When it comes to custom Switch docks, the fan community has shown some incredible ingenuity over the past three years and come up with many an eye-pleasing alternative to Nintendo's official offering. The fan-made Link's Awakening and Animal Crossing docks (not the official one, although that's pretty too) are particular highlights.
Several older generations of Nintendo hardware have found themselves repurposed as fully-functioning docks for the hybrid console, too. We'd had the recycled NES Switch dock, of course, followed naturally by the SNES variety, and we've even seen third-party manufacturers channelling retro console designs, with the PowrBay looking like a mini (and squashed) GameCube, and Hyperkin's mini dock echoing the curves of the Nintendo 64.
Well, the fan community has struck again, this time with a dock fashioned from a busted Nintendo 64. As posted to reddit by slum_boy, the console shell has been recycled and combines the innards of a Switch dock and a GameCube controller adaptor to form the beast you see in the full original image below:
Here are some comments from the maker about the building process:
I found the N64 at a garage sale and took the parts out to make room for the switch hardware. Once that was done, I opened up the cartridge slot just a bit so that the Switch would fit in there once I got the hardware from the dock in. After I put the new hardware in, I put an HDMI extension and a USB-C extension that lead out the original ports on the back of the console. I wasn’t satisfied with the gaping controller holes, so I took a gamecube controller adapter and extenders and put them in there to fill the gap. The main problem with the build was finding space for all of the cabling, so I actually learned how to solder in order to shorten the extenders and the USB cables on the adapter. Once I had set the adapter, I just JB welded the extenders to the old controller sockets and they hold up quite well (so far)! After that, all that was left was to plug in and play!
Actually, this isn't the first time the N64 has got the Switch dock treatment, although we think the GameCube ports on this version give it a little extra retro juice.
All our old consoles are still in fine working order, but when they do eventually go to that big console warehouse in the sky, it's nice to know we'll be able to repurpose their empty shells into something useful. Consoles never die!
What do you think? Got any non-working hardware lying around that you fancy fashioning into a dock for your Switch? Share your ideas below.
[source old.reddit.com]
Comments 46
By far the prettiest retro dock as of now!
Gotta do something will all those old shells, so many are gutted for parts you can get them fairly cheap too!
Stupid. The Switch comes with a dock that looks better than a gutted N64.
N64 dock, Switch console and Gamecube controllers. If Frankenstein was a gamer.
Great on a novelty basis, but practically pointless.
I swear I remember seeing one of these in early 2017....I bought a broken gold n64 just so I could do it based off that post
I could never do this to an N64. This is blasphemy
@Crono1973 Where I’m from when someone comes up with an idea, starts a project, enjoys the work put into that project, and then likes the end product, well, stupid just isn’t an applicable word.
@frabbit Where I come from, if you don't want your work praised and/or criticized you don't post it online for all to see.
@Crono1973 Yeah, your criticism has no merit. “Stupid“ isn’t applicable as I said.
@frabbit Fair enough, it looks worse than the actual dock that comes with the console.
Remember when people thought the Switch was going to be two consoles? A handheld & a home console unit it docked into?
If I had the know-how I’d gut a black Wii & use the shell for the Switch to dock inside of it hidden 🤔
Ruining a retro console just to make your Switch look different. Why...
show me a zx81 dock then ill be impressed. lol. but these are cool.
I dock my Switch in a customised PS4 pro
They're running out of things to turn into Switch docks. It's only a matter of time until someone takes their dead cat and has it stuffed with a slot on its back. I wonder how the Switch performs in feline mode?
Looks meh, and it will scratch the screen.
I hope that wasn't a working N64. No working N64 should be destroyed for something purely cosmetic.
finally the n64 has somewhat of a use.
this would be a first for the system.
@Rodan2000 I would like to see that. Is it possible you can send an image if this website allows sharing stuff?
I've heard of this before; the "Neatidea".
People say the beast takes many forms and prays on both the healthy and weak consoles - gouging rectangular holes into the host console's shell, ripping out it's innards, and forcibly jamming into it what people have come to name "Switch". Some say it's for some sort of amusement, while others believe it's for this "Switch" to incubate and then abandon it's host once it's reached sufficient power.
No one knows where it came from, but it's been said that the beast was so-named because the noise it makes before subjecting its victim to a ghastly fate sounds like "I think that would be a neat idea".
@Mr_Persona sorry I was joking, had a couple of beers last night and was hoping the Playstation trolls on here would take the bait!
At least he hasn't stuck a light bulb on top of it to make a lamp and tried to call it art
@Moon To play NES and SNES games online. Also, this N64 runs Crysis.
So you made it look like a Switch, but in an N64 shell.
...
I don't get it, but if it makes you happy, I'm happy.
@Crono1973 stupid. Well aren't you just a wonderful person!
@TheFox bet it purrforms clawsomely
@Rodan2000 oh l see that's fine
I want one made out of an old Switch dock, that looks like a switch dock, that would be SICK
@ogo79 ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh contraversial
@MeowMeowKins Using old consoles to make Switch docks is just a little (ok alot) too fanatical to me. Right up there with making your TV look like a huge Switch. It's like some people think the Switch is the second coming of Christ.
@Crono1973 yeah, but you don't have to call them stupid to get that point across.
@MeowMeowKins What if I think it's stupid?
@Crono1973 Then don't say it like that. Nobody likes a total *****
@MeowMeowKins I think I'll continue to say what I think.
@Crono1973 and I'll continue to say what I think and NOT be a total *** about it. Have a nice day.
@MeowMeowKins You too.
@YANDMAN
lol
there were like what, 20 decent games for the n64
it was an over sized sega 32x
@ogo79 Way more than that, a lot of which stayed in Japan.
@Crono1973 you could make that point without the "stupid" part...
@ogo79 you missed the part where I said I'll continue to do that WITHOUT being a total ***
@MeowMeowKins
Except you were as you called the other person an arse.
@TheFullAndy you must have misunderstood. They FORGOT that part. I was TRYING to get them to ADD that part.
@MeowMeowKins
You make no sense bud.
@TheFullAndy well, cheers to that, I guess.
That's totally abuse!
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