? Which file, if so?

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:513728/#files

 

No, I constructed my own model from scratch. I just took a look at his/her models, the second one look odd at the mounting flange areas. The others seems okay but may have thinner wall than mine but I can't be sure as I'm not able to verify the dimensions. The CAD software I'm using won't allow measurement of STL file. All I can do with them is rotate around for viewing.

 

All right, thanks for all the help!

 

This looks really good! I like the red color too. Great job

 

Great piece! I've always wondered why there wasn't a mass production of this kind of piece in the past because there were so many region converters sold (including gameshark), you would have figured this was cheaper.

 

It may be cheaper to produce, but replacement/mod parts do not have the same kind of market that a ready to use adapter would. Not everyone is comfortable getting out a gamebit and disassembling their consoles. But...for those of us who are, this is clearly the sleeker option.

 

I wish someone would print transparent N64 game cartridges, for those of us with flash cartridges (Everdrive 64 or whatever), so we could put the contents of the flash cartridge into the transparent cartridge.

 

3D printed clear doesn't look very good from what I've seen

 

Any chance you could upload the file? Great job