Game Boy Link

 Sometimes you have to step away before you can move forward.   I bought this classic Game Boy Link for a dollar.  It's been sitting around for months till finally one day, when I had a box of components laying about the table, I chose to do something with it.  Didn't matter what at the time.  So three 1gb usb drives sticking out of this Game Boy multi tap.  What's the point of this story you ask?  Well exactly two days later I am cruising around on ebay looking for various usb hubs (coming to a future blog near you) and I found two usb hub variations that would have been perfect for this.  That will teach me to get so crazy with the hot glue gun!  -kaokensho

DS Lite Hinge Repair

 Okay, so this is only technically a mod but that still counts!  My DS Lite had a broken left hinge.  Other than the fact that it felt like it would break in two at any given moment it worked just fine.  Since I'm so cheap I set out on the internet to find a solution.  There are several different sources for replacement shells and hinges.  Also you'll need a special triwing screwdriver for the 50 million funky screws throughout the DS construction.  I bought a hinge+triwing and a case on ebay all together for about twenty bucks.  Not bad.  I watched a few youtube videos and got my self taught Ph.D. in DS repair...two hours later...I finally got it all together and nada.  I had done something wrong and bricked it.  Disgusted with myself I went to bed.  The following day I tried again by simply dissecting and reassembling it again.  Second time around it only took about twenty minutes.  By golly it worked!  Thank goodness for youtube and never giving up.
-kaokensho

Intro- Zelda N64 Card Reader

So I have dabbled in small projects with the intent of showing a step by step process on future projects. I also hope to develop a personal craft for such things by increasing the difficulty in each project.

So let's start with some basic materials. First off for all NES, SNES AND N64 carts you will need a 3.8mm inverted hex bit. The same applies for Genesis carts except that the bit is a larger 4.5mm security bit. While inverted hex bits are around in various specialty retail shops, eBay is probably the way to go. Your independent used video game store is best source for cheap game carts. The obvious Mario/Duck Hunt NES cart goes for about a buck. Obsolete sports games are awesome buys. Rip that nasty label off and Google image search for the cart art of your choice. Here's one of my first projects. An SD/Sony Memory Stick Pro USB card reader inside a black N64 cart. For the label I printed some scanned cart art I got off the web and took that to Kinko's for it to be "lamilabeled." It’s a sticky back thin glossy lamination that runs about four bucks for an 8.5x11 area. So it pays to do more than one label at a time. Other must haves include: a high temp hot glue gun, a dremel style drill, an exacto knife and some standard epoxy. Stay tuned for the next post as we explore more USB hub mods. Thanks!

-kaokensho