Nintendo's upcoming mini-NES is a surgical assault on the nostalgia centers of Generation X and beyond, but it's not quite perfect. It can only ever play the 30 included games, for instance, and that wonderfully detailed cartridge slot doesn't actually open! Thankfully, tinker extraordinaire daftmike has made all of my fondest wishes for a tiny NES replica come true.
I'm still giddy about how those itsy bitsy NFC cartridges work. All they really do is tell the emulator which pre-loaded game to run, but to the user it functions exactly like an original NES. Right down to pushing the cartridge bay down and feeling the latch click! It's perfect. The cartridges use the same technology that lets amiibo interface with Wii U and 3DS systems, so it's basically a better version of Amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits.
Daftmike's blog has a full rundown of the creative process from its inception (which was actually a few weeks before Nintendo announced the NES Classic Edition) all the way to the specific switches he used for the "Power" and "Reset" button. It's fascinating to read even if you've never touched a 3D printer or a Raspberry Pi before.
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