Just recently, a YouTuber successfully turned Nintendo’s classic NES console (the North American version of the Famicom) into a fully functional “retro computer.” It not only supports keyboard and mouse operation, but can even connect to the internet or play DVDs. And of course, one thing that absolutely must not be forgotten is that this device can run the classic 1993 shooter game Doom.
Launched in 1985, the NES established Nintendo’s position in the European and American gaming markets and was also the starting point for iconic IPs such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. To be sure, this console was not originally designed as a desktop computer, but that seems to have done nothing to stop tech YouTuber “Throaty Mumbo” from attempting a major overhaul of this legendary console.
In this 55-minute YouTube video, the creator half-jokingly says he has “gotten bored of video games,” so he wants to convert the NES into a home computer setup approaching 1990s standards. Interestingly, the Japanese original NES—known in Taiwanese gaming communities as the “Red-and-White Console”—is officially called the Famicom, and its full name is actually “Family Computer”; in a sense, this project also makes the console truly live up to its original name.
However, this modding project, which Throaty Mumbo calls “NESPC,” was fraught with challenges at every turn. In his initial attempts, Mumbo first tried installing a modified version of Windows 98 on the device, but in practice it produced numerous glitches; he then tried a Linux-based emulation operating system, only to encounter severe lag in performance.
After various failed attempts, he ultimately decided to develop his own custom desktop environment modeled after Windows, paired with an EverDrive N8 Pro cartridge and its built-in FPGA (field-programmable gate array). This additional hardware can handle the more demanding x86 instruction computations while bypassing the NES’s original CPU.
In the end, he used this method to successfully emulate the classic Windows 98 operating environment, recreating features such as the Start menu, File Explorer, and Recycle Bin—and he did not even leave out the built-in Minesweeper game. Not only that, Mumbo also made a dedicated USB adapter so that this “NES PC” device could support keyboard and mouse operation, and he also added a MIDI keyboard so users could create music. However, his modding project was not completely finished yet.
Using the previously developed NESCD peripheral accessory, Mumbo successfully added CD and DVD playback to the device and demonstrated playing an episode of the 2000s Adult Swim adult animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Even though the visuals were extremely crude, they nonetheless gave it an interesting retro style.
On the other hand, this device can also connect to Wi-Fi and browse various websites such as Wikipedia and YouTube, but as you might expect, the video playback quality is hardly crisp—though for a console released 40 years ago, that is already quite an incredible achievement. In addition, the device can customize its desktop, launch various screensavers, and play GameBoy games such as the Pokémon series, and as a device that can connect to a screen, it of course doesn’t forget Doom.
At the end of the video, Mumbo showed this device running Doom, adding another entry to the legend of this 1993 classic shooter that “runs on anything.” And although the NES console’s graphics processing power is quite limited, and the game visuals occasionally show some errors and glitches, with the help of extra hardware in the cartridge, this title was still able to run.
As of now, Mumbo has publicly uploaded the NESPC project to GitHub, allowing anyone online who has the ability to take on this modding project to access the relevant files and try building it themselves.
Source: KOCPC Chinese