portable mame?

[dpr23usa]

Hey All,

I have been a long time mamer and would love to come up with some kind of portable solution for my train rides to work each morning. I have seen a few people get early games like pacman to run on a kodak digital camera, but I am looking for something that can handle some of the "heavier" games (mortal kombat, simpsons, etc). And I know that some pocket pc and palm units can play some games, but again, I am looking for better compatibility.

I know that it basically is going to come down to some type of PC, but I don't have a lot of experience in building handhelds. I am amazed at some of the work I have seen so far. You guys are AWESOME!!

I don't have a lot of cash on hand right now, but should get some in the coming months. I have a lot PC building/rebuilding experience too. Any help is greatly appreciate! Thanks!!

Mike

[bicostp]

www.mini-itx.com

Really small PC motherboards, if you don't mind overseas shipping...

I suppose you could hook one of these up with a Playstation 1 screen (the board puts out a composite signal) and build it all in a case...

[cennar]

www.mini-itx.com

Really small PC motherboards, if you don't mind overseas shipping...

I suppose you could hook one of these up with a Playstation 1 screen (the board puts out a composite signal) and build it all in a case...

I dont think your going to want to try and make that if you have never made any thing before. if you want to play Mortal Kombat why not build a Snes portable, or look in to a gamepark, but if you think you can handle it try and get a hold of nano insead of a mini the nanos will be out shortly and there only 12cm wide. (plus there way better on power)

[SgtBowhack]

Yeah, I think the GP32 is the way to go... for the moment. Once they get stuff running on PSP though, it might be different (since it's way more powerful than the GP32). If you want something right now though, the GP32 is out and available and does wonders. And uses cheap SmartMedia cards (well, they're only cheap if you run out and buy them ASAP, since SM is a dead format)

[dpr23usa]

Hey guys,

Yeah I saw some posts about the nano and it looks pretty sweet.

I want MAME instead of SNES or others because of other games. MK was just an example. There are several other games I want to play that never made it out of the arcades.

As far as the GP32, been there - done that. I have one a while back and it is the same problem - not enough support for the games I play.

Well maybe once the nanos come out I will give those a try. Thanks!


Mike

[*o*]

[offtopic]Cennar why did you close your site it was cool[/offtopic]

[SgtBowhack]

Well, the GP32 is pretty much your best shot regardless- the other stuff really isn't too suitable for portable gaming. Even if you do get the nano-ITX up and running, you're not gonna be able to do it in a nice size with controls and all of that, I don't think. I'd say once the PSP stuff gets going though, you might be in business I think current PSPs are able to play executable stuff from the Memory Stick Duo slot, which might be Sony's undoing if someone can figure out how to copy UMDs and run those games from the MS Duo slot...
But anyway, back to the topic at hand. The GP32 has pretty excellent support compared to most things out there. You might want to look at things like the Transmeta Crusoe-based laptops and things like that that are small enough to carry around, offer full PC compatibility, etc. Maybe when someone starts producing laptops with the nano-ITX boards we'll see some nice things happening, but I kinda doubt it (I mean, laptop motherboards were already that small in some cases, really).

[Unidentified Assilant]

They're is such thing as MameDC (or some variant), so, buy a Dreamcast, and make a portable with that instead (just a suggestion, but a Nano Handheld would rock (UT on the go!))

[tom61]

I know that it basically is going to come down to some type of PC, but I don't have a lot of experience in building handhelds. I am amazed at some of the work I have seen so far. You guys are AWESOME!!

I don't have a lot of cash on hand right now, but should get some in the coming months. I have a lot PC building/rebuilding experience too. Any help is greatly appreciate! Thanks!!

Any electronics experience? That would help you a lot more than just plugging circuit cards together 'PC Building' experience. Are you good with 3D concepts? Cramming things in a small box means laying parts out in three dimensions.

Depending on how much money/effort you're willing to put into this, a embedded motherboard would work well. Search ebay for 'PC 104' and 'embedded pc', and you should be able to find some. EBX formfactor seems to be well suited if you plan on using a PSOne screen (preferably through RGB, by taking down the horizontal refresh rate on the VGA output), as the form-factor is typically fairly powerful (I have one that can take a P3) and fairly cheap. About the same width as a Game Gear, and the same height as a PSOne screen.

definitely check out www.mp3car.com , as they have lots of information on building small PC systems and pointing devices. I plan to surf the web with the one I'm building, so I wanted to have a track-point nub (like on IBM laptops), and found one that was stand-alone on that forum.

About the only thing they don't go into much is batteries, as they're taking power from the car battery/alternator. Which is why I hang out here.