I'd just like to get clarification on a few things before I have some work done on my NES

As I understand having an s-video card added to the machine is allowed and that's currently my plan

I also understand that anything that directly effects the performance of the machine such as over clocking the cpu is not allowed as it's providing a direct advantage to your run.

What about doing something like modifying the location of the power and reset buttons on the unit? The machine I'm working on is a front loaded NES and I've always had bad luck with hitting the rest or power on it several times over a few hours. Ideally I want to modify a controller so that it has power and reset buttons on it and not the console. That way when I hit them I'm not jostling the console itself should I press the buttons too hard.

There are no rules that apply to all games site-wide. You need to ask the communities of the games you intend to run.

As long as it doesn't affect gameplay in any way it should be alright. But as emeraldaly said, you should always ask the game mods before.

The NES community is fairly cohesive. I think a general answer would be appropriate for most NES games. For example, we all know that adding s-video is allowed. We all know that over clocking is not allowed. Changing the location of the power button is likely not something that would be different from game to game. It would definitely be a good idea to ask an NES-head directly on social media, if you can.

I've been summoned.

I've never heard of anyone doing this, but the generally accepted answer is more of a philosophical one: if it doesn't allow you to do anything that can't be done on stock hardware, than it should be allowed. It is this rule that disallows turbo controllers on almost all consoles and overclocking your NES (which is something I've never actually heard of anyone doing). So to apply the same logic to the issue of moving the power/reset buttons to a controller, (in my opinion) as long as it isn't giving you an advantage with a game perhaps that would have you mash the reset button quickly or something (not that I've ever heard of that being a thing, just giving an example) and is purely for your own convenience, I'd say go for it.

What author said basically. If it doesn't effect game play in any way then it's pretty much fine. I like the idea of having reset on the controller but I'd worry too much about hitting it while playing lol.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll continue to ask around but for now I think I'm going to make the modification. I'll post pics when its done.

The button mod begins https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx7RDgF3x4eMY2k0LVdrbVYwN1E/view?usp=sharing (is there a better way of posting pics on this site?)

I'm using a usb port to plug in the power and reset buttons. This will be mounted next to the controller port and hopefully no one will get the idea of charging their phone from my NES or they'll take 12 volts over their data bus. The reset and power switch I found on an old modem and will be mounted on the controller when I'm done.

If you upload the images to a site like imagebin, then you can post the direct link here, and the image will show within your post.