Repurposing old dead consoles?

So I was doing some random searches on the net for old consoles given new life as PC cases. I see that the NES is the most popular due to the fact nearly everyone had one and many have since died. I also saw a few others. SNES PC, Sega genesis PC, Sega Saturn PC, the list goes on.

But the one that really stood out to me is this one. I had never thought of a Dreamcast as being large enough to fit a mini itx board in it. The one featured here even has a BD drive fitted in place of the original GD ROM drive. Even more interesting is that the PC shop in Tokyo responsible for this planned on selling them for around $1000 at the end of 2008.

This has given me inspiration to find a dead Dreamcast for parts to use on my working one and stuff an Atom CPU/ Nvidia GPU powered board in it complete with BD burner and SSD in the case. I know the Atom is pretty low powered when I could get a mini itx that fits LGA 1155 or even an AMD CPU but heat consideration makes me think of Atom especially when this wouldn't need the full power of higher end CPU. I may do it, may not. Not sure...

So I ask you this: if you were to have a dead console lying around, what would you do with it? PC case mod? Another console stuffed in it? Fusion of a console and expansions? (Like one guy who put a Sega Genesis/ CD/ 32X combo in a Saturn case.) Something else entirely like a lock box? Even an Android powered rig like one guy did to his Genesis? (Used Raspberry Pi for it...)

 

I am tempted to re-purpose a dead ps1 with a good lcd screen as a cheap rgb monitor, couldn't be that hard...

 

I've repurposed NES controllers as belt buckles for well over a decade now. I gutted an NES and used parts of the casing for a custom case. It didn't end well.

He should have that DC boot into CHankast and install all the DC games onto a hard drive.

 

He'd need more space first since the HDD is only 160GB. Get a 64GB SSD, install Windows 7 on it, get one of those 2TB 2.5" drives for the games, DONE!

Might wanna upgrade to some better hardware in there too. AM2 is outdated.

 

I always liked the design of the Philips CDi 450. Would make a cool HTPC.

A Gamecube would be a challenge as well.

 

Nice, but for $1000 some sort of straight line cutting would be the key and cleaning burrs off as well.

 

I've well thought into this- in fact, I have a nano ITX motherboard with a dual core processor and a slot loading blu-ray burner for just such an occasion. However I think I'm going to make a Nintoaster this summer instead, which is sort of the opposite of this thread :biggrin-new:

a mini ITX would suffice for more cases and would be the better option because you can get some relatively beefy CPUs in there. The board I have is nice, but I wouldn't have it handling lots of emulation. I'd say Gamecube is MAX.

I was planning to take an old V-Tech Vsmile game system (not randomly thought up after that V-Tech thread, this has been on my mind for a while) and modding in a Gamecube with built in mod chip, controller, screen and batteries.

 

Put the PC guts into the NES when done making your Nintoaster. PROBLEM FIXED! :highly_amused:

 

Being a lazy sod I'd just keep a dead console for parts. But I admire those that turn it around in to something fun.

Pics??

 

I've always been interested in seeing how old gaming gear gets re-purposed. Hmmm... I do currently have a busted netbook (all working with the exception of the screen and casing is in pieces) that could be fitted into something. But the only dead consoles I have right now are two PS2 slims, and they're far too small to do anything with. If I had saved my old dead Saturn, that would have done the trick, but it was given to someone that needed it more than I. :/

 

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/75/226455001_516826efd8_o.jpg

that one was taken at PAX 2005 or 2006,

anyway, chankast doesn't require great specs. I am 100% this DC-PC could run it fairly easily. It has more USB ports in the back, hook up an external SATA drive there with all the ISO

 

Nice! Must be a good ice-breaker with the chicks? ;-)

 

Here's one I'm actually going to do that's a little off the topic but still close enough. what makes it off topic is it's an ARM based laptop project.

Some of you may remember the big risk Motorola took back in 2011 with the introduction of their lapdock smartphone docking station. there were several models made. The 100 series, the 500 series, and the ones for the Atrix/ Bionic phones. The ones for the Atrix and Bionic models are a hacker's dream come true. That's due to the fact these things are just a HDMI display with a USB connection for 2 host ports on the dock, keyboard, and touchpad. Even better is the fact this USB connection also charges the phones while connected. Sadly these things are no longer produced. The 100 and 500 series aren't any good for hackers and modders due to custom hardware inside that uses specific functions on supported phone models and won't work with just plain HDMI signal.

Then we have the other big thing. Smart TV sticks. These things are just the guts of a ARM powered phone shrunk down and the screen, 3G and such removed. Most run Android. There's even models out now that are 1.8GHz quad core with the infamous Mali GPU and 2GB RAM.

So since the Atrix/ Bionic lapdocks are just a battery powered screen, keyboard, and mouse combo, what's to prevent them from being used for other stuff besides the intended smartphone? Not much really. Proper adapters can allow them to be hooked to Raspberry Pi and pretty much anything else that takes USB controls and has HDMI display out.

My project will take one of these lapdocks and shove an Android TV stick in it where the phone dock is. There's enough room there for one to fit once the inner phone dock structure is removed. I will be using a Rikomagic MK802 IV as the brains on a lapdock. With a little hardware modding that well within my skill range, (soldering USB lines, cutting and welding plastic, etc.) I can have it stuffed into the pocket where the phone dock would sit and seal the folding "pocket" shut. Some guy has already done this so I know I can do it too.

Specs of the system once built.

CPU: ARM Cortex A9 quad core at 1.8GHz
GPU: Mali quad core at 533MHz
RAM: 2GB DDR3
screen size and resolution: 16:9 11.6" 1366x768

QWERTY keyboard, touchpad mouse, and expected battery life of around 4-6 hours.

Total expected cost at this point? Under $150.

TAKE THAT assholes selling tablets with as much power for $500 or more! I don't mind losing touch screen to save that much money.

 

I was considering moving my DC into a Micro ITX case recently actually. A USB encoder is coming out and want to internalize the boards.

 

I recently did that to a ps2 console and screen

I added Composite and it powers via the PS2 PSU

even better I added a switch to power off the ps2 so I can have the ps2 plugged in aswell

its real cool

 

Most case mods turn out looking like crap sadly.

 

i have an old xbox 360 shell i want to put a pc into, havent gotten around to it tho becuase i mainly use my laptop plusi dont really have much money tbh

 

Saw a couple of years ago someone used a GameCube console shell to hold sweets (candy as Americans call it), obviously the drive unit was removed to make the cavity (pun). Someone else did similar and used it as a tissue dispenser.

Another idea might be a lunchbox?

 

Hipster carry case?