Pocket Marines!

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:26 am

This seems excellent so far. The only thing I'd change is, well, the controls. I'm just so used to using a mouse for FPSes, and for a dedicated Quake player, I'd prefer integrating a mini trackball or something. Like this thing. But I'm just picky.

Unidentified Assilant · Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:52 pm

Good luck, but are you sure you can get a PC that small?

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:05 am

This seems excellent so far. The only thing I'd change is, well, the controls. I'm just so used to using a mouse for FPSes, and for a dedicated Quake player, I'd prefer integrating a mini trackball or something. Like this thing. But I'm just picky.

That was my first thought. I generally suck at FPS (which is ironic that I'm building a handheld to play one) with a game pad. Since it's portable I can't use a mouse, and a trackball is outta the question cause I'd be even worst with that.... Under my original design (from back in 2003) I was going to have a track ball... I was gonna Do it myself

Currently it's a lot thicker than I'd like to to be, but I have a huge heat sink attached to the CPU. I'm trying to find a better cooling solution (I don't care about noise anymore) and laptop fans aren't something I can easily find (Then again I'm lazy) the last fan I bought cost me a ridiculous amount of $15... My normal computer supply store shut down and I'm trying to play scavenger hunt online. :/

Things are still progressing.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:16 am

MrTroy wrote:Since it's portable I can't use a mouse, and a trackball is outta the question cause I'd be even worst with that.

I can understand that. Though, for me, the first time I used a trackball (the thumb kind, not the huge kind) it was as natural as a normal mouse. Not quite as good, but better than a joystick.

By the way, I realize it's a portable and a mouse is generally out of the question, but what about a mini optical mouse? You could still have the gamepad for use most of the time, but plug the mouse in the spare USB port when you feel like it. Optical mice will work on just about any surface, like your knee or something. Just a thought.

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:56 am

It died! What the hell man. I spent a lot of time waiting for my USB ports to come in and I went to boot up and boom, no power. (My power supply is now shot and I have to wait for another.) So... I was like OK I'll move on to standard power... Then boom. Screen goes out. I guess trying crazy stuff with a standard TV screen shouldn't have been tried, seeing as how I'm new to this whole electronics thing. Something was wired wrong and instead of properly testing, I blew out my 19 inch TV as well.

Well I gotta hold out for another power supply(I'm broke right now, Anyone wanna buy a FC Twin?) before I can start working again. And I'm gonna have to use a bigger screen (I guess it's best to go with something that everyone knows works, huh?

)

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 7:56 am

Ok, so after blowing out my powersupply I've ordered another one. I have to completely revamp the design and go along with a bigger design. Reason? Well I need to stop trying to use a portable TV and just go ahead and use a VGA screen. My power supply didn't like how much juice I was sending through and shorted almost everything (The board still works, go fig). I was going to try and use a PSOne screen. But then I'm afraid I may do the same exact thing again.

It's gonna take a little bit of planning. But this project is far from dead.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 8:11 am

A PSone screen seems like your best bet. I had one running off a shoddy linear-regulator power supply I cobbled together myself back when I was trying for a PCp, and nothing bad happened (I dare say it almost kinda worked, too).

The power supply in your first couple pictures should not have had any difficulty with a portable TV. It could only have been a short somewhere, or a wiring mistake.

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:43 am

I was attempting to send it through an RGB -> Composite converter. And I was tapping everything off of the same power lines. Of course being a rookie at electricity I did prolly make a wiring mistake. Set me back a lot. I'm rethinking how I'm going to do things.

Can the PSOne screen run direct X stuff in full screen mode? I was reading that it can only run in windowed mode.

Billybb347 · Post by **Billybb347** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:39 pm

This might be a-little late but theres something called Filpstart that does exactly what u are trying to do and is $2000.
http://flipstart.com/#office

If you click on the top question mark it shows the "Laptop" playing Quake II or III, I'm not familiar as to which one though.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Tue May 08, 2007 2:35 pm

There are many such ultra-portable PC's on the market, but all of them are very expensive.

The idea here is that you could make one tailored to your needs and save $1000+ in the process.

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Thu May 10, 2007 3:14 pm

After all of the money I blew and things I broke I'm still not near $1000. My biggest problem is trying to keep the screen around 2-3 inches to fit it in a small case.

Besides if I wanted a laptop I'd pick up one of those 12" screen dells. The fun is in the building.

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 11:50 am

One month later and I finally got my new motherboard. I'm going to approach this differently this time. I'm going to try and use a TV natively as opposed to that nonsense I was trying before with using a VGA->Composite converter. My new motherboard arrived 3 days ago and I swear I wanted to tell you guys about it! But alas I finally got the time to actually do something with it. So I took a picture(with my new cell phone camera)

I still have my same gamepad to hack up, but having slide analog sticks like the PSP has so far failed... I'm going to have to see what else I can come up with. The size is already looking pretty chunky so I may just ignore the fact that it can't fit in my normal sized pants pockets and throw regular analog sticks on it. Sucks though.

I'll keep you all updated.

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 10:18 am

I think it's about time I post again with my progress. I've been installing xp on this thing for the past few hours, I'm stuck using Compact Flash instead of my laptop drive but... hopefully that'll give me more battery life. Speaking of which I still haven't fixed my power supply (or gotten a new one)... so I'm gonna have to get everything else working.... cept the portable part :-\

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 1:20 pm

Long time no see friends. I am still working on my PCp. But between working with artist and promoting, finding a better job and new apartment, my PCp has been neglected. So yesterday for the first time in weeks, I cranked the ol' girl up... Or should I say tried. I finally got that pico power supply that I wanted, but unfortunately the specs weren't as strong as I thought they were.

The lil mini power cable doesn't work. It said for low power devices, and my motherboard is low power. Everything seemed like it added up, but no dice. So now, I'm back to square one. Trying to find the perfect power supply. I don't care if all it can do is convert 12V to the 12/5 rails that I need, as long as it's small enough.

Running Windows XP from this CF stinks. I need either a faster CF or I need to run windows 98. I think I'll try both and see how things work out.

DK · Post by DK » Fri Sep 07, 2007 3:30 pm

I'd advise agenst the use of CF cards, they have a low re-write life. Go for a hard drive, might use a bit more power, but at least it'll last.

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