Open-Source NES Motherboard

[Redherring32]

Hey guys, been a while since I last posted on here!
Just wanted to share something I've been working on for a while.
It's a reverse engineered front loading "toaster" NES motherboard. (Funny how you go from NESmaking to making a NES. )

https://github.com/Redherring32/OpenTendo

In the readme you'll find important info on some of the requirements to build one for yourself, so please be sure to read through it!
You can find a reference schematic, Gerbers (Manufacturing files), and a bill of materials under the releases section.

This is all under an open source hardware license, so feel free to do as you wish with the materials in the repository, just be sure to read the license if you do make your own design using the schematics etc.

Anyway, if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments below, or you can find me on the community Discord server.
Happy NESmaking!

 

[dale_coop]

Wow, this project is mind blowing... I don't understand but I am impressed.
Is your NES motherboard working? You can play original NES games on it? Famicom games too? .... NESmaker games too?

I will follow that project, it's so cool!

 

[Dirk]

That's such an incredible project! When did you start it and what gave you the idea to make your own NES?

 

[Redherring32]

Wow, this project is mind blowing... I don't understand but I am impressed.
Is your NES motherboard working? You can play original NES games on it? Famicom games too? .... NESmaker games too?

I will follow that project, it's so cool!

It's fully working yes, I've played a dozen different games, as well as the one Famicom game I own on it with no issues at all, I don't have any mapper 30 games to test with unfortunately, however my board is functionally identical to the original, so they should work no problem as well.

That's such an incredible project! When did you start it and what gave you the idea to make your own NES?

I started working on it about mid-July, as for what inspired me, I've always been fascinated by computers electronics etc, and reverse engineering something is just something I've always wanted to learn to do.
Having already made a game for the NES, it seemed like an obvious choice for a first project.
I learned so much doing it, and I'm hoping it can help others learn too some day.

 

[dale_coop]

I tried to read the github readme... but it's like ready chinese for me >_< lol
But awesome !

 

[Dirk]

I started working on it about mid-July, as for what inspired me, I've always been fascinated by computers electronics etc, and reverse engineering something is just something I've always wanted to learn to do.
Having already made a game for the NES, it seemed like an obvious choice for a first project.
I learned so much doing it, and I'm hoping it can help others learn too some day.

So cool, I really love this project. I think I'll print out the schematics and study them a bit.
It would be really awesome if one could rebuild the NES without having to use original CPU and PPU chips. On the other hand someone might have a smashed up board somewhere with salvageable chips.
The mentioned replacement chips don't look too bad though, but I don't know how different the audio would sound.

 

[Dirk]

I tried to read the github readme... but it's like ready chinese for me >_< lol
But awesome !

Three months from now:

Dale: I've made an opensource SNES motherboard XD

 

[Redherring32]

So cool, I really love this project. I think I'll print out the schematics and study them a bit.
It would be really awesome if one could rebuild the NES without having to use original CPU and PPU chips. On the other hand someone might have a smashed up board somewhere with salvageable chips.
The mentioned replacement chips don't look too bad though, but I don't know how different the audio would sound.

Word of advice, print the schematic out landscape, much more crisp and easy to read than portrait.
And yeah, I've been pulling the CPU and PPU from broken boards when I assemble OpenTendos, and regarding the swapped duty cycles, *some* people won't even notice it to be honest, just depends how much you can tolerate/how nostalgic the real 2A03 sounds to you.

Anyway glad to see some interest in the project, there's no greater validation after a long project than to see people actually planning on putting your work to use!

 

[Dirk]

Your project got featured on hackaday
Here is the link.

Chrome recommended this article to me. Made me smile.

 

[Redherring32]

Your project got featured on hackaday
Here is the link.

Chrome recommended this article to me. Made me smile.

Yeah I saw that!
The Github page has gotten a ton of traffic from that, it's crazy..
Glad to see people interested in it!