uXeBoy - a NES Control Pad in a GameBoy! (Crowd-Funding Campaign)

[uXe]

uXeBoy is a custom printed circuit board which draws its main design elements from two distinct sources, creating something greater than the sum of its parts:

1. uXeBoy takes its shape and size from the front 'daughterboard' of the original GameBoy, which means it can be easily installed in a GameBoy shell as a direct substitute – it is directly compatible with the already existing parts for the plastic buttons / rubber contact pads, and lines up perfectly with all of the mounting posts and screw holes inside a GameBoy.

2. For its circuitry, uXeBoy uses modern surface-mount components to replicate the design of a NES control pad. Based on an 8-bit 4021 shift register, this design allows the on / off states for eight separate buttons to be easily transmitted using five wires. The 'NES control pad' interface standard is well-defined, well-documented, and makes the uXeBoy board instantly compatible with any commercially-produced or open-source-hacked piece of electronics that has ever been attached to a NES controller.

The possible applications for the uXeBoy are limited only by your imagination:

• Combine the uXeBoy board with a GameBoy shell, a small LCD display, and the microcontroller / microprocessor board of your choice (AVR / Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, Gumstix, etc.) to create a do-it-yourself handheld device!


• Alternatively, you could leave out the microcontroller / microprocessor and connect the uXeBoy directly to your Famicom / NES console (or a PC running an emulator) as a sort of 'enhanced' NES control pad with a built-in screen – just like the good old Hip Gear 'Screen Pad', but twice as awesome!


• Another option could be using a microcontroller to turn the uXeBoy into something like Bandai's 'Mega-Controller' – and have the LCD show customisable settings and parameters, and maybe throw in a tilt sensor?


• You could design your own system around using the uXeBoy's screen as a sort of 'second display' like the Wii-U 'Gamepad'.


• Or leave out the screen altogether, design your own enclosure to fit the uXeBoy board and make a pint-sized mini-control-pad!


• Many video artists and musicians use a GameBoy as their interface for performing – for them the uXeBoy could open up a world of possibilities for new performance techniques, while still maintaining the familiar interface of a GameBoy!


• You could follow the concept to its logical conclusion and make a miniaturised replica of the NES motherboard to fit inside the back-half of the GameBoy shell – or use something like the Papilio FPGA board to create a virtual implementation of the NES motherboard!

Project Details at http://pozible.com/uXeBoy
Follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/uXeBoy
E-Mail to uXe@uXeBoy.com

[NFG]

While I certainly love to see people making mad stuff like this, and I'm not gonna air my wonderings about the point of it, I'm not keen to see these forums become a place where people log in just once to advertise their wares.

Discussion time: does anyone here see a use for a PCB like this in their own projects?

[uXe]

While I certainly love to see people making mad stuff like this, and I'm not gonna air my wonderings about the point of it, I'm not keen to see these forums become a place where people log in just once to advertise their wares.

I know what you mean - but I only just found this site yesterday, and it seemed like the perfect place to post my project... I love that there are whole sections dedicated to controllers! I feel like I have only just scratched the surface, and I'm honestly looking forward to exploring the forums here and becoming involved!

[public-pervert]

Find it pretty neat!