A Modder Converted a Boom Box Into a Portable SNES Classic Gaming Machine

Hey, do you remember boom boxes? Sure you do. These 80’s machines were capable of playing some [...]

SNES Classic
(Photo: Kotaku)

Hey, do you remember boom boxes? Sure you do. These 80's machines were capable of playing some of your favorite cassettes – or even CD's – on the go, using a pair of built-in speakers and maybe even some other features.

The boom box has pretty much gone the way of the dodo, though you can still find one pretty cheap these days. And who knows, maybe you can even go the extra mile and build something out of it – like a portable SNES Classic gaming machine.

That's exactly what a modder by the name of Colin managed to do, taking the recently released all-in-one gaming unit and building it into the guts of a boom box, so you can play its games pretty much anywhere on the go.

Colin talked about his creation through the Why Not Make set-up, and posted details about it in the Retro Gaming subreddit, where he fielded a number of questions.

It's not the most ideal set-up, as the screen is pretty much smaller than that of a Nintendo Switch (think more along the lines of a Game Boy Color screen, if that). However, the controllers seem to work just fine with it, and it appears you can still play your favorite tunes while you game.

While speaking with Kotaku, Colin explained, "I was born in the early 80's so I grew up with a boombox and a Super Nintendo," and that's what pushed him to create this interesting hybrid.

"Building the SNES Boombox took about a week (working on it an hour or so a day after work)," he explained. "It definitely required some trial and error for me to get everything to work and fit inside the boombox."

He did some fancy wiring with the unit, with an HDMI cord running into the built-in display in the boombox, along with a power cord running from a 12-volt battery pack in the back of the casing. There's also an HDMI audio extractor that outputs the sounds of the SNES to the auxiliary input, along with an HDMI splitter, so that it can connect to the big-screen as well.

SNES Classic 2
(Photo: Kotaku)

It's pretty ambitious, but, unless Nintendo feels like getting into an 80's groove again, we're unlikely to see something like this enter production. You can find more details and pictures of the project over on Kotaku.

The SNES Classic Edition is available now.

1comments