Nintendo

From Mod Mania

Mod Mania
Assignment 1 – Modding of Nintendo products
Daniel Ward

For my assignment I have looked into the worldwide practice of modding Nintendo products. Since the time when the first Nintendo was released named NES, or as other people know it the Nintendo Entertainment System, people have been modifying these products to suit there needs or just because they have become bored with them. Modding for Nintendo products goes from the crazy like putting a Nintendo64 into a Wii (Wii64), to something simple as adding mod chips so that illegal copies of games can be played. Due to Nintendo having been around for nearly over two decades and having many, many products out there from your common home console to portable consoles there is no end to the possibilities. As of now Nintendo have released more then five home consoles, more then ten hand held consoles and many accessories meaning people every where can find a Nintendo product or already have one and would be able to tap into the unknown potential of there console.

So to look into this amazing practice I searched the Internet for the groups that gave instructions on how to mod or that just showed and talk about the mods. The list of most common mods on theses groups include adding a mod chip onto the motherboard, which appears to be the most popular. By doing this they can download games from the Internet and then play them on their console. On the groups forum pages they have instructions posted that tell people step by step how to take apart the console and how to add the chip also where to add it. When people ask questions on these pages about how to add the chips or what chips to use sometimes their questions go unanswered but more often or not they are answered or are just pointed towards forum posts that of the same nature. Adding mod chips to the latest Nintendo console the Wii has become a very common practice in the modding and hacking society so much so that you can buy mod chips from companies over the Internet.

The second most popular mod for Nintendo products is the modding the cases themselves. There are already lots of forums out there for taking apart the consoles, so people take it upon themselves to put there on personal flare into there console. Some people have even created there own companies that design cases based on games and movies or just added some cool LED lights to add more of the design look some folks are after. When people add photos to forums of case mods they like or have done themselves most give positive feedback, but some people are very picky about what they like and give negative feed like ‘this is stupid and pointless’ or ‘worst mod ever’. Modding of the case also includes turning the home console into a portable console. It is very hard to build a portable case so companies out there have begun making portable cases and kits so you can DIY at home. On the forums most people who do discuss case modding always tend so see it in a positive way because of the time that is spent in doing the case mods and that especially goes for the portable case mods, but there is some negative feedback as I stated before.

The third most popular modding of Nintendo products is changing the design of the remotes and hand held consoles. Some people have added LED here and there to make it a little more interesting to use. Some of the mods include adding the LED to the rumble motor so that when the remote rumbles it flashes on and off. Another mod I have seen on a DS is adding solar panels to it and on the old game boy a light so that you can play it in the dark. When these instructional videos and guides are posted on forums there are a lot of people that like the mods and discuss ways they can improve on the ideas or just tell them how much they like the mods to the extent where they would pay for some of the mods.

On the mod forums there are different levels of ‘participation’ among the members. You have the admins that control what is posted. So if someone posts help content in a non-help forum page they will delete it, there are the people that do the mods and add them for people to see and copy, there are the people that copy mods that have been posted and give feedback to others about the mod, on whether it worked or not and then there are people who are just there to observe (like me) and give feedback as well.

The admins tend to have all the power of the forums deciding the rules and maintaining order because they have the control to be able to ban people from the forums for misuse, I guess they can be seen as the principal of this modding school. The people that do the mods are seen as say the teachers it’s there wisdom that they are trying to pass on to say the students of the Nintendo modding community and try to help the other members when questions are raised, but at the same time you tend to be scared to ask a question just in case they say it’s a stupid question and then refuse to answer any more questions from you (as it happened to me). The people that copy the examples and instructions then can be seen as the students. They follow the examples that the teachers set out and ask questions when they have trouble with what they are doing. Also other students aren’t as scared to ask them questions so they tend to get many directed there way. Then last of all are the people that are just there to have a glance over the school and the work it’s producing, in another words you can say they are the general public. Many a modder are just looking for approval from the general public and try to gain this by posting their mods on the forums.

It has become apparent through the research I have carried out into the modding of Nintendo products that there are many people out there that take great interest in it and also great enjoyment. The entertainment that you get from gaming consoles is not limited to just play them, but also altering them for your own personal taste. The enjoyment that we get from these consoles should not just stop at playing them we should be able to make each as unique as the person who is playing them.