A playhouse that would put Pee-wee to shame
by David Hinkle 
{ Apr 20th 2007 at 12:45PM }
We can't say where this above fun house is located, but we can say that upon finding out we'll move to said house, take it over by force and die there. It's just about the best Nintendo tribute piece we've ever seen, complete with sniveling Duck Hunt dog and collection of cartridges in the back. Sadly, flickr user gnychis' photos don't have any captions letting us know who made this or where it is to be found.
We've posted more pictures, of both the building's outside and inside, past the post break.
[Via The Tanooki]
Lakitu looks so lonely and sad in the dark corner.
Yeah right, we all know Bowser rocks face in Smash Bros.
Hey, what moron put the cartridge in upside down?
How does he make it go if he can't reach the pedals?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jonah @ Apr 20th 2007 12:57PM
If it helps, it appears to be a Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
worm @ Apr 20th 2007 1:10PM
Um...duh. I'll tell you why the cartridge is in upside-down. When your NES got really old, like 12+ years, the little clicking down mechanism didn't work anymore. So in order to keep the game you were playing pressed down, you had to insert an extra cartridge above the one you were playing. Didn't have to be upside-down, but it could be. Plus it was usually sticking out, just like they built the house.
David Hinkle @ Apr 20th 2007 1:24PM
worm,
I can't say that ever happened to me and I played the hell out of that thing. Sure, we had to do plenty of tricks (listing them would take too much time), but we never "double-stuffed" our console. *shrug*
Thanks for reading!
Dave
Rubang B @ Apr 20th 2007 3:33PM
I double-stuffed mine a couple times when I was 8 and it worked. It's better to just bend the pins on the connector back to their original position, and to use Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol on the connectors on both the system and the games, but be sure to DRY them afterwards so they don't get all corroded and nasty. But with the low price of replacement connectors on eBay and the wonders you can do with only a screwdriver, they're easy to repair now too.
P.S. That is my house. I live there. Try and stop me.
Steve @ Apr 20th 2007 2:41PM
Man I would love to visit that place. Why won't they say where it is?
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http://www.howtogetfreewiipoints.com
Scott @ Apr 20th 2007 2:46PM
That looks a heck of a lot like the booths that campus organizations build for Carnegie Melon University's annual Spring Carnival. The sad thing is, it'll probably be destroyed after the week us up.
pizzamousechips @ Apr 20th 2007 2:52PM
Am I the only one who did a double-take after reading "double stuff our console" ...?
Matters @ Apr 20th 2007 3:15PM
worm is right. I never had that problem with my NES but I know several that did. Putting an extra cartridge in to hold down the game you were playing is exactly how you fix the problem :)
John Bray @ Apr 20th 2007 6:51PM
That is from CMU's Spring Carnival. At their site, http://www.springcarnival.org/, under booths, it lists Sigma Phi Epsilon's booth theme as "Video Games"
Billy_McBong @ Apr 20th 2007 7:03PM
that thing should be sold on eBay they would make aolt of $$$
and @4 this site http://www.gaminglagoon.com/?ref=41745 is better
a stale altoid @ Apr 22nd 2007 3:53PM
I haven't uploaded my pictures of the booth yet, but I got to go through it. For a fraternity project that only saw like three days of use, it was quite complicated and thought-out.
The cartridge outside the building is upside down so people can see the title on the sticker, which read "Super Sigep Bros." Inside the entrance on the second floor was a mural on one wall of the Mushroom Kingdom castle as it appeared in SM64/Super Smash Bros, as well as a Princess Peach stained-glass window on the wall opposite the entrance.
Under the cartridge on the other side of the room was an enormous warp pipe, inside of which you could stop to play a version of Duck Hunt on a head-mounted visor. The game was custom-made by the team for the booth and was controlled by a wooden(?) rifle prop that looked like the love child of a Super Scope and a Zapper. The game wasn't working when I went through, so I can't say much more about that.
Turning the corner, there was a set of stairs made to look like a hut out of the Donkey Kong Country jungle. Not much to do here but listen to the DKC soundtrack play in the background. There was a banana-bunch chandelier, and above the stairs on a platform were some crates and barrels with stars and DK logos.
The stairs deposited you on the ground floor, which was the Mario Kart room. The warp pipe, continued from the floor above, had a cutout section in which you could take a little quiz of Mario trivia. There was also some neon-green graffiti and a mural of Mario underground in world 1-2. The final room on the ground floor before exiting was just behind the huge Smash Bros mural on the outside wall. In that room was another custom game, this one a racing game that involved switching between stomping left and right on a platform, pumping a bar, and steering on respective prompts. You were given one shot at the game by the guy working in the room, then off you went and that was it.
The only other booth that really caught my attention was a giant pinball machine, where you were allowed to play one ball on a table that resembled the campus. It was so large that the pinball was a mini soccer ball and swinging the flippers required one person on each wheel.
All in all, it was a neat display, but I'm pretty sure everything has been taken down by now. I wonder what the fraternity plans to do with the props and spare parts..