Nintendo’s limited‑run Zelda Game & Watch has officially crossed the line from novelty desk toy to “actual” handheld, thanks to a brutal little mod that adds a microSD slot and turns it into a pocket emulation box.
The project, shown off by absolute legend Tito at Macho Nacho Productions, rips out the stock 16 MB flash, swaps in a larger 64 MB chip, and then wires in a custom SD card slot tied to homebrew firmware. Instead of being locked to its three built‑in Zelda titles and a clock, the system can now boot Retro‑Go SD, load ROMs from the card, use save states, and run a bunch of classic systems off that tiny Nintendo shell.
It’s not a beginner’s job. The mod involves hot‑air rework on tiny surface‑mount chips, careful shielding with foil and Kapton tape, EPROM dumping, and flashing custom firmware before you even get to the SD card slot install. One slip of the hand and your cute little anniversary collectible becomes an even more limited‑edition (and less cute) brick.
Out of the box, the Zelda Game & Watch has a nice, vibrant LCD, decent d‑pad, proper buttons, USB‑C, and great battery life, all the ingredients of a solid ultra‑tiny handheld, wasted on a fixed trio of ROMs. With this mod, it finally behaves like the hardware always suggested it should be: a pick‑up‑and‑play emulation toy you can actually use instead of just posing next to your copy of Link’s Awakening.
Obviously, the usual legal caveats apply; what you run on it is on you, but the angle here is all about open‑source tools and keeping a weird little official device out of the drawer. Between this, the renewed interest in Virtual Boy hardware, and ongoing community firmware projects, it’s clear that Nintendo’s smallest devices are still inspiring serious engineering work.
Source: Macho Nacho Productions on Youtube
