Switching Up the 3DS

The Nintendo 3DS was an innovative handheld console in its time, but that time has now long since passed. First released in 2011, the 3DS is ancient by the standards of the fast-paced world of gaming. But fortunately for video games, they tend to get better with age. Pac-Man, for instance, may be 45 years old — but if you ask me, he never looked better.

Even so, the aging hardware these games were originally played on does lack many modern conveniences. YouTuber KOUZEX is a big fan of the 3DS, but has been dreaming of what it would be like if this classic handheld got the Switch treatment. Rather than just wondering about it, KOUZEX decided to do something about it and built a Switch-esque dock for the 3DS.

This project was definitely not just about superficial appearances — KOUZEX wanted it to really work like a Switch dock. That means not only charging, but also HDMI output to a TV and Switch Pro Controller support. Charging is not too tough of a job to handle, but HDMI output and support for a modern wireless controller? How is this old relic going to handle that?

Well, it can’t. But it can be made to work with some hacking. KOUZEX secretly slipped a USB video capture card inside the original 3DS case. This works in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi single-board computer that converts the output into an HDMI signal that can be output through the dock. Controller support took some more hacking to feed the inputs from a wireless receiver board into the system. Charging was much easier: supplying 5VDC via a pair of exposed electrodes was all that was needed.

To make the dock look like a finished product, all of the hardware was fitted into a nice 3D-printed case. Now KOUZEX can slide a 3DS into the custom dock and get all of the benefits of a modern console without having to rely on emulation to play classic games. It was a lot of work, but oh so worth it!