Tag Archives: gaming consoles

Nintendo Wii mod transforms the iconic console into a cute keychain

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Arguably, the Wii was one of Nintendo’s oddest yet most successful gaming consoles, mostly thanks to the novelty and ingenuity of its “Wiimote” controller, the ancestor of today’s Joy-cons for the Switch. Like any other Nintendo gaming machine, it had a number of titles under its belt, including a few notable exclusives that took advantage of that unique controller design. Of course, its time has long passed, and the Wii is nothing more than a footnote in video gaming history, or so it would seem. It’s unsurprising to hear that it is now the subject of no small amount of mods and DIY projects that try to give the historic console a different flavor, and one of the oddest and most adorable is probably this perfectly named “Kawaii” mod that shrinks the book-sized machine down to portable keychain.

Designers: WeskMods, Mackie Kannard-Smith (Yveltal)

Despite its odd controller, the Wii itself wasn’t exactly that distinctive in terms of its design. It came as a rather plain, compact box that had just enough room for important hardware, which included a cooling fan and an optical disc reader. Remove these two, however, and you can probably cram the console into a tiny box, or at least most of it. That’s exactly what the Kawaii project did, a play on the Japanese word for “cute” and the Wii name, turning the large boxy console into a cute keychain accessory.

Kawaii is only 60mm x 60mm big and 16mm tall, not that much larger than keyfobs. Its body is CNC machined from aluminum and has these wavy fins on one side that do more than make the small box look eye-catching. They also function as a passive cooling system since the Kawaii doesn’t have room for any fan of any size at all. Obviously, there’s no space for an optical disc reader either, but that’s not the only thing missing from this tiny console.

It doesn’t have any direct power source or any ports for that matter, leaving it pretty barebones save for the main board that runs the whole show. To actually make it useful, you have to connect it to a dock via pogo pins, and then you’ll have power, video out, and USB ports for controllers. The dock itself is just a little larger than the keychain console, but it’s still a portable setup, presuming you have a way to power it up or connect it to a display.

Sadly, the adorable Kawaii won’t fulfill your dreams of playing Wii games on the go, at least not the ones that need a disc or use a Wiimote, since there’s no Bluetooth connectivity in there either. That leaves you mostly with downloaded games that work fine with a USB controller, and there’s not much of those going around at this point. Still, it looks like an interesting journey to design a cool-looking console you can hang your keys on, one that preserves the spirit of novelty and playfulness of the Wii, even if it doesn’t exactly have its defining features.

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Atari 400 Mini retro console is a charming recreation of a quirky design

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Most people today probably only know of the Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, but there was a time when the market was littered with countless gaming consoles, each with their own distinct designs. Many of them look almost outlandish by today’s standards, but it’s exactly because of these that these old machines have become today’s novelties again. The retro console craze has died down a bit, but it still exists and there are plenty of designs still left untouched. One of those is the rather distinctive Atari 400, which now finally comes in a mini recreation that brings yet another bunch of classic titles from one of gaming history’s biggest giants.

Designer: Retro Games x Atari

You might already be quite tired of hearing about all these classic games being made available to a newer, younger audience, but the console that this batch comes in is definitely worth noting. The Atari 400 and 800, after all, made many firsts in the industry, bringing what is practically a personal computer into homes with a focus on gaming. That objective was what informed the machine’s design, giving it a peculiar appearance even among its peers.

In essence, the Atari 400, or the 800 rather, looked more like a giant typewriter than a computer of any sort. Atari eschewed the typical joysticks and gamepads associated with gaming machines (and its own Atari 2600) and gave its first 8-bit family a keyboard for tasks beyond just playing. The Atari 400 itself was quite peculiar because it didn’t use real keys but a membrane keyboard, basically a seemingly flat, pressure-sensitive surface that could be considered the ancestor of touch-sensitive controls today. Suffice it to say, the typing experience was anything but enjoyable.

The Atari 400 Mini brings this one-of-a-kind design down to half the size of the 1979 original, which means you get all the looks but none of the quirks or the functionality. Yes, that miniaturized membrane keyboard is just for show, which is probably for the best. Imagine typing not only on a small space but also on a surface you have to press hard to even register a key. Fortunately, you can connect a USB keyboard if you really need to type something. With five USB ports, you can connect almost any controller, though thankfully the package ships one Atari CX-40 joystick for good measure.

The small machine comes with 25 titles from the original already pre-installed, though can also run other Atari classics provided you know how and where to get them. The Atari 400 Mini isn’t available yet, but you can already put down $119.99 to pre-order this recreation of a piece of gaming history before it hits the shelves on March 28th.

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Analogue Duo console revives TurboGrafx cartridges and CDs with a catch

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The retro gaming craze has given birth to many console revivals, but some of them are walking on legally gray areas. The officially sanctioned devices bear licensed titles but in very small numbers. Third-party recreations that use emulators, on the other hand, offer more freedom and flexibility but you’ll have to be creative in where you source your games. And then there’s the rare middle ground that puts those old games in fresh new hardware, like this curious console that pays tribute to the oft-forgotten NEC TurboGrafx. Unlike other retro consoles, however, it doesn’t come bundled with its own games and you’ll have to bring your own cartridges and discs, presuming you still have some of those around.

Designer: Analogue

With the explosion of home gaming systems in the late 80s to early 90s, it wasn’t much of a surprise that some brands would be pushed to the background. Although it did have a faithful following, the NEC TurboGrafx system eventually faded into history, only to be remembered with retro consoles and devices such as the Analogue Duo. It’s not a simple recreation of the original console, however. In fact, it looks nothing like the TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine consoles. What this new console brings, instead, is a way to be able to use those original game cartridges and CDs just the way they were meant to.

Retro mini consoles like the NES and SNES Classics practically use emulation software to run digital copies of games that used to exist on physical media. That’s definitely convenient but also removes the gratification of experiencing those classic titles from the cartridges or CDs they came from. Without going into technical details, the Analogue Duo claims to use no emulation at all and uses hardware engineered for thousands of hours to offer compatibility with a wide range of NEC gaming systems and media, including those for the TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine, SuperGrafx, TurboGrafx CD, PC Engine CD-ROM, and Super Arcade CD-ROM.

The design of the Analogue Duo itself is also quite unique, eschewing the trend of copying the appearance of the original consoles. It does lie horizontally like most consoles, but its modern and sleek appearance clearly tells which century it comes from. An odd and rather interesting detail is the wavy rear of the console, something you won’t find on any gaming hardware today. Interestingly, you can place two of these consoles back-to-back with those waves intersecting with each other.

The Analogue Duo is pretty ambitious in its goals, which is probably why it took three years for it to finally become available. Even then, it will be in extremely limited supply, available first to those who pre-ordered back in May. Perhaps it’s for the best so that TurboGrafx fans will be able to bide their time and see whether the console will be able to deliver that faithful classic experience it promised.

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This retro gaming console is actually a mini PC disguised as a classic Macintosh

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Nostalgia is a very powerful emotion, especially judging by the number of successful “retro” products sold in the market in the past years. Although the flood has seemingly trickled down a bit, it continues to flow especially in the gaming scene. Old gaming brands have suddenly resurfaced to bring nearly forgotten designs to the present, taking previous generations down memory lane while introducing today’s gamers to old-school experiences. While some of these retro consoles actually try to relive the past, this interesting and rather cute box might take your head for a spin with its Mac design and PC internals, combined to offer not just a gaming computer but a piece of desk decoration as well.

Designer: AYANEO

Compared to the computers put out by the likes of Atari and Commodore, the early PCs didn’t really have a memorable design that would go down in history as iconic computers. It was the original Apple Macintosh, instead, that captured people’s attention and imagination of what a home personal computer should look like. Of course, that was decades in the past, but the imagery has stood the test of time as proof of the design’s timeless character. AYANEO, a brand better known for gaming handhelds, is now taking that immensely popular design and giving it a rather curious twist.

As part of its AYANEO REMAKE concept line, the AYANEO Retro Mini PC AM01 slaps the old Mac design onto a new machine. The basic elements that have distinguished one of Apple’s earliest successes are there, tweaked a bit to avoid potential controversies, of course. There’s the telltale sign of a floppy drive, as well as a square rainbow badge that’s a nod to the old Apple logo. There’s a black rectangle near the top that’s purely cosmetic, denoting where the screen is supposed to be located. There’s nothing there, though, which is a bit of a waste, but it doesn’t really matter considering how the mini PC is used.

Unlike the Mac, the AYANEO Retro Mini PC is meant to lie down on its “back” rather than standing up, with that black rectangle in the rear. That’s because the ports for the computer are actually located on what would have been the top and bottom sides, so it has to be horizontal to actually be useful. Of course, this product is a gaming console anyway, not a standalone computer with a built-in display, so you’ll need to plug in peripherals to make it work. And yes, it runs Windows 11, which, given the eternal rivalry between Macs and PCs, some might find a bit insulting.

AYANEO has other retro designs also in the pipeline, including the Retro Mini PC AM02 that takes after the classic NES design. Curiously, that one does have a functional mini display since it can actually be used upright. It’s also working on a handheld that brings back the dual-display design of the not-so-old Nintendo DS, though the practical purpose of that second display is yet to be revealed.

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