Nintendo took a chance in 2001 with the Pokemon Mini, the world’s smallest cartridge-based platform to date. This teeny-tiny device was smaller than a matchbox and only held ten official games before fading into obscurity. Game makers had to get creative with the tiny 160×100 monochrome LCD screen driven by an Epson S1C88 CPU running at 4.194304 MHz, resulting in charming, simplified Pokémon adventures. Four AAA batteries kept the fun going for about 20 hours before needing a recharge, with cartridges containing a maximum of 2 MB of ROM, but the hardware was so constrained that game programmers had to get somewhat creative with the design.

Danny Spencer took his trusty old Game Boy Color and turned it into a canvas for real-time 3D shading, transforming the simple handheld into a shockingly convincing three dimensional environment. As the teapot spins, its curves capture the light from a source you control with the D-pad, causing shadows to alter seamlessly in response to each nudge.

YouTuber Rangelukaz is embarking on his most ambitious project ever. He is using Unity to completely recreate the 1994 Super Nintendo classic Donkey Kong Country. Every jump, roll, and slide is a precise duplicate of the original, down to the last frame.

PDFs have typically been used to store reports, contracts, and a plethora of tax forms, but now one of them can run a Nintendo 64 game. Simply load a 23.5-megabyte file in your browser and Super Mario 64 will launch, complete with a jumping plumber and a magnificent castle backdrop. Tobi, the developer behind this feat, converted a document viewer into a game console, but he was inspired by a previous project, the DOOM PDF.

The DS Pico cartridge simply slots into a Nintendo DS slot like any other, but that’s where the similarities end. It’s a flashcart that quietly reimagines what these devices can achieve. Built over four years by the LNH Team, it all began with the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, which set the project on a very specific course.

For many old-school platformer fans, the wait for a good remake of the legendary Nintendo 64 title from 1998, “Banjo-Kazooie,” has been an interminably long time, and yet, even after thirty years, the game still holds a special place in the hearts of many. It has kind of languished away on old hardware or within the Nintendo 64 emulation scene, and this has all come to an end with the release of a PC port, titled “Banjo: Recompiled,” courtesy of several dedicated modders.