Since the NES was no longer able to work, I decided it was worth it to mod the system.
I am what I call, a "mod purist"; things have to look original for me to like them, so my goal with the NES mod is for it to do something different, but still look the same from the front. I see tons of mods that have holes in the main part of the system for USB cables or whatever the creator is doing, and since I am a luthier (guitar builder) I am obsessed with any holes to be cut well, straight, and square to the main system. So for this project I will make minimal holes in the NES and I will make them in a place where they are not noticeable/visible.
My idea for this project is to put a Raspberry Pi inside of a NES; I know this has been done, it is not a new idea, but I want one to use as a media centre at home, thus, the mod. My plan is to create a mounting system with stand-offs for the Pi to be mounted inside of the NES. I want to put a fan in the system to ensure that prolonged use will not over heat the system. I want the power and reset switch to be usable, and the light to come on with the power. I do not want to modify the Raspberry Pi at all so that it is usable in another project afterwards if wanted, and so that it doesn't break (I broke a Raspberry Pi b this way a year ago; it was a sad day, but I got a lot of use out of that machine, so it's life was well lived, may it rest in peace. It would be nice for the game slot of the NES to do something, maybe a DVD tray some day, maybe not, hard to say at this point. I will add a USB WIFI adapter, and hopefully an IR remote sensor. I want the game controller ports in the front to be USB ports, but since I am a purist, they will still look 100% the same, and will come with a custom USB NES cable, USB port on one end, and a NES controller cable on the other, potentially I will also make it have a NES to USB converter inside so that I can plug NES controllers in to the device for emulators.
I will post more with more progress, this post was done after the fact, I already have more done, but that will be another post.