It's fair to say that the Nintendo Switch has really grabbed the attention of long-term Nintendo fans, wowing users with titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and impressing with its hybrid home console and handheld functionality. However, that hasn't stopped some gamers from thinking of ways to try and improve the console, such as one Switch user who has created a fantastic portable Nintendo Switch dock out of an old Game Boy Advance SP.
The gamer, who goes by the name CallMeCaptainAmerica over on Reddit, was working with a second Nintendo Switch dock when they realised that the circuitboard for the dock was almost exactly the same size as the Game Boy Advance SP. The user then remembered that they had an old SP that no longer worked, and so started building a portable dock for the Nintendo Switch out of the old, broken handheld.
The end result is great: a miniature dock that fully functions for the Switch. The fan-made dock has full access to power supply, HDMI, and USB, while the screen of the handheld console helps secure the Switch in place when docked. Meanwhile, the lightweight nature of the SP is offset by the weight of the cables plugged in when docked, so it's quite a solid place to pop the Switch.
It's certainly impressive, particularly given that it was CallMeCaptainAmerica's first foray into the world of console modifications, and that it was all put together with an X-Acto Knife. The dock itself will also prove extremely useful, as the modder in question explained: "I'm a pilot and don't have room in my bag for a full sized dock to hook up to hotel TVs. I do, however, have room for a Game Boy Advance SP sized dock."
It seems as though there's something about Nintendo hardware that makes the modding community decide to work on projects such as this. Another great example was a modder who made a real console out of a Game Boy Color-themed Burger King Toy, adding a Raspberry Pi computer to the toy to make it fully functional as a Game Boy emulator.
Indeed, there are some mods that Nintendo might be interesting in pursuing commercially. After all, after the release of the NES Classic Mini, fans of the Super Nintendo have been clamoring for a SNES version of the device, and that homemade tiny working SNES console certainly looked the part. In the meantime, though, there are bound to be plenty more fan-made console mods ready to impress.