By Nick Parks
At the Raspberry Pi Meetup at MAKE, I found a lot of neat applications for the Raspberry Pi. There was an old time radio, media center, personal computer, and even a video game console. Raspberry Pis are neat because they have so many applications and are open to creative expansion by any user with an idea. For something with all of this functionality, I would expect it to be ridiculously overpriced, but I was happily surprised when I found out that they only cost $35. The problem with only spending $35 means no accessories are included; this is a bummer because a case is would be nice to protect it and keep dust out. After looking at a few cases people made, I came across an N64 game cartridge case. This one is simple to build, surprisingly durable, and just plain cool.
Here are the steps to build your own N64 Raspberry Pi case:
1. Choose a game cartridge
Make sure you don’t pick one that you’ll miss, but also try to get one with a neat graphic. I choose Ready To Rumble Boxing.
2. Remove the screws from the game cartridge
This is probably the trickiest part if you don’t have the exact six prong screwdriver, I used a hex driver with a spanner bit and small needle nose pliers to remove the exterior screws. The interior screws are a standard Phillips, so they come out easily.
3. Make the cut outs for the connections
For this part you can use a variety of tools, I used a saw and a Dremel, it’s a little tricky to get the cuts in the right place. Designing a template will help get a closer approximation of the cutouts, and if you make the cuts on the bottom, it’ll be hard to notice small imperfections. I made a template with dimensions on the bottom, to be cautious I would error slightly oversized. Depending on the exact placement of your Pi, you will have to remove the screw hole and grind down the edges a little to fit in the Pi and access the ports.
4. Put the Raspberry Pi inside the N64 enclosure
If you cut on the bottom, you’ll have to put the Raspberry Pi upside down. I think this is better, because, this will make the ports right side up. To make life easier in the future, I used the Phillips screws from the inside of the case to in place of where I removed the triangle screws since they are the same size.
Now all you have to do is surprise some of your friends and use it for something awesome.
Nick Parks is an engineering intern at MAKE, and he’s studying mechanical engineering at Santa Rosa Junior College. He likes to build and take apart things to make products better or create something new. He enjoys working at MAKE and likes to help other people build projects of their own.
11 thoughts on “Raspberry Pi in an N64 Case”
Comments are closed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Join Make: Community Today
I did a similar project with a Sega Genesis cartridge:
http://zootlinux.blogspot.com/2012/08/sega-genesis-cartridge-raspberry-pi.html
That’s great! Raspberry pies are so cool.
Great idea.
Fun idea, Nick! ::high five::
Did anyone faced a heat damage to sd card while using this case? Especial when you run the pi 24×7
I haven’t ran it for more than a day straight, but so far I haven’t had any damage to the sd.
That is great! Do you need to blow on the cartridge from time to time to get the dust out? :)
I open it up so often to show people what’s inside that I haven’t had to yet, but if I weren’t showing it off so much I would blow it out every once in a while.
I don’t think Nick gets the joke. Too young.
Horrible.
Why would you maim the cartridge??
that hurts my soul.
Also, it makes it look…well…cut up.
I’ll forgive it since this was before the Zero and Zero W.
But damn…