hah as soon as I saw that I came here to see if there would be more info. idk, i think it's awesome. Circuit Bent 80's electronics can be fun to mess around with.
I uh... watched the youtubes on that auction. I'm trying to figure out what part is awesome... lol. I can see slowing down the clock would be a good cheat, but the rest? I'm just lost. The hardware itself looks cool, though.
Well in a video game playing context, it is useless as this is not meant to enhance that experience. But when it comes to art (sound art, video, performance art, etc), this modified system becomes a unique vehicle to use the graphics from TG16 games as the basis for an art piece. As someone who not only loves retro video games, but also has a passion for glitchy art installations, this modified system is very exciting to me.
...but not for $499, lbr.
also, if you search around the internet for circuit bent items, you'll find that it is fairly common for toy keyboards and misc 80's electronic toys to have been manipulated outside of their original intended use. It is not always for artistic purposes, sometimes it's just for fun, and other times it is to enhance the original experience of using the equipment (i.e the pxl-2000 pixelvision camera).
In the experimental music community, it is also common to see musicians tinkering with circuit bent casio keyboards, guitar pedals, or the ever popular Speak And Spell. I'm starting to sound like wikipedia, so I'll shutup now!
