All your Favorite Plug ‘n Plays in portable form
In the inaugural Featured article looking at Projects and Portables from around the internet, we have Loveablechevy’s latest portable the HandyPNP; a multiconsole system which turns a large collection of plug ‘n play consoles into dedicated game carts for use in a base console design.
Instead of having to disentangle a katamari of plug ‘n plays and each of their controller, A/V, and power wires, keeping track of each individual power supply (or the never ending trail of AA batteries) every time you want to switch consoles, the HandyPNP converts each individual plug ‘n play consoles into a compact Famicom sized cartridge. Due to the “base console” design, this allows for a seemingly infinite expansion of past and future plug ‘n play consoles to be made for use on the HandyPNP, as well as nearly any console/electronic game that can be retrofitted inside a Famicom cartridge.
Using the same footprint as her two former NES Portables, the HandyNES and a special HandyNES commission, the base console holds a 3.5″ screen with brightness, contrast, and volume controls, a controller setup suitable for use in all plug ‘n play carts, external video out, and a standard Famicom 60-pin connector for the connection to the hacked plug ‘n play games.
Every plug ‘n play board was hacked and trimmed to fit inside a Famicom game shell, and all the needed connections like power, audio, video, and controls for each game were rewired to the Famicom’s edge connector, allowing easy connectivity to the HandyPNP base console. Each game cartridge has a custom game label and even has controller instructions label on the back.
So far completed cartridges include Konami Arcade Advanced, Atari Paddle Games, Coleco, C64, Dreamgear, Famicom 150-in-1, Namco, Mortal Kombat, Sega Playpal, Taito, NES 72-in-1, and MaxxTV plug ‘n play mutlicarts, with more games on the way such as Activision, Atari Flashback 1 & 2, and Intellivision to name a few.
For more on the HandyPNP you can find the worklog on any of the Usual Portable Sites, a Photolog on Facebook with 200+ progress photos, with the rest of her work on her Facebook Community Page, as well as her Youtube Channel.