Can somebody build me a Nintendo 64 Portable?

Gibson382 · Post by **Gibson382** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:17 pm

I'm not that smart, and if I try making one on my own, I'm sure I'll find myself wasting a lot of time and money. I don't want to spend more than about 70 dollars though, due to my lack of money all the time. Anyone want to help out a fellow idiot?

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:48 pm

$70? I suppose you want to buy an Enzo Ferrari for $1000, too?
Seriously, $70 in the best case scenario will barely cover the parts. Expect to pay at least $200, and thats for just a N64 and a screen shoved in a box, $300+ if you want quality.

Gibson382 · Post by **Gibson382** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:07 pm

Well I'm never too high with funds, also with the research I did, about 80-100 dollars would cover the parts to a basic N64 port. I can afford the parts but I dont want to mess anything up. >.<

hack124x768 · Post by **hack124x768** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:47 pm

Gibson382 wrote:Well I'm never too high with funds, also with the research I did, about 80-100 dollars would cover the parts to a basic N64 port. I can afford the parts but I dont want to mess anything up. >.<

These things take a lot of work to make. I get $50/hour fixing computers, and making portables is a lot harder.

johnbjuice · Post by **johnbjuice** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:53 pm

Yeah. I'd say $200 is the lowest you could go, and that'd get you a screen strapped to an N64 and a battery. I'd go for something more quality, which won't break. That would probably go for an upwards of $300-400.

Sorry - these things aren't cheap.

- Juice

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:23 am

PSone screen (PAL, I live in UK) will cost about Â£30, N64 and controller about Â£12 (if using official controller), case materials (plastic, wood, glue, etc) Â£10, wiring and solder about Â£10-Â£15, soldering iron (they don't last forever) Â£5, tact switches to work alongside official buttons Â£1 - parts alone, assuming you have all the tools you need including a TI board or car adaptor, would cost about Â£70-Â£80, doing it on the cheap (about $140-$160); assuming also you don't fry an N64 board, as often seems to happen. It will also take at the very least 20 hours to make one, unless you do something fancy (like my project, which took more like 250-300 hours or so to make and had many more components). No-one will make one for free, if charging for time, even at a measly $10 an hour, you would be paying at the least $400 for an N64p (plus battery pack if using one).

illustriouschin · Post by **illustriouschin** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:23 am

hack124x768 wrote:
Gibson382 wrote:Well I'm never too high with funds, also with the research I did, about 80-100 dollars would cover the parts to a basic N64 port. I can afford the parts but I dont want to mess anything up. >.<
These things take a lot of work to make. I get $50/hour fixing computers, and making portables is a lot harder.

Is your hour honestly worth $50? how can you say that with a straight face, what a joke. you know you just screw around most of the time. pricing gouging is disgusting.

at this thread, you got to be kidding, $200 to strap a screen to a 64 with battery? the only sadder part about you guys having no concept of the value of a dollar is the idiots that pay for your crap. perhaps a little more honesty would be cool, you should explain that you are catering specifically to morons.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:32 am

are you kidding?
You know how much work a portable takes?
And the parts aren't cheap either. Check out bacterias thread for example, he has 30 pages of documentation, and he isn't even adding batteries!

dudex77 · Post by **dudex77** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 6:08 am

illustriouschin wrote:at this thread, you got to be kidding, $200 to strap a screen to a 64 with battery? the only sadder part about you guys having no concept of the value of a dollar is the idiots that pay for your crap. perhaps a little more honesty would be cool, you should explain that you are catering specifically to morons.

Go copulate yourself and leave the forum now. Prices for portables are reasonable here and if you won't respect that a lot of time and effort goes into making any portable leave. I have yet to make a working portable but from when I had started projects that never got finished I can respect the prices that are charged for a portable. Think of it this way, a PSP is manufactured in large numbers by machines and costs around 200 dollars. These portables that people make here are all hand made and take a lot of time and money to create, so getting one for $200 is quite cheap. Sorry to explode on you in that first sentence but I'm not changing what I've already written because you disgust me.

Post by **Skyone** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 6:17 am

illustriouschin wrote:at this thread, you got to be kidding, $200 to strap a screen to a 64 with battery? the only sadder part about you guys having no concept of the value of a dollar is the idiots that pay for your crap. perhaps a little more honesty would be cool, you should explain that you are catering specifically to morons.

I think the post you're referring to was fairly sarcastic, but either way; the prices of portables around these parts is much too cheap. Good portablizers take up to 60 hours of work on their masterpiece, and given that you expect portables to only be around 400 bucks, that's only 6.50 an hour.

I'd much rather work at Burger King or perhaps Chipotle.

nc · Post by nc » Sat Oct 27, 2007 6:48 am

Is your hour honestly worth $50? how can you say that with a straight face, what a joke. you know you just screw around most of the time. pricing gouging is disgusting.

at this thread, you got to be kidding, $200 to strap a screen to a 64 with battery? the only sadder part about you guys having no concept of the value of a dollar is the idiots that pay for your crap. perhaps a little more honesty would be cool, you should explain that you are catering specifically to morons.

And that little outburst is really going to help you get someone to make one.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 8:36 am

I dont even think that would cover parts under most circumstances

here is what mine was
30$ 2N64s
30$ screen
8$ in leds (I just replaced them)

about 10$ for vac forming plastic
about 10$ for the wood I used in the mold
near 80$ for li-polys and a smart charger
I probably spent about 20$ on controllers just so I could use the GC c stick I had around and still use an original N64 controller PCB
10$ in bondo
10$ in paint

then the case by itself took most of the work I would not let one go for less the 80$
and you can go copulate yourself if you think it is fun working on N64s

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:47 am

I forgot on my quick estimate to include paint, spray paint, brushes, memory cards (took about 3 to get one to work, they are old and don't always work), rumble pack, NES controller, and some other bits too. Add about Â£25-Â£30 ($50-$60) on top of my parts only price equation.

Plus my project had other stuff too (GBA boards). I also had to buy more tools: files, dremel, two soldering irons, sandpaper, polyfiller, pliers, electrical tape, compressed air; on top of the other tools I already had. Â£Â£Â£Â£. I also spent a few hundred pounds on game carts on top of this.

My view is this: make your own portable, it isn't hard but it takes a considerable amount of time and patience. If you can't make your own, you have to pay someone's time to make and design it and test it for you IF you ask them nicely; so don't moan about paying for expertise! If it takes 50 hours to make it at $20 an hour, you pay $1000 plus parts (or whatever the rate and amount of time is required is). If it takes 20 hours for a basic one at $15 an hour you pay $300 plus parts. I would say for an N64p you would expect to pay Â£300-Â£400 ($600-$800) for something you would want to own. About the same price as a new console system. This is fair - although i'm not offering my services, just my opinion.

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:27 am

Also remember that N64s are apparently very sensitive and fry if you look at them wrong, which adds to the parts cost (more N64s) and labor cost (to re-do all the hacking on the new motherboard). Here's what I estimate for pricing, just for parts. This also doesn't include prices for case parts, nor shipping.

N64: $20 with a power adapter and controller (5 seconds of eBay searching)
PSone screen: $40 (5 second eBay search)
Battery: $25 (Radio Shack catalog no. 23-319)
Miscellaneous parts like wire, switches, and connectors: $15

Total: $100

Remember, this is just in functional parts, and assumes that everything will go perfect the first time. Frying N64s is almost an inevitability, so you will have to set aside money for at least one more. Since this is just functional parts, you'll basically get an N64 with a PSone screen epoxied to the back. If you want someone to design a case for you, this will also bump up the labor cost. Having the parts machined will cost even more.

Expect to pay at least $350 in parts for one designed like Ben's, plus a few hundred in labor (I doubt anyone here will spend all that time designing and building something for someone else for free; I know I wouldn't).

This thread reminds me of that guy who wanted someone to build him a 360 laptop in trade for a bunch of junk. ("I'll pay shipping both ways and for parts too and you can have this trumpet...")

Gibson382 · Post by **Gibson382** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:52 am

Lulz at bicostp's post.

But anyways, oh well, I tried