Gamer Builds Handheld Nintendo 64 Console

Highlights

• A clever gaming fan creates a portable Nintendo 64 console, allowing them to enjoy retro games on the go.
• The handheld redesign features a longer battery life and compatibility with physical N64 cartridges.
• The innovative modding community regularly breathes new life into old hardware, constantly pushing boundaries.

One avid gamer has built a fully-functional, portable version of Nintendo’s beloved fifth generation console, the Nintendo 64. In an era where handheld gaming is increasing in popularity each and every year, fan-made hardware modifications are becoming more relevant than ever before, as they provide gamers with a way to take their retro home console libraries with them on the go. This Nintendo 64 handheld in particular, though, might just be one of the best of these physical mods yet.

Despite suffering from mildly underwhelming sales and hardware limitations that held the console back even in its heyday, the Nintendo 64 garnered a passionate fanbase over the years. Though fans will still continue to debate whether the N64 or the PS1 was better overall, the fifth generation console was nonetheless regarded fondly among many gamers, thanks to its various high-quality exclusives. If there’s one thing the Nintendo 64 wasn’t regarded as, though, it was being lightweight. Though the PS1 got a more portable, slimmer redesign several years into its lifespan, the N64 got nothing of the sort. This new hardware modification from fans, however, is likely to accommodate the desire for a more portable iteration of the console.

As revealed on the r/n64 subreddit in a post by Reddit user CrazyGadgetMods, a member of the hardware modding community on the BitBuilt forums, named Nicholas298, has created a design for a portable Nintendo 64 dubbed the N64HHv2. This handheld version of the beloved Nintendo home console was made using an actual N64 motherboard that was “trimmed with a dremel and rewired to custom power / audio / video / controller solutions.” With the help of a blueprint provided by Nicholas and the aid of other members from the BitBuilt forums, CrazyGadgetMods was able to build two replicas of these handheld N64s, one being silver and the other green.

CrazyGadgetMods elaborates on the specifications of the device, stating that the portable redesign can last for “approximately 2 hours” on a single charge via a USB-C port, thanks to the two 3500mAh 18650 battery cells it holds within it. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the handheld, though, is that it has a slot large enough to fit real N64 cartridges. This means that fans using this handheld could take games from their physical Nintendo 64 collections and play them wherever they want, almost as if the console was an oversized Game Boy.

Though the creation of this device is certainly an impressive feat, it isn’t the first time that modders have rebuilt Nintendo 64s as tiny handheld consoles. Back in 2020, a YouTuber named GmanModz created two different types of N64 portables, with one sporting a clamshell design akin to the Game Boy Advance SP and the other being a tiny yellow handheld designed around being as compact as possible. That being said, the Nintendo 64 handheld made by CrazyGadgetMods and Nicholas298 might be the best one yet, as it has a longer battery life compared to its predecessors. Either way, the efforts the hardware modding community continuously puts into breathing new life into retro hardware is nothing short of impressive.