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Creating an NES CD Add-on

212K views · Aug 29, 2026 · Science & Technology

Throaty Mumbo

13K subscribers

Comments · 812

@KadeKiger · 1 month ago
Can't wait for cartraige add on for the Playstation
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@pragmax · 1 month ago
"The Nintendo CD.  All your favorite games, now with 16-bit redbook audio and full-motion video. Now you're playing with power."
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@andrewgarcia3136 · 1 month ago
can't think of a better console to have 700mb of read-only storage, true powerhouse
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@mrburns366 · 1 month ago
Ooh.. Castlevania with CD audio would be SWEET
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@SireSquish · 1 month ago
"Because I can" is a perfectly cromulent reason to build it.
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@darkspectregames279 · 1 month ago (edited)
After looking over the schematics of the expansion port I am floored this hasn't been exploited like this before. There is so many direct connections through the CPU, direct composite video out, direct audio out, and enough of the CPU to likely build a device that works like a cartridge through an FPGA that allows communication back and forth. You could literally create a game cartridge with a custom rom that interfaces with the add on or run it directly from the add on through the CPU bus. You take the NES video out and pass that through on normal game play and then the game requests FMV and that is ran through a hardware decoder in the addon itself and fed out instead. This means you can have almost any output you want to the TV from the addon, you wouldn't use the NES outputs anymore. You could literally put a basic (or more advanced) analog to 2x scaler to HDMI port on the addon. The CD is neat for a "historical" feel BUT you could just as easily allow both HDD and SD card options and scrap the CD drive completely. You could also write games to allow for way more than 8 sprites per "scanline" and massively more colors than 4 all the way up to like 65 million lol! Hell! You could put a blue ray drive in it likely and have it behave like a newer generation console as a media center lol. The sky is the limit! It is simply amazing how much of the machine they exposed to this expansion port and never used! Edit 2: Ok you officially inspired me. Im going to try and create an add-on that you inspired that does not use CD Rom but uses SD/HDD/SSD. This will be completely contained with zero outside wires required between the console and the add-on. This may fail completely at any of these versions, but I'm 100% going for this thanks to your inspiration! Version 1: Start with basic ROM loading support (no special mappers supported yet). Allow games from cartridge to still run through it's output "normally". Add ESP-32 for wireless controller support. It will have both composite "pass through" with left and right channels (regular nes roms will obviously still be mono) and a basic 2x upscaler to HDMI. Attempt to power both systems through one power source. Version 2: Full mapper support. Maybe original nintendo expanded audio support. Version 3: FMV decode with audio directly to output without the NES limitations triggered from a dashboard or a custom rom. Version 4: Full expanded graphics engine API. This will have a FPGA "GPU" attached to the NES. This will allow for custom games to run on the NES and have those games communicate with the addon to allow all kinds of shenanigans in homebrew like destroying the 8 sprite per line, allow 65M colors, allow FMV or pre-rendered backgrounds like the Playstation. Allow cd quality audio in both music and sound effects. Allow integration with actual cartridges in the NES slot. Basically allow a homebrew developer create a game that can be a rom or a cartridge with a software package that you would put on your SD card or HDD that allows games to look like a Playstation game but with 2D sprites instead of low poly 3D characters that runs all logic through the NES CPU while offloading lots of graphical and audio features to the addon like a combination of allowing some things processed through the PPU and others processed through the extended graphics engine. Font engine so text isn't required to be sprites or tiles. Stereo Sound support obviously :) Version 5: Game detection and optimisation profiles. Allow audio replacement with CD quality audio if you have a profile installed for your original NES game cart or ROM. Explore more optimisation options such as intercepting sprite locations and replacing them with high quality versions.
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@AztecCroc · 1 month ago (edited)
Congratulations, you've recreated a bootleg Famicom Disk System that takes CDs instead of floppy discs.
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@azurabayta133 · 1 month ago
Finally. The Nintendo Entertainment Disc System. Actually though for really realsies this is unbelievably awesome.
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@Justin-Hill-1987 · 1 month ago
A lottery modem prototype was created for the NES in 1990, it was tested by the Minnesota Lottery, but was never released. It was design to use the expansion port on underside, with the console sitting on top of the modem.
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@NixoMidi · 1 month ago
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D8RWVwW4ZI&t=2557">42:37</a> "Deer pesky plumbers i've captured the princess i dare you to find her if you can" Proceeds to say EXACTLY where she is
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@cabbusses · 1 month ago
Fully voice acted NInja Gaiden would go pretty hard, not gonna lie.
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@MilkLadsForever · 1 month ago
This is literally the premise of the Super Mario World romhack "Super Mario Bros CD."
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