Hobbyist grinds down original chips by hand to make a Game Boy-sized NES

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  The "TinyTendo" project, which fits a real NES into a Game Boy-sized enclosure, isn't for the faint of heart. [credit: Redherring32/Twitter ]

If you want a portable console that can play old Nintendo Entertainment System games, the easiest option is software emulation, whether you're using Nintendo's official Switch app, a portable PC, or some cheap knockoff emulator handheld. For those who want better accuracy than software emulation can provide, there's always the Analogue Pocket, which can (with current firmware) re-create the NES in hardware using its FPGA chip.

But some purists are unsatisfied with anything other than original hardware—that's the only possible explanation for projects like the TinyTendo, which goes to extraordinary lengths to squeeze an entire NES into a portable package roughly the size and weight of the old gray monochrome Game Boy. The project is the creation of hardware modder Redherring32, who eventually plans to open-source the project.

For miniaturization projects like this, you often see chopped-up or fully custom-printed circuit boards used with the original chips to contort the hardware into a new shape. This landscape orientation mod for the original Game Boy or the original Analogue NT are both good examples. But more drastic measures were needed to squeeze an entire NES into a handheld console, most notably the removal of bulky pins and ceramic that the original chips all use.

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