General Category > General Discussion
New Project, looking for input & gauging interest
wiggy:
As a product designer and super dorky gamer I tend to go nuts for that sort of thing. Even though I've seen all those before, it's still a blast to see them again. Most of them are just so ugly, which is oddly part of their charm. The purple SNES with the 45* cart port has always been a favorite. It's just so nasty :P I'd love to see some of those concepts in person. Oh well.
There are TONS of other hideous Dreamcast concepts too. I'll have to see if I can find the pics...
As far as the SNESstation goes, yeah, that is one of what would be a slew of issues with a project like that. Just another reason that I'm not really trying to go that route right now. Possibly down the road if this proves to be a worthwhile business venture I can start thinking about bringing in other people that have the skill sets to make something like that happen. I can't say the idea doesn't get me excited! I'm keeping my fingers crossed :)
And on a nice related note, the SNES compatible SFC shell would be really, REALLY easy! I just took my SFC apart, and besides being incredibly dusty inside, I found that its made up of way more plastic plastic parts than the US SNES. I'm guessing this was a big part of why the redesign happened when it came over the Pacific. More parts = greater manufacturing costs. Anyway, look what I found while fearing it apart and giving it a bath...
See that? The only thing keeping a SNES cart from going into the SFC is that thin piece of plastic. Making a replacement trim piece would cost nearly nothing. I may start on that this week. I'd be pretty happy with a product like that for myself as well!
That was a nice little find that I stumbled upon while doing something completely unrelated ;D
TyrannicalFascist:
Nice!
Have you come across this? http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=425530 Looks like an unreleased prototype redesigned Famicom that looks a lot like the Super Famicom.
zakurowrath:
You know come to think of it, I'd love a black NES, SNES, PS1 and Dreamcast based on the original designs. Most of my electronics are black and most of my video game systems are black.
I just don't want to spraypaint them or use some weird paint on them, I think an ABS plastic dye would be best solution. A SNES "Super Famicom" would cool to see thou. It would be unique.
Something else you may wanna consider. I'd love to see transparent console cases like the N64, Gameboy, Dreamcast and Xbox did. It's kind of cool seeing the insides of your system.
Also any chance you have any interest in making cartridge case reproductions? Meaning for cart based systems you just make the shell of the cart any colour you want, original colours or in the case for certain NES, SNES, N64, and Gameboy games red,blue,yellow, green, gold, silver, crystal, black white, transparent.
It would be especially helpful for people who want to replace their ratty scratched up used carts. Especially since it took me an hour to get that damn BlockBuster sticker off my N64 cart and now it looks like crap xP
wiggy:
I actually uploaded that pic to my photobucket acct for this thread LOL! Just didn't want to use too many pics in that first post, but I figured I'd use it later.
On the right is the wacky SNES proto with the mystery "Famicom" button/switch that we never heard any official info about. It always seemed especially strange because it's placed right next to a Famicom proto.
Zakurowrath, I do have some plans for the carts themselves, but not so much repro shells. I there are repro SNES shells out there already, based on some of the repro carts I've seen in various colored transparent shells. So someone out there is producing them already. Maybe I'll hit a few of those repro places and see what their deal is with the cart shells.
Buuuuut, I could see maybe some N64 shells with a slight redesign that allows for a fold over sticker like the NES/SNES cart designs. I know that always been an issue for many gamers. It definitely pissed me off before I started casing my carts.
For different colored OEM designs, I would seriously reconsider paint. With a good paint job those consoles will look BETTER than their unpainted brethren on your shelf. And you're not limited to high gloss clear, which a lot of people seem to think is the only option. There are flat finishes, semi-flat, satin, soft touch, textured, you name it. It's just a matter of finding the right person/place to do the job for you. There's a guy on YouTube and nintendoage that does some really beautiful paint jobs. I'd take a look at his work before writing off paint completely.
Deadpool:
clean and minimalist design