This N64 Flash Cart Has A Built-In Screen That Shows Which Game Is Running 3
Image: DAVIDXGAMESmx

We don't really pay much attention to them these days because they're now hidden away inside your gaming system, but once upon a time, cartridge labels were on full display whenever you were playing a game.

With the exception of the NES, pretty much every classic system had the cartridge protruding out of the casing, allowing you to see at a glance what game you had loaded at any given time.

Fast forward to today, and a great many of us play retro games via flash cartridges, and the issue there is that you can't swap out the label to see what game is booted up.

That's where David "DAVIDXGAMESmx" Brito comes in; as spotted by ReCollect64, this talented modder has come up with a solution for a problem many of us probably weren't aware existed.

He has produced a flash cart called Screendrive 64 for the N64, which has its own built-in display – this changes to the relevant cartridge label depending on the game you have loaded up.

The $50 cartridge features a 128 MB FPGA and a real, hardware-compatible PicoCart, clad in a 3D-printed shell. While it doesn't look quite as slick as the latest EverDrive options on the market, it's nonetheless a very interesting concept – and something I'd love to see integrated into more of these devices over time.

[source facebook.com, via defaultdnb.github.io]