intendo famously resisted optical media for generations, clinging to cartridges through the SNES and N64 eras while competitors embraced CD-ROMs. Hardware modder Throaty Mumbo just rewrote that alternate history by wiring a functional optical CD drive directly into an unmodded, 40-year-old Nintendo Entertainment System.
The project pulls off a clever engineering trick that respects the vintage silicon. Instead of hacking the console's internal motherboard, Throaty Mumbo designed a custom printed circuit board built around Raspberry Pi's RP2350B microcontroller, paired with a standard IDE CD drive and a PCM5102 audio digital-to-analog converter. The board interfaces directly with the long-neglected expansion port tucked under the front-loading NES, pulling power and streaming CD-quality audio samples right into the console's audio mix pin. When loaded, the microcontroller reads game ROMs and assets directly off the optical disc and relays them over USB into an Everdrive N8 Pro cartridge slot.
You cannot buy this kit at retail, but as a proof-of-concept, it is magnificent DIY engineering. Following Throaty Mumbo's previous work reviving defunct Japanese online peripherals for the Famicom, this experimental rig demonstrates what 1980s 8-bit gaming looks like when unshackled from cartridge capacity limits—without sacrificing original hardware integrity.