A totally insane idea that just may work...

[marshallh]

When you consider that all JPEG/GIF/PNG graphics that are downloaded have to be decompressed into a temporary buffer to be displayed, all those add up quickly. And then, most modern browsers render the whole page into a big buffer so they can smooth-scroll. That's in addition to the two framebuffers already.

Not sure what you're saying about each character being .5kb. Each ascii character takes one byte. So, just rendering text only would be pretty simple. Adding stuff like CSS, javascript, etc really kills things.

So with the expansion pak, yes it may be possible, but it would take careful programming and probably nowhere near the experience of a modern browser.

All of this is, assuming, you can create a hardware network interface (which would cost close to $100 for each low-run prototype).

[Bibin]

First of,, there's no USB on N64, so that's completely out of question.

Who said it would be a connection on the console? The SNES has no Game Boy cart slot but it can play them using the Super Game Boy. I assume the network adapter would be built into the cartridge.

For thoroughness, that wasn't a "GameBoy port" but rather an entire gameboy inside a cartridge that piped the video to the SNES.

[Mario]

When you consider that all JPEG/GIF/PNG graphics that are downloaded have to be decompressed into a temporary buffer to be displayed, all those add up quickly. And then, most modern browsers render the whole page into a big buffer so they can smooth-scroll. That's in addition to the two framebuffers already.

Not sure what you're saying about each character being .5kb. Each ascii character takes one byte. So, just rendering text only would be pretty simple. Adding stuff like CSS, javascript, etc really kills things.

So with the expansion pak, yes it may be possible, but it would take careful programming and probably nowhere near the experience of a modern browser.

All of this is, assuming, you can create a hardware network interface (which would cost close to $100 for each low-run prototype).

Does the N64 have built-in text support? I though text had to be textures?

What about a simple HTML renderer - No images, no java, CSS or any of that, just pure HTML.

[marshallh]

Does the N64 have built-in text support? I though text had to be textures?

What about a simple HTML renderer - No images, no java, CSS or any of that, just pure HTML.

Nothing is really built-in For purely 2d applications, Nintendo has a sprite microcode - but it would be much easier just to write 2d data straight to the framebuffer. You only need to render text as textured rectangles if you're wanting to apply 3d operations to them in real time. It's way easier to render text that way.

Just a simple HTML renderer would be feasible, but boring. You're right though, bitmaps of the entire character set'd have to be stored in RDRAM also. If you wanted to render fixed-size raster text (say, 7x15 pixels) and in 1-bit it wouldn't take too much storage.

Now code it

[Mario]

Now I just need to set aside 2 years of my life for this and we'll be all good...

Like I said, give me a while!

[ME225]

theres also this thing called the Nintendo 64DD ("DD" being short for "Disk Drive") it had keyboard and mouse input and had a custom web browser.

[jleemero]

Yeah, you're talking about old RANDnet, it's been mentioned already.

[Skyone]

Not sure about the practicality of this all, as it would take quite a few steps to get anything recognizable going. Any particular reason you decided on such a project?

[HotDog-Cart]

Just go with a dreamcast. xD

[themadhacker]

Just go with a dreamcast. xD

seconed

[Skyone]

Just go with a COMPUTER.

[Mario]

Not sure about the practicality of this all, as it would take quite a few steps to get anything recognizable going. Any particular reason you decided on such a project?

I showed my N64p to my friend and he said it'd be so cool if it could go on the internet, and I said it might be possible. Once he planted that idea in my head, I couldn't get it out. But I really doubt I'd be able to do it, I just wanted to know the do-ability of it.

[XCVG]

Here's an idea- build a PCp! No, I don't mean the drug. I mean a portable PC. Nvidia's Ion platform would be ideal and it's coming out soon.

[jleemero]

Here's an idea- build a PCp! No, I don't mean the drug. I mean a portable PC. Nvidia's Ion platform would be ideal and it's coming out soon.

I'll call it a "Notebook".
What an incredible and original idea!

[XCVG]

No, I mean a handheld. It's been done but it epic failed because technology wasn't good enough.