Kawaii – A Keychain-Sized Nintendo Wii

[hatsunearu]

The "Thundervolt" reference in that post is a project where they cut up a Wii PCB to leave just the DRAM and the processors on the PCB, and then they slap an external DCDC board on top of that cut up PCB to provide power to it, while also undervolting it since you reduce the IR losses.

https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/thundervolt.62...

That is pretty insane.

[Nition]

Here's some more info on the motherboard and what can be trimmed off and/or replaced: https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/wii-motherboar...

[monocasa]

At this point I'm a bit surprised that nobody has created a netlist of the board and simply reinstalled the relevant chips on it. There has to be more density that can be eked out for easier that way than carefully taking a Dremel to an existing board.

[Eduard]

is there a goal in undervolting? Is it about minimizing the energy consumption of a Wii system? If so, how much did they save?

[01HNNWZ0MV43FF]

IR losses? Never heard that one

[enragedcacti]

In case the scale renderings weren't illustrative, this is just how small the GC Nano is https://www.reddit.com/r/Gamecube/comments/13u8km5/worlds_sm...

[maxglute]

Seems... large? I was expecting something substantially smaller than a flip foldable phone.

[redundantly]

Thank you. I was confused by the renders on the page.

[bonney_io]

It's crazy that we could now build a Wii that's self-contained within the sensor bar...

[bena]

The Wii isn't that huge to start with. You also have to figure the Wii unit houses full optical drive as well.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+Wii+Teardown/812

https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/ewv3yZPOujCRpKEj.hug...

That's it. And they didn't include the controller ports and other bits. For instance, I don't think it has Bluetooth or WiFi antennas, so it can't connect to Wiimotes or a network.

So if you wanted all of that back, it would be a little bigger. But not by much. Probably the size of the Game Boy Advance in the picture. If that.

But if all you wanted was Smash Bros on a keychain, here you go.

[cushpush]

Instead of a sensor bar you can use two burning candles.

[Sparkyte]

Don't give Nintendo any more ideas. :P

[VyseofArcadia]

Does it count if you need to plug it into an external dock to play?

[Neywiny]

I'm thinking similarly. But you don't need GameCube controllers to use a wii. I think that's all the dock adds.

[Nursie]

This is absolutely lovely work, and the whole trim concept is mindblowing.

Buuuut yeah I thought similarly - there's no video output, power input or any way to connect controllers without that dock.

Compare it to one of the other tiny builds - https://github.com/loopj/short-stack - which seems to support wireless remotes, has HDMI and takes USB-C for power.

[bscphil]

So is this project (a) taking the real Wii parts and putting them on a smaller PCB, (b) a different design with a more efficient same-architecture CPU, or (c) an entirely new design that is emulating the Wii hardware? Can the device run the real Wii OS or is it running a replacement OS capable of launching Wii games?

[sspiff]

It is based on the Wii Omega trim, which is a cut down original Wii motherboard removing all the non essentials.

Some components in this build are reconnected to the board using a flexible PCB connector, but the core is just a cut down OEM Wii board.

[yincrash]

Check out the short stack GitHub for an overview of how a previous mod was done. Literally chopping up the motherboard to the bare minimum then adding back things with daughterboards https://github.com/loopj/short-stack

[ThrowawayTestr]

There's a long history of people taking an original Wii motherboard and physically trimming the PCB with rotary tools (or a hacksaw) to put them in smaller enclosures, usually to make them portable.

[pryelluw]

This is just fantastic. I wonder how small older consoles can be these days while still maintaining full hardware compatibility.

[spondylosaurus]

The PS2 Ultra Slim is a fun one: https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/ps2-ultra-slim...

And it still has the original controller/memory card ports!

[haunter]

See the R36S clones from China

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006152991376.html

[userbinator]

A NES SoC would fit easily within the area of a microSD card containing all ROMs ever published for it, and the embedded controller in the latter would still have a few orders of magnitude more transistors and be faster than it.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

You would likely get into “full compatibility” lawyering very quickly. Many of the consoles have weirdo hardware components in some module or another that is still poorly understood.

[whalesalad]

with FPGA's you can have 100 consoles in one. https://misteraddons.com/

[yieldcrv]

very, could make an adapter dongle for anything requiring pins

[clemiclemen]

This is very impressive but I think Short-Stack [1] is a more impressive project because it is a fully fonctionnal Wii (as in, it works on its own as you would expect from a regular Wii) compared to this one where it needs other accessories to be able to play.

[1]: https://github.com/loopj/short-stack previously discussed 3 months ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40071826

[jonathanyc]

> fully fonctionnal Wii (as in, it works on its own as you would expect from a regular Wii) compared to this one where it needs other accessories to be able to play.

I don’t believe the Wii you linked includes an IR bar, which is what your statement led me to expect.

[grishka]

Feels like the logical next step would be to ditch the stock motherboard altogether and make a custom one that you transfer the chips onto.

[nsteel]

That's https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/nintendo-vegas...

I don't think it's worth the huge amount of effort extra compared to a simple trim.

[GrantMoyer]

For reference, 60mm is less than the width of even a compact smartphone, and 16mm is 1.5 to 2 times as thick. This thing is tiny.

Hell, it has about the same footprint as a gamecube disc.

[bpye]

It’s a hair smaller than a stack of 4 UMDs, the media the PSP used.

[zamadatix]

Or for some more common comparables: a bit less than the area of a credit card with a depth slightly less than the width of a dime.

[Reason077]

There should be an ongoing contest to see who can produce the smallest functional miniaturisations of Nintendo Wii and other consoles. For science!

[lhnz]

Is this something you'd need to download and install ROMs to use?

[skeaker]

No need to download if you've got physical copies. A hacked Wii (which is simple to set up nowadays) can easily dump your games to a usable legal ROM.

[thenewnewguy]

You could rip Wii games that you own the physical disk for.

[ThrowawayTestr]

The Wii has got be the most hacked (literally!) console ever.

[anthk]

Not even close. That would be the Play Station or the Play Station 2.

[jhatemyjob]

Is there anyone out there that will make a GC Nano for a fee? Don't have time / skillz to do this myself but I want one

[prmoustache]

I would say that it is just a bad idea for a start unless you plan to use wireless controllers.

With cable connected one you are just looking for a console that would be dragged left and right every time you pull a bit with the controller.

[LZ_Khan]

Kind of mad it's not called Kawa-wii

[sam_perez]

The name is so close to being truly perfect, but I guess being just a little bit off is a perk here?

[chefandy]

It's cute, but personally I'd have gone for WiiChain or Nintendo Wee.

[IAmPym]

It's not called the Kawii?

[Bartkusa]

I would’ve chosen “Key-wii”.

[efilife]

Why Kawii? Kawaii is japanese for cute

[windowshopping]

How can they make a Nintendo-labeled product like this without being sued?

[th4tg41]

I’m a complete sucker for retrogaming stuff and I. Want. That.

[latexr]

Using Nintendo’s branding in the box seems ill-advised. That’s giving Nintendo more fodder for the eventual lawsuit.

[kyleyeats]

It might not work without the Nintendo logo.

[talldayo]

Lawsuit to what? Their CAD files, the build instructions? The board shipped with the Nintendo Wii?

[pininja]

I wonder if there’s a reusable Nintendo logo they could extract from the Wii enclosure? It’s incredible how upcyclable the Wii is.

[notum]

Isn't this using Nintendo hardware as well? I thought that was the point of these minification projects.

[resters]

Making video games fun does not require anywhere near as much hardware as we typically use in modern systems. I look forward to an eventual return to fun video games.

[conradev]

"Yokoi said 'The Nintendo way of adapting technology is not to look for the state of the art but to utilize mature technology that can be mass-produced cheaply.' He articulated his philosophy of 'Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology' (枯れた技術の水平思考, Kareta Gijutsu no Suihei Shikō) (also translated as 'Lateral Thinking with Seasoned Technology'), in the book Yokoi Gunpei Game House."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi#Design_philosophy

[whalesalad]

Nintendo has been doing this ... forever? The switch is ancient tech, and was outdated the moment it was released.

[latexr]

Fun video games never went away. Look for games by indie developers instead of AAA titles.

[rjh29]

Ray tracing might be eye candy, but fast streaming of assets from SSD enables experiences not possible before (large scale open world, super fast movement a la Spiderman, instant teleportation).

GPU-powered dynamic lighting and LOD is also pretty crazy.

[solardev]

It wasn't clear from your post, but have you kept up with the PC indie scene of the last decade or so? There's a lot of great small gems on Steam these days that can run on old hardware (or the Deck).

But apparently the golden age is ending, as big publishers this year and last canceled a lot of projects and closed a bunch of studios. Sad, but there's still a huge backlog of great titles to go through.

[agumonkey]

Well said. Some ingredients that were in old games has vanished due to the post 2000 culture, but we can go back.

[haunter]

The problem is when even Nintendo’s own first party titles are struggling with the hardware. That wasn’t that common with the Wii, 3DS, or previous consoles but very very very noticeable on Switch

[ralusek]

Inscryption

Subnautica

Satisfactory

Factorio

Hollow Knight

RE7

Baba is You

Baldur's Gate 3

Elden Ring

Dead Cells

Hades

Ori and the Will of the Wisp

Disco Elysium

Dishonored 1 & 2

Orcs Must Die

Planet Coaster

Portal 1 & 2

Read Dead Redemption 2

Valheim

I dont' know what you mean by "modern," but these were all games I enjoyed recently-ish, and I'm sure I forgot some.

[raytopia]

For handhelds I'd say the Playdate [0] does this pretty well. Lots of fun and very experimental indie games.

For home consoles I hope a single board computer flls this role one day. In fact I've been experimenting with the raspberry pi to try and turn it into a console for new games but just haven't spent enough time on the project yet.

[0] https://play.date/

[Forgeties79]

A story does not require a bunch of words either but there are a lot of great, long books. There are also great short stories.

Same thing goes for games that demand high performance rigs. It’s all about what you want in the end, and there’s no single answer for what makes a game fun. Some people really like beautiful, realistic looking games with high resolutions and frame rates. To them that is fun.

[lawlessone]

Good point. Most of the games I have played in recent years have been indie titles. Sometimes they are CPU intensive but rarely GPU intensive.

It feels like graphics in games have reached a sort of plateau now where the most visually realistic games are only marginally more realistic looking than something from nearly 10 years ago.

[roxil]

"I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm not kidding,"

It's been a meme for a while and I unironically agree.

[parl_match]

I'm looking for recommendations for a 30~50 run anodized aluminum case, in a similar size as the Kawaii. Does anyone have any recommendations? The quotes I'm getting are closer to $95/pc and that seems quite high.

[ryukoposting]

The price for a small-batch run is going to depend heavily upon how difficult it is to manufacture at small scale. If you got that $95 quote from a local shop, you can try asking them what you can do to make it cheaper. There might be some tricky features in your design that are jacking up the labor costs.

The cheapest way to make a small-batch aluminum enclosure is probably to base it off an off-the-shelf extrusion stock. I'd go on McMaster and find some C-channel stock that fits my needs, then I'd design a base plate that nests inside the C-channel. If you're trying to go for an upscale, professional look, you can have the machine shop run a wire wheel over the C-channel before anodizing it.

[augasur]

Hi, I have ordered in the past from JLC3dp[1] both metal printed parts and aluminum anodized CNC machined parts. I was happy with the quality and the pricing was a lot better than my local CNC companies.

[1] https://jlc3dp.com

[frickinLasers]

Have you tried https://www.xometry.com/ ?

They have a network of vetted shops who bid on jobs when otherwise unoccupied.

[Razengan]

+99 points for the name