This Tiny Arcade Machine Fits Entirely Inside an NES Controller

The original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) controllers were known for a lot of things, including the iconic design, the simplicity, and the brutally uncomfortable ergonomics. We give those controllers a pass, because that era of gaming wasn’t exactly known for ergonomic design. But the hard corners and small size of the NES controller are especially noticeable — particularly as an adult. Despite that small size, YouTuber Taylor Burley managed to cram a working arcade machine inside of an original NES controller.

Burley began this project after seeing Ben Heck teardown a Mini Arcade on his channel. That Mini Arcade (also sold as Tiny Arcade and probably a bunch of other names) is keychain-size as long as you’re willing to play fast and loose with the term, and is designed to look like a scaled-down version of a classic arcade cabinet. Where the CRT screen would be on a real arcade cabinet there is a small 0.96” OLED display. Itty bitty controls on the front of the cabinet can be used to play a handful of built-in games, such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders. As you can imagine, playing games with those miniscule arcade controls is even worse than with an NES controller.

You can almost certainly guess how this project goes: Burley took the electronic components from his Tiny Arcade keychain and stuffed them inside of an NES controller. While the Tiny Arcade is a lot bigger than an NES controller, there was a lot of empty space inside of the case. By only including the parts that were necessary, Burley was able to fit everything in the NES controller case. The center of the front half of the NES controller was trimmed to mount the display. The controller’s original buttons, with the exception of Start and Select, are connected to the Tiny Arcade’s circuit board for control. Burley also repurposed some flat membrane buttons from a generic infrared LED remote to select a game when the system is powered on. While the available games are pretty basic, it is impressive to see a functional arcade fit into such a compact space.