An idea for a project for the master portablizers.

Tojso · Post by **Tojso** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:58 pm

I've seen a lot of portable Nintendo consoles that were custom made by members of this forum. I respect you and envy you at the same time.

My idea is to combine them all into a single handheld. (ie NES, GameBoy, SNES, N64, GameBoy Advance, and the Dual Screen, possibly GameCube as well.)

I admit that I have no knowledge of how to even start this kind of project, but I am hoping some of you will.

I understand that the components of some of the large systems (N64, SNES, NES) may not allow this kind of thing to be portable, so I'm also wondering if emulators would work just as well.

The look would be extremly similar to joedog86's design from Youtube (I'm sure he goes by a different name here.), but would have a port for an N64 controller extension that plugs into the bottom of the system to simulate an N64 controller. (Not the whole thing, just the A, B, and Z buttons and a GameCube control stick, since N64's isn't as good. It could use the SNES's X, Y, A, and B buttons as C-Buttons.

The actual screen could be the touch screen from a DS and have a port for a second, normal screen at the top to simulate a DS. (I'll explain later why it should be the touch screen.)

It could have other ports for N64 controllers, SNES controllers, NES controllers, USB ports, and GameLink cables for multiplayer.

It could also have headphone jacks, audio and video output jacks so you could hook it up to a TV. (Again, similar to joedog86's design.)

There could be accessory wires that connect two of these systems together by one of the controller ports and that it recognizes another system involved.

Now I know there isn't enough space to handle all of that and be able to insert all those carts and still be portable, but another accessory could be some sort of triangular platform that that reads or rips ROMs from the cartridge games and loads them to the hard drive of the system. (4-8 GB should be more than enough)

Similar to this fashion:
----------------------------
SNES
---------------------
NES
---------------
N64
---------
GB(A)
----
DS

(Imagine an isoceles triangle please.)

I don't know if that ^ last bit is even possible, but I think it'd be worth a shot.

The start-up menu interface could be a folder that's labeled according to system and hold appropriate emulators and ROMs. The stylus from a DS could use the touch screen to select emulators, ROMs and play DS games. You could also be able to use the D-pad or contol stick to navigate and use the A and B buttons from the SNES to select, but I think the stylus would be the quickest.

The best name I could come up with so far is the PUN:
Portable Ultimate Nintendo.

Please post what you think about this and feel free to ask questions. I will answer to the best of my ability. Please let me know what is (im)possible.

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:31 pm

The DS isn't possible as of yet, as it's screens aren't usable until someone reverse engineers them.

Also, I know next to nothing about touchscreens, but I know that they only work if there is software is designed for them. And I know that none of the consoles have that.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:44 pm

I think you'd be better off getting some kind of dedicated emulator to handle all those systems.

Tojso · Post by **Tojso** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:49 pm

I guess this is more of an idea for Nintendo to market.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:21 am

If you're willing to use emulators for some of them then there are two choices you have. One is buy a laptop, you can emulate just about every system on your list. The second option is buy a Wii and make it portable.

The second option give you the hardware backward compatibility with GameCube, and I'm sure there are emulators being written that will let you play NES/SNES/N64/Gameboy games. The only thing I don't think you can get would be the DS.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:26 am

Sparkfist wrote:If you're willing to use emulators for some of them then there are two choices you have. One is buy a laptop, you can emulate just about every system on your list. The second option is buy a Wii and make it portable.

The second option give you the hardware backward compatibility with GameCube, and I'm sure there are emulators being written that will let you play NES/SNES/N64/Gameboy games. The only thing I don't think you can get would be the DS.

I know SNES is already written, NES is probably written, N64 is VERY slow, and I don't know about gameboy but its probably written. down side- you have to use the wiimote to start the crap (unless the third-party firmware supports gamecube controllers or what not, but that firmware still has quite a bit of work before its ready)

so for now, i'd stick with some kind of miniature computer, but I don't think it would have to be a laptop, one of those tiny PCs would probably work.

Rekarp · Post by **Rekarp** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:30 am

easy solution. portabilize a Wii.

Tojso · Post by **Tojso** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:00 am

The main reason I would want this made is that the Wii does not and will not have all their titles on the VC. Besides, portablizing a Wii doesn't sound practical because you have to start a game with the motion sensor.

A laptop would seem practical, but I was looking for a gaming only sort of thing. You turn it on, you see the folders of the consoles, you select which one you want to play, and start the emulator. From the emulator you choose the ROM.

Also, a laptop doesn't offer the same level of multiplayer that this would, if done right. For the laptop, you would need at least five USB ports: one for the mouse, four for the N64 multiplayer controllers. That's not easy to come by.

I guess the real miracle of technology would be to make the ROM ripping triangle mentioned in my first post.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:26 am

With the laptop there are a few solutions. One is that you can use the touch pad or stick or roller ball for the mouse. For the USB, if needed you can get a hub, it's not pretty but it will work.

As for making it simply a gaming computer, there is MAME Knoppix. It's a Linux distribution that is very light-weight, and had a ton of emulators, and ease of adding ROMs.

I don't know how much they've improved the N64 emulators, and I don't know if they've made a GameCube one, but all others should be good.

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:55 am

It's a cool idea, but man that would be one major headache figuring out how to build it.

I'm glad you liked my design for the SNES portable

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:11 pm

Tojso wrote: Also, a laptop doesn't offer the same level of multiplayer that this would, if done right. For the laptop, you would need at least five USB ports: one for the mouse, four for the N64 multiplayer controllers. That's not easy to come by.

Easy to get, most USB hubs have 4 ports and only take up one USB port on the laptop, which means all you need is 2 USB ports on the laptop itself. Also, a mouse isn't required as nearly all laptops come with a pointing device built-in, or there are even laptops with touchscreens.

I guess the real miracle of technology would be to make the ROM ripping triangle mentioned in my first post.

Not really, multiple game rippers are certainly doable. The real hard part is just having all the consoles crammed into a small enough space to be considered portable, and wiring up the multiple cartridge emulator(s).

Sparkfist wrote:I don't know how much they've improved the N64 emulators, and I don't know if they've made a GameCube one, but all others should be good.

I've seen N64 emulators running on the Asus EEE PC 70x, so that should be no trouble for any modern laptop (not based on the C7 anyway). Gamecube emulators do exist, but require a pretty beefy machine to run at playable speed.

Tojso · Post by **Tojso** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:29 pm

Sure I would love to see this thing be built, but this is an idea for a project. I was trying to spark something that was out-of-the-ordinary but may still be doable.

I had already known a laptop could handle all of this; I just think it'd cool to have a handheld with the capability to most, if not all, of the retro Nintendo titles.

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:06 pm

Tojso wrote:Sure I would love to see this thing be built, but this is an idea for a project. I was trying to spark something that was out-of-the-ordinary but may still be doable.

Not particularly out-of-the-ordinary, there have been multi-console portables(2-3 systems) and even massive multi-console non-portables (several systems). You still managed to spark some conversation, though, so I guess you had a partial success.

I had already known a laptop could handle all of this; I just think it'd cool to have a handheld with the capability to most, if not all, of the retro Nintendo titles.

Beefier UMPC and MID devices can/will be able to do this, and then there's the grass-root made Pandora handheld that should be able to handle up to N64 (after optimizations).