WATCH: Is this Black Country Nintendo NES the biggest in the country?
Not so long ago Nintendo NES games consoles were all the rage in homes and Super Mario Bros was the cool game of choice for the average teenager.
Now Stourbridge man Marc Jones, aged 36, has revived memories of the popular toy by creating what he believes is the only large scale model of the console's controller in the UK.
The carpenter, who lives in West Street, has designed and built a coffee table-sized version ten times bigger than the original square controller, complete with the arrow keys and Select, Start, Back and Across buttons that will be familiar with adults of a certain age, who spent most of the 1980s with one in hand.
Mr Jones said he decided to build the working device, which can be used to play games on the TV, to give his nephews Jack Robinson, aged seven and Gregory Priest, aged 13, something to keep them entertained while visiting his home.
So he gained some inspiration from looking on YouTube where people in America had posted videos of similar controllers they had made using coffee tables.
"I had to research everything to work out how to do the circuitry and on the inside and I used the original circuit board and hotwired that and I got a Vernier Gauge and measured every single measurement and timed it by ten and scaled everything up," Mr Jones said.
He built the table, measuring 18cms high, 1.24m in length and 54cms wide, using MDF and hardwood supplied free by Rush Jobs DIY in Stourbridge and said he took care to ensure all the dimensions were correct, so all the buttons were the right scale.
The whole project took Nintendo fan Mr Jones, who has a 30-year-old NES console, two months to complete in the workshop at his home, which he affectionately calls the 'Man Cave.'
The former Ridgewood High School pupil in Stourbridge now plans to build a large scale model of an XBox 360 controller and he has also created coffee tables and other furniture in his workshop.
He added: "I just enjoy making things. I mean, it was particularly so the kids can do stuff when they come round. Normally, you can not get Greg off it when he comes round, so it is something to occupy them and also a challenge for me."
