Dear Santa,
I know it’s December 24, but is it too late to change my Christmas wish-list?
Let’s forget about the Power Rangers pyjamas I originally asked for, and we can put the Super Sonico hug pillow on hold this year. *This* is what I really want, and there’s only one of them in the whole world: a backlit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES and four amazing controllers.
Sadly, I have a feeling that Santa (or Father Christmas to Brits like me) won’t really go for the idea of dropping more than US$1,000 on an 8-bit games console to give to a 31-year-old gamer who really ought to know better, but it was worth a try.
Modder Ryan Fitzpatrick, AKA PlatinumFungi, has been refitting old Nintendo Entertainment System consoles with original backlit panels for years now, but just recently got around to finishing off what is arguably his pièce de résistance: a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed NES which features images of the amphibian brothers and comes complete with a set of four unique controllers, one for each member of the turtle team.
The NES itself may only support two controllers at a time (unless you had one of those fancy Four Score adapters), but thanks to this modder’s creativity and tremendous attention to detail, you can ensure that you’re doing everything in your power to help the green teens win by plugging in the correct colour-coded controller to match your character.
▼ Leonardo and Michelangelo pads
▼ Red and purple for Raphael and Donatello
By far the coolest thing about the console, though, has to be the aforementioned backlit images inserted into its top panel. With the lights turned off and the machine pumping out classic 8-bit tunes we bet this is pretty spectacular to play on.
As someone born in the 1980s who both adored Ninja Turtles (or “Hero Turtles” as it was curiously renamed in my homeland) and pined for a Nintendo of his own for the best part of three years, this would have absolutely been the Christmas gift to top all Christmas gifts, and with six days still to go the unique NES has received over 35 bids at auction on eBay, the current top bidder promising to pay a whopping $1,275 at time of writing. Merry Christmas indeed!
You can find even more photos of the NES over on the creator’s Facebook page, or join in the bidding action over on eBay.
Images via Facebook