This Modder Made A Portable Nintendo 64 And It's A Dream

Ever since Nintendo announced the home console/handheld hybrid Switch, fans have been dazzled by one prospect in particular: The ability to play through an entire back catalogue of NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube games on a portable machine. Nintendo has since delivered in fine fashion on the NES and SNES front thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, but N64 and GameCube titles have yet to materialise.

While we wait for the inevitable day that Nintendo opts to release N64 games for Switch (come on guys, it is happening eventually), we can always rely on the inventiveness of modders to plug the gap in the meantime. There have been all kinds of portable N64s over the years, but modder GmanModz's N64 SP might just my favourite yet.

Check it out for yourself in the video below.

As the name implies, the N64 SP marries a genuine N64 motherboard with the classic design of the Game Boy Advance SP. You know, the fancy Game Boy with the flip-lid and built-in backlight? This was back when handheld consoles backlights were a genuine novelty rather than the standard. How did we ever manage back in the 90s?

GmanModz explains in the above video that the N64 SP supports original cartridges rather than emulation. That means you can simply slide in your own copy of Ocarina Of Time or Super Mario 64, and you're away. Using the N64 SP is a doddle, and the whole things has around two and a half hours of battery life, which really isn't too shabby at all.

The bad news, of course, is that it's obviously not that easy to make yourself. I'd also be very surprised if the N64 SP were to go up for sale anytime soon, mostly because Nintendo would probably come after GmanModz with the full fury of its legal department. Ah well, at least until the inevitable day that N64 games come to Switch, we can stare longingly at the N64 SP and sigh a wistful sigh.

We can only hope that Nintendo has similiar plans for Zelda, because I'd give (almost) anything for a HD remaster of Ocarina of Time.