As an 80s kid, I remember the excitement I got when I received a Nintendo for Christmas. I can’t say why, but I simply had the desire to make a wooden Nintendo NES game. My Nintendo is long gone, but I was able to buy a game cartridge for dirt cheap. It wasn’t the exact game that I wanted to make so I found a store that sold reproductions of Nintendo game labels. You can truly find anything online! In this case, I’m making a version of the Superman NES game.

Using the old Nintendo game as reference, I measured all the dimensions using calipers. I wanted my game to be as close to the real thing. The one thing that I did change is that I made the details on the game, such as the arrow, deeper so they are more pronounced. I spent some time modeling the game for my CNC. It took about 2hrs to route out, utilizing three different bits during the process. A bit of sanding and cleanup work and the game cartridge was all set

I scanned the Superman label using the highest settings I could scan and spent some time in Photoshop. I had to make sure that the label was to scale. I cut out Superman and his title. I also cut out all the letters in the Superman title, but they were so tiny that it wasn’t worth adding them.

With the label, Superman, and the title images created, I used my Glowforge laser to engrave and cut out the pieces. This was actually the most time-consuming part. I put the images in Inkscape, converted them into vectors, and then traced the outlines of each piece. I placed the image over the outline, giving me two parts: the image that I want to engrave, and the vector that I want to cut out.

At this point, it was trial and error on the engraving settings. The label itself was pretty straight forward. I engraved it on some 1/4” thick Baltic birch plywood. As you can tell in the video, I made multiple versions of Superman, playing around with the power, speed, and lines per inch until I could get the best detail possible. These Nintendo game labels didn’t always have the best resolution. I used 1/8” thick maple for Superman. After he was engraved and cut out, I cleaned off any residue using denatured alcohol and then very lightly sanded him to bring out the highlights in his face, hands, and logo on his chest. The Superman title was pretty easy to make. I engraved it on some 1/8” thick sapele. I chose sapele because it’s naturally red, like the title on the label. Superman and the title were glued to the label, and then placed into the game cartridge.

I wanted to make a stand for the game. I routed out a groove under the game that mirrors the insert on the real game. Then, I planed down some walnut until it fit inside my groove. I thought it would be cool if the game tilted back a bit so I cut a strip of the wood at an angle and glued that to a walnut base. To finish up the project, I added some wipe-on varnish.

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