[Applause]
to expand console capabilities
manufacturers often included expansion
ports for future upgrades systems like
the original PlayStation had one and the
GameCube even had three just to name a
few but not every console that had an
expansion Port made use of it an example
of this is the one tucked underneath the
NES Nintendo never commercial released
an accessory that utiliz this port so
once again modders do what nintend don't
this is the NES Hub an expansion
accessory that adds some serious
capability to the Beloved NES let's take
a look
[Music]
hey everyone how's it going my name is
Tito and welcome to another episode of
retro renew today we're going to be
taking a look at a very cool mod that
not only enhances the ness's
capabilities but it does it by using the
accessory port on the bottom of the
system something that not even Nintendo
ever made a use of during the life of
the console this is the NES Hub a
plug-and-play add-on created by a very
talented modder named Teemo not to be
confused with Tito he comes from Germany
and goes by his online Alias retro time
so before we dive into the NES Hub
itself let's talk about the accessory
Port like I mentioned earlier Nintendo
never actually made commercial use of
this port it never released any
accessories for it now in Japan the
famicom also had an accessory Port but
Nintendo did use it it was primarily
used as a way for players to use third
party controllers since the famicom
controllers were permanently attached to
the system since on the other hand the
North American n's controllers were
removable via the ports in front there
really wasn't a need to utilize the
expansion Port since third party
controllers and accessories could use
these now at its core the NES Hub is
essentially a blue retro adapter it can
support up to four wireless controllers
while leaving the controller ports empty
giving the console a more Sleek
appearance rather than having twoo large
wart stick out in the front by using a
conventional Bluetooth adapter like the
one from 8bit d
now wireless controllers isn't the hub's
only trick it also enables expansion
audio functionality for the console
which gives us richer more detailed
audio from games that support this
capability we'll dive deeper into this
here in a moment but let's actually take
a look at the hardware itself first now
rather than starting at the bottom of
the unit where seemingly all of the
interesting stuff is let's instead take
a look at the top because it probably
has the most impressive part of the mod
and that is the connector itself I can
imagine all of the confused faces
looking into the screen right now
thinking why on Earth is the connector
so noteworthy well it's because this
connector does not exist well I mean now
it exists but that's because Teemo
designed and engineered it from the
ground up this connector fits perfectly
into the n's expansion port and honestly
when you insert it to the console it
pretty much feels like an oem part it's
not too tight or too loose but has just
the right amount of resistance once you
get your hands on the NES Hub and
install it yourself you'll totally
understand so like I mentioned the
connector was designed by Teo and with
the help from the folks over at 8bit
mods they were able to get it
manufactured with an injection molded
interface and integrated pins okay so
that's enough about that now let's flip
it over and take a look at the bottom
here we have the esp32 which is sort of
the brains of the whole thing and is
what allows for a Bluetooth controller
support thanks to all the hard work that
Darth cloud has done with the blue retro
standard over here we have three dip
switches for the expansion 2 six and 9
pins and what these do is is enable
expansion audio now typically expansion
audio is activated by turning on the
expansion 6 switch however there are
some mods that make use of this pin on
the expansion Port this is why Teo
included the expansion 2 and expansion 9
switches which will instead route the
expansion audio signals through those
instead so no matter what mods you have
installed in your NES you'll be able to
enable expansion audio support with the
NES Hub now the last noteworthy items
are the three ports at the right left
and Top of the Hub these are actually
mini display ports but they aren't
related to video output rather these
actually give access to all the signals
from the expansion Port grouped by
controller signals which are routed to
the top the expansion signals which are
sent over to the right side and the CPU
signals which are sent to the left
connector what these effectively allow
us to do is add additional accessories
and enable future expansion for example
Teemo made this Super Nintendo
controller adapter that links to the top
connector and allows you to use wired or
Wireless SNES controllers this
particular controller adapter is housed
in a really nice and sturdy 3D printed
case which as you might have guessed is
the Perfect Cue to talk about the
sponsor of today's video PCB way if you
have an idea for a new mod or want to
assemble an open- source project PCB way
provides you with the tools to make them
a reality from 3D printing services in
an array of materials all the way to
other services like CNC Machining
injection molding and of course PCB and
flex ribbon fabrication so when it comes
to taking your retro mods to the next
level PCB way is the place to make that
happen check out the link in the
description for PCB way to get $5 off
your first order and again a huge thank
you to PCB way for sponsoring this video
so other future accessories that may
need to make use of the NES CPU or
expansion Lanes can easily be accessible
through these added ports and it's
really cool how teimo even utilize the
existing channels here that make
connecting these accessories pretty easy
and clean it's almost as if Nintendo had
built these channels in for this very
purpose which is pretty cool now one
thing to keep in mind is that this
particular example of the NES Hub is a
pre-production unit but the final
version will look very similar to it
anyway let's hop over to the bench so I
can show you just how easy it is to
install the Hub into the
NES okay you'll first need to locate the
expansion Port which is on the bottom of
the NES underneath this little
cover and for whatever reason Nintendo
blocked the port with another cover
that's built into the shell so you'll
probably need to grab something like
some Flush Cutters or tin snips and cut
the tabs that hold the cover on now I
already did this on my modded NES with a
clear shell so we'll continue with this
one as I really don't want to cut the
shell on my original
console anyway with the cover removed
all you need to do is align the Hub as
shown and press it firmly into
place okay so we're pretty much done the
only thing left to do is to connect the
esp32 antenna like so and what I'm going
to do is Route it towards the back of
the console and stick it as high up as
it'll go so that I can get the best
Bluetooth
reception and there it is the NES Hub is
fully installed and ready to go that was
super easy so with the NES Hub popped in
let's go ahead and hook it up to the TV
and see what it can do now when it comes
to Features the biggest one is obviously
the ability to pair wireless Bluetooth
controllers so when I power the NES on
we can see that the blue LED here is
pulsing meaning that the Hub Hub is in
pairing mode now depending on the
wireless controller that you want to use
the pairing method will differ but I'll
be using this PS5 controller as an
example so by pressing and holding both
the PlayStation and share button at the
same time the LED will start to Blink
rapidly indicating that it too is in
pairing mode but then here you'll see
that it turns solid indicating that it
has been paired to the NES Hub and as
you can see I can now use my PS5
controller on the NES which is pretty
neat now you can pair up to two
controllers by default however if you
access the blue retro menu system via
the online portal using Bluetooth you
can enable features such as multitap
which enables up to four player support
by emulating the NES 4core multitap
accessory that's what I've done here and
now you can see that I have three
controllers connected to the NES and I'm
able to play games that support that
many players such as Bomberman 2 as
shown here on screen now in addition to
the traditional wireless controllers you
can also pair other input devices such
as a wireless keyboard and mouse again
this is something that you will will
need to enable via the online blue retro
setting portal and of course you are
still able to use regular wired
controllers but what happens if you pair
wireless controllers at the same time
well unfortunately the NES Hub has no
way of detecting controllers that are
connected to the ports in the front of
the console like for example the blue
retro kit for the GameCube meaning it is
unable to Auto assign the wireless
controllers when other wired controllers
are also plugged in so what happens
instead is that we have controller
overlap what that means is if you have a
controller paired to the hub and one
connected to the player one port for
example both controllers will have
simultaneous control over the game for
player one basically this means there
really isn't a way to have a wireless
and wired controller act as two separate
controllers this isn't a huge deal since
I'd imagine most people will just use
wireless controllers if they have this
kit but an interesting use case could be
shared controls for playing games for
example someone can control Mario's
Direction while another person control
controls Mario's jump function this
probably isn't the best example of a
game that may benefit from shared
controls but it is pretty interesting as
a potential use case for this sort of
accidental feature anyway one of the
more exciting features is of course the
expansion audio I never played a game
with this feature since only the famicom
could do this but it's actually a pretty
Stark difference in quality especially
for in-game music one of the Prime
examples of a game that utilizes the
expansion audio is Castlevania 3 here's
a sample of the difference
[Music]
so there are a handful of famicom games
that support this feature with
Castlevania 3 being one of them but the
majority of the games that utilize
expansion audio are famicom dis system
games now that actually brings up an
interesting factoid which is that here
in the US we actually never got an
equivalent to the fds but let's hold
that thought for a moment and I'll come
back to this when we discuss the future
of the NES Hub which is pretty exciting
so stay tuned now of course the last
feature is the ability to support
additional add-ons via the three mini
display ports currently we only have the
SNES adapter which I showcased earlier
but there are plenty of potential future
add-ons again we'll be getting into this
in just a moment but now I want to
discuss the pros and cons of the NES Hub
starting with the pros there really I
think is a lot to like about this mod
it's easy to install by simply just
plugging it into the bottom Port thanks
to its excellently designed connector
and we get quite a bit of added
capability wireless Bluetooth controller
support and expansion audio but for me
it's the future capabilities that really
excite me that should make use of the
three additional ports on the Hub and
the last Pro is the price point at $60 I
think this presents incredible value for
example one of these NES Bluetooth
adapters from 8 bit2 cost
$25 so if you wanted to get two for two
player support that's $50 right there
for $10 more you can support up to four
controllers simultaneously plus you get
expansion audio as well as support for
whatever future add-ons that may come to
the hub I think that's really good bang
for your buck anyway just an overall
great device but now let's get into the
cons and to be perfectly honest I really
don't have any the only one I could
think of is pretty small the one thing
that bothers me just a bit is that all
the electronics on the Hub are pretty
exposed here on the bottom again not
really a big deal but it would be nice
if we had a simple cover that just Clips
on over the Hub to help protect it just
a bit I think this is a really easy fix
and it wouldn't surprise me if someone
could easily design something that could
be 3D printed that covers the NES Hub
honestly other than that I think this is
a fantastic kit and really just a great
add-on for the NES now the last thing I
want to discuss is the future of the NES
Hub now for a good portion of the video
I've been alluding to this but since
Teemo did incorporate the expansion
ports what sort of add-ons could we see
in the future well one of the obvious
answers would be additional controller
adapters with the current one available
being the NES one I can see perhaps a
Genesis one also being added but those
are pretty boring in comparison to what
Teemo has said that he is currently
working on apparently he's been in
contact with mamasa to bring an add-on
that will allow us to connect a famicom
disc system or something like the fds
key allowing us to play fds games
through the NES now that would be truly
awesome it looks as if this is something
that mamasa has actually released in the
past but was definitely coming in at a
pretty hefty price tag hopefully since
there's some pretty capable Hardware on
the NES Hub already this can be included
as a potential future software update
additionally Teemo is in contact with
Perka who created the expansion Port
sound module or epsm which further
improves the audio of not just expansion
audio supported games but all games by
integrating a Yamaha FM synth chip and
adds 15 additional sound channels this
would actually be a fantastic add-on for
future Homebrew games these future
upgrades really excite me about the
potential of the NES Hub and what it
means for the future of NES modding now
if you enjoyed this video I really think
you'll like this one here so check it
out and as always thank you all so much
for tuning in today and I'll catch you
again next time
[Music]