The recent announcement of the NES Classic Edition (or NES Mini if you're in Europe) caused quite a stir, triggering feelings of intense nostalgia with thirtysomethings all over the globe. While we can't wait to get our hands on the unit, there's definitely room for improvement here - for starters, you can't load games onto the console so once you're totally bored of the 30 that come pre-installed (which, to be fair, will take ages) then you're unlikely to return to the machine.

Keen to improve on the concept, modder daftmike decided to craft his own take on the NES mini-console concept. Powered by a Raspberry Pi and encased in a 3D-printed shell which is around 60 percent smaller than the original machine, the unit has a functional cartridge slot and tiny carts loaded with NFC chips which tell the unit which ROM to load. It's a unique solution which is made all the more remarkable by the fact that it's home-made.

While fan-made projects like these are usually quite rough around the edges, this is amazingly slick, right down to the controller which has also been modelled at the same scale. Hopefully Nintendo will take note and release an improved version in the future.

[source gamesradar.com]