The Ultimate NES Mod

aka: A fully Emulated Nintendo Entertainment System!

Tutorial written by: Mr. Chips

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The Nitty Gritty:

Grab the Dreamcast. Take off the modem. Take out the 6 screws, take off the cover. Start removing everything. Keep the GD-ROM, Power Supply, Motherboard and controller ports all together and intact. They may seem flimsy, because they don't have any screws holding them together. I suggest keeping the plastic guard between the power supply and mobo plate, as well. Set the dreamcast case + screws aside.

Take a look at the corner of the DC assembly.

That non-locking switch is what tells the dreamcast whether the lid is open or closed. When you open the lid, the DC assumes there is no Disc. Because there is no lid, we will have to tape it down. Otherwise you cannot play any games.

Tape it like so. Use as much tape as you feel you need to hold it in place. As always, careful not to touch the lens.

Then twist that clip off. A pair of short pliers will work best, but I used needle-nosed. Also, pull off the metal shield around the A/V and serial motherboard connections.

Next you should take a look the DC power switch. Here it is.

Notice that the DC and NES switch are fairly similar. They are both of the Normally-Open (NO) variety. The only major difference is that blue capacitor.

So, you will need to transport it over the the NES switch pronto!

Just like that, kiddies!

The amazement does not stop there...

It seems that the Nintendo was MEANT to house this younger, but beefier console!

See that power plug? Well as you can tell from my pic here, I have cut it into two, seperating the Brown and Red from the other wires. And it will fit perfectly on the DC's power supply. What a great feeling it is, when similar parts save you time and work!

Then just desolder out the old NES LED, and put it away. It does not have the same power rating as the Dreamcast's. Next desolder the DC's LED. So you have the option of using a new blue LED =), or the old orange DC LED. It is a matter of wiring. Take a look below, at the bottom of the DC controller port PCB.

Obviously, the white and orange wires are for the LEDs. Well, the white wire is also ground for the "reset" switch too. But the orange is the LED's anode (or positive +). A simple way to wire it would be to use the existing LED holes, however I burnt mine and broke a trace. So I just followed the trace to another suitable solder point.

Bring your DC guts over the NES case. Try fitting it, and making adjustments until it sits as low as possible, with the connections as close to the side of the case as you can. Also screw the NES power switch back in first of all. It will have to fit or else, no dice. This is also a good time to measure where your A/V and power wires will go through the side of the case. Go ahead and cut them out with a dremel, just be sure to mark it first with a knife or X-acto. Make sure the A/V cable in in firmly. Of course, do not actually plug the machine into any outlets at this point.

"The SIDE?!", you say?

Sure, it isn't such a bad thing, the original NES had it's RCA jacks sticking out the side anyways. It will have to do, this seems to be the best way to arrange the Dreamcast parts.

It should be oriented like so.

DO NOT glue anything in place yet.

But I reccomend you glue the fan by the holes in the position shown. sticker facing outward, just like in the DC. Is it effective in this position? I'll let you know when mine overheats :P

Lastly, If any wires are hanging out in awkward positions, tape or glue them so that they arent. Also, I recommend taping the GD-ROM top section to the base. This will keep it from falling out when you turn the machine upside down or on it's side to put in / take out screws. Just dont put tape on the laser, track or motor, obviously.

Controller Installation / Wiring:

site here:

http://devcast.dcemulation.com/mods/nes/nes.php

One important thing about this tutorial. It was written for NesterDC 5.0 which had the NES_B as DC_B. You must connect the NES_B to DC_X for NesterDC 6.0!!

You cannot alter this is the "options" menu since you would have to hook up a regular DC controller everytime you powered it up to change it, not to mention you would need to cram in a memory card as well. Just do it this way, and you won't have to go back and redo it as I did.

Basically it will tell you how to wire up the NES controller to the DC controller. The only difference with this mod to The Ultimate NES Mod, is you will need to shorten the DC wire, and leave the controller's PCB board out of it's plastic. Take off the triggers as well.

Make the wire about this short. Leave a little if it make you feel confortable. For a secure connection, use solder instead of twisting.

here is an example of a very small DC controller which should work nicely if you are concerned about space. However, wiring will not be straightforward. A regular Sega controller is recommended. But it can be difficult to fit in 2 of them.

Once you have done the wiring, you will need to have a way to get back to the menu to choose a game. Restarting the system itself takes too long, and would not be practical since the Dreamcast has no obvious reset ability.

In NesterDC, to exit to the menu you must hold both triggers and start. This is not possible with the 9 button controller you have, so you will need to wire up the NES' "RESET" button to act as both triggers. Then, when you are using The Ultimate NES Mod, you can get to the rom select screen through pressing Start+Reset simultaniously. It takes some tweaking, but these are the easy steps you must take.

1.

Take out the Power/Reset PCB again.

Make the scratches you see here.

2.

Then you must solder a wire to the contact shown above (green) with 2 wires attached at the end. It should be around 10 inches or more. Keep it all as one color to avoid confusion. Screw the PCB back down with the wires hanging freely.

3.

Attach the wires you just made to these contacts.

(image taken from NES controller tutorial and altered without permission, sorry :)

The other wire which is yellow can be connected to ground such as the one shown.

That's it for the controller :)

If you want to fit another one, do this again and cram it in somehow. I haven't tried it yet but will in the near future.