Missing the nostalgic tactility of VHS? Bring it back with this elegant DIY project using NFC and ESPhome

Nostalgia makes people do crazy things in an effort to rekindle that feeling of warmth from the past. We see all sorts of mods around nostalgic tech, especially for enjoying old media like the swathes of retro consoles I saw at Collect Fest last weekend. A lot of this is about celebrating physical media for the certainty it brings us in ownership, and also for the memories it evokes.

That's not just limited to gaming. Right next to the muscle memory for blowing into a NES cartridge before a game, lives the feeling of inserting VHS tape in preparation for home cinema experience. One person who missed this feeling more than most is Dillan Stock of The Stock Pot, who has put together a project that puts a modern spin on the old video tape machines.

The NFC and ESPHome powered device was featured by Hackaday thanks to the incredibly well thought out design of the project. It uses custom designed 3D cartridges housing NFC tags to trigger the NFC reader and ESP32 sitting inside the equally bespoke reader. If programmed correctly, this will then call that content from whatever server you point it to and play it. The experience is attempting to recreate that feel of putting a VHS tape inside the player as a way to trigger content to play.

It's not a particularly complicated setup, nor is it that much like a VHS player, but it's the beauty that sells it. Those cartridges for instance, were specially designed to print in two pieces and then snap together to avoid wasting support material or glue. They also are the perfect ratio to sport the relevant movie poster front and centre, revealing the secrets of their enclosed NFC chip.

The player also holds well thought out secrets. At first glance, it's unassuming both inside and out, thanks to the tiny amount of tech it actually needs to hold to work. But nifty features like a purpose built setting for the ESPHome as well as springs to give it some tactile approximation of VHS use elevate it to a super nifty device.

I also enjoy that because it's using ESPHome you could make carts to do heaps more than play movies, it could be a game launching machine, or do basically anything else your smart home needs could want. You could have a cart that controls your washing machine if you want to.

For those who are inspired to do their own nostalgic tinkering after watching the video at the top of the page, The Stock Pot has a complete blog post explaining the whole process including a materials hub and GhitHub repository. There you can even grab the files for those 3D printables, though sadly, they won't have that classic VHS smell.