the making

i have started to make the components using chemi wood for the balk of the two halves, cut using circular saw and bandsaw, along with laser cut acrylic for the inlays, a void will be milled out for the inlays to slot into. the control pad will be CNCed with the round button lathed the other buttons laser cut.
I did most of the work on the mill, i used it to cut out the voids for the laser cut inlays, by using the mill i could create the exact depth for the inlay to slot into. It was also used it to create the textured aluminum sheet that sits in the lid, this was done by skimming across the top of the aluminum using a boring tool set to a 30mm width.

But unfortunately on the last pass the aluminum became unstuck and lifted slightly in the corner and the boring tool caught the edge and mashed it up. you can just about make out the circular pattern on the surface.
The second time i attempted to make it i used a larger sheet, i used double sided tape again but this time i screwed down each corner. i made a bigger area that i cut the final rectangle from, this worked much better and i have a piece that fit snuggly into the lid.


the lathe was used to make the one large button, the hinges and the crew, all turned out of chemi-wood.

the D-pad was CNCed in chemi-wood, a 3d model was created in Rhino 3D then exported to Excalibur where the tools and cutting speed and number of passes were chosen then this information is taken to the CNC and used to cut out the object.


the rest of the peices were cut out using a laser cutter or by hand.

to make the step down sections in the lid i made a former that out of chemi-wood and acrylic, then in placed carbody filler in the void of the lid i then pressed the former in to the carbodyfiller the create the step down fomation.


the result was better that i thought it would be and only needed a small amout of cleaning up and filling.

i used carbody filler to make the beveled edge around the screen.


once everything is stuck together the final priming and sanding can commence, there is not a great deal to do but it is fiddly and you have to wait for the paint to dry enough before sanding but i can work on other areas such as the graphics and images for the screens.


i had to mill out the area for the hinge to sit into, i also had to cut the hinge in half so that i could attach each piece to each side of the console so that it will be a working hinge. just means more sanding and filling.

Nintendo infomation

all info from http://themushroomkingdom.net/mario_history.shtml

In 1980, Nintendo of America (NOA) released Radar Scope, an arcade game they hoped would kickstart a long reign of success. It flopped, leaving Nintendo stuck with 2,000 unsold Radar Scope units. To stay afloat, NOA desperately needed a smash-hit game—and fast. Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president and CEO of Nintendo Co., Ltd. at the time, asked staff artist Shigeru Miyamoto to design a new game based on his own ideas. The result was a game entitled Donkey Kong, starring "Jumpman," a portly carpenter clad in red and blue. "Jumpman" did not have his name for very long, however. NOA had to prepare the game for American release, which included naming the characters. As the story goes, they were mulling over what to name Jumpman when the landlord, Mario Segale, arrived at the warehouse, demanding the overdue rent payment. When he left, the staff had a new name for Jumpman: "Mario."


all info from http://www.gamecubicle.com/features-mario-nintendo_shining_star.htm
In designing the game's hero, Miyamoto sought to create a silly character with whom gamers could connect. He designed a pudgy carpenter with a rounded nose and wide eyes. The low resolution of video game displays at the time, in addition to hardware limitations of the Radarscope sets on which Donkey Kong would run, required Miyamoto to make a few adjustments so that gamers could discern the character's features. To make the carpenter easily visible, Miyamoto outfitted him with colorful overalls and shirt. A mustache was drawn in to distinguish the his large nose. Finally, a red cap was added because programmers found it difficult to create the hair movement that would occur when the character jumped. In the end, Miyamoto settled on the name Jumpman for the carpenter and Donkey Kong for his pet gorilla, believing that 'donkey' translated into stubborn or silly in English.

The SNES-CD was to be announced at the June 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknown to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.

Nintendo helps spawns its rival.

All info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in U.S. federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new Sony PlayStation was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.