Conceptual Thinking: Post your ideas here.

[Sir Games-A-Lot]

Couldn't you just jury rig something with a 7805 regulator and some batteries or am I talking out the wrong end of my anatomy?

Most handheld electronics do not have the USB host chipset, so they can only act as a USB peripheral connected to some other thing (such as a PC or laptop).

I was just addressing that fact that it couldn't supply the 5VDC that totokan mentioned.

http://www.ratocsystems.com/english/pro ... cfu1u.html
There is this thingy, I guess you'd have to write your own driver though. Who knows?

And I seem to remember an external wireless controller specifically for pocket pc's.

Wait here it is: http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/review ... d-en.shtml

and for the slightly braver:
http://www.hackaday.com/2005/12/20/nes- ... pocket-pc/

[tom61]

If you're wanting powered USB host, look into Toshiba Pocket PCs. Nearly all Toshibas have USB host, and there are already drivers on the web for using gamepads with them.

I've got a Toshiba e350 and the host cable. Neat little setup, though I'm having trouble with USB mass storage devices (like thumbdrives) on mine. Around $50 for the PDA, and $5 for the host cable.

1) MAME requires way to much power for a PPC

MAME really shouldn't be considered a single emulator. Each game that it emulates has different requirements. There are games that 3GHz boxes can't emulate at full speed, and then there are those that can run 100% no frameskip on a Pentium 200MHz (probably lower, but I haven't kept up with the updates of older games).

2) PPC's don't have powered USB, which you would need for a controller.

You're probably thinking the Nokia 770 or the GP2X, as all Pocket PCs that I know of with USB host have powered ports (most Toshiba models, Casio E200, etc.).

[Triton]

the mk2 gp2x has 5v powered usb host but that would really suck your batteries down, all gp2x have usb host capability its pretty nifty, and its the reason i need resistors (hence the tradin post topic)

[bicostp]

How about running audio and video through ethernet cable?

Since Cat5 cable has 8 wires, it can hold 4 signals and a ground for each. This would support up to S-Video, I think.

There would be an RJ-45 connector in the portable, and a "base unit" with another one wired up to a set of RCA jacks. You could then plug a common RCA cable into this box and hook up to a TV.

If you use composite you could even use the remaining 2 wires to turn off the screen automatically when the cable is plugged into both the base and the portable. (Maybe even add a switch to the base unit to disable this feature if you want?)

I put together a better description <a href="http://bicostp.portablesofdoom.org/AVoC5/" target="_blank">here</a>.

[totokan]

How about that nifty ti84 USB flash drive driver over at ticalc.org ? That's pretty nifty....

[vskid]

How about running audio and video through ethernet cable?

Since Cat5 cable has 8 wires, it can hold 4 signals and a ground for each. This would support up to S-Video, I think.

There would be an RJ-45 connector in the portable, and a "base unit" with another one wired up to a set of RCA jacks. You could then plug a common RCA cable into this box and hook up to a TV.

If you use composite you could even use the remaining 2 wires to turn off the screen automatically when the cable is plugged into both the base and the portable. (Maybe even add a switch to the base unit to disable this feature if you want?)

I put together a better description <a href="http://bicostp.portablesofdoom.org/AVoC5/" target="_blank">here</a>.

Couldn't you have all the grounds combined? Or are the wire too small?

[Indigno]

Remember, when using an emulator, think of the 10X rule. The processor emulating must be at least 10 times faster than the native processor. A PPC these days is in the 400-500 mhz range (I believe, I'm not too experienced with them, but one my dad has from 4 years ago is about 233-333 ish). And most older games start at arounf 5-15 mhz (as that's all they do)... So, by that logic, you should be able to run quite a bit of the MAME games fine. Although, it will struggle with stuff like Soul Calibur and a bunch of newer games, especially 3d ones.

[Gump-in-space]

I had a good idea once that would be pretty cool.

My parents have a 100 CD changer/player and I thought "hmmm... it would be awesome if a game system could hold 100 CDs at once!" All I would have to do is replace the Cd player inside with a game system of my choice, and when I want to play, I look at the number chart and find the number of the game I want, then press the rotate button untill I find it, then press play. The robotic arm places it on the spindle of the system and I play. Oh, and what if it was an arcade cabinet! That would rock!