It doesn't use batteries, at her request -- she's an older person and has too many memories of alkaline batteries destroying electronic devices. There's room, of course, but she elected against it. I tried explaining how cool the lithium polymer batteries are, but she got on Google and found articles about them exploding when charged poorly, so there you go.
OK, so here's the specs:
System: JAKKS Ms. Pacman game. Its got Ms. Pacman, Galaga, Pole Position, Xevious, and Mappy. Pretty good selection.
Controls: Original, including the rotating control for driving in Pole Position. I had to do a lot of modding to get them oriented the way I wanted, and the reset/pause switch is a custom set up using a tac-switch, as I discarded the daughter board from the original JAKKS that has that switch, the power switch, and the like on it. The "knob" on the joystick is a Radio-Shack aluminum knob. I used a wooden dowel to "rub" off the black arrow it came with. (I needed the stick to be shorter, so I cut it off with a dremmel, and then used a file to grind a "flat" on one side of the stick so the set screw in the aftermarket knob would gain good purchase and not be susceptible to loosening up.
Screen: Zenith XBOX clone of the ubiquitous Playstation screen. Since its powered off of the power adapter anyway, I did not remove the original backlight. No need for AN LED mod.
Power: I'm using the original plug-in power-supply that came with the X-Box screen. Those of you who have these need to WATCH OUT. The power supply says its 7.5 volts, but it actually puts out 12v even under load. Totally mis-labeled. No biggie though, because the voltage regulator in the base of the X-Box screen uses a good power-regulator chip and takes it to the proper range quite nicely. (My sense is that one of the original design parameters for the Zenith X-box screen was that they assumed some unsophisticated consumer would make a pig-tail to X-Box power sources, or try to use it off a cigarette lighter in a car, so they included the quality step-down regulator on the assumption it would be plugged into 12 volts at times anyway). I did include the original X-Box regulator, though I added an extra heatsink I had lying around to the original. The JAKKS board runs reliably on 5 volts. I had picked up a dozen or so Cigarette Lighter -> cell phone power supplies, for the kind of phone that uses a USB type plug. Which means that these all include quality, small, 12v to 5v converters. Moreover, since they're designed for car power systems, they're high quality and can actually condition anything from 8 to 20 volts to 5 volts without much problem, and delivering good amperage since cell phones are chargeable devices. (Of course the JAKKS doesn't pull very much power at all).
Speakers: I used The ones that came with the screen. I did include a toggle for volume, but its not accessible except by using a "secret" opening inside. I wanted it to be as simple as possible.
Case: 1/2 Inch Plywood, cut with a jig-saw, and shaped with a router to round the edges to simulate edge molding. Lexan Polycarbonate over the control and screen surfaces (polycarbonate is less scratch prone, does not "crack" like plexi when cutting, routing, or drilling, and isn't that much more expensive. The lexan poly-carb was rounded over on the bottom of the control/screen surface to match the rounding of the wood there -- something that never would have worked on plexi-glass. On the bottom of the portable, I used an extra piece of plexi to provide a "clear" look at the innards, just for fun. Its finished off by some black felt on the bottom surfaces. The design goal for the case was to harken to the type of "shape" of the actual Ms. Pacman arcade game. I think I've done it.
Paint/Graphics: I was lucky to find "Ms. Pacman Blue" in a low odor paint from Walmart. This paint is rather lame to work with, but I did not want to have to custom mix a color or airbrush something this simple. The graphics are ink-jet printed water-slide decals, sprayed over with clear acrylic. I downloaded the graphics from an arcade side-art page, and cleaned them up, sized, and excerpted them on my computer.
External Audio/Visual: This is kinda one of the cooler parts about this, though its not much of a big deal it is rather cool. As anyone who works with the Zenith XBox screen knows, there's a "plug" between the screen and base, with 5 pins. I used this for external audio/video. The JAKKS device is mono, which meant I only needed 3 of the pins for signal use. The extra two pins I shorted together in the cable, and then used a circuit I posted in Technical which withholds power from the internal XBox screen whenever those two wires are shorted. (A normally closed relay would have the same use, though solid state is more elegant). Anyway, you plug the A/V cable into the back, and the internal screen automatically powers down. No need to throw a switch. It would be much more useful if this were a battery operated model, but I will be including the feature on future portables since I ordered a "batch" of the MOSFET chips that you use to make it work. The earphone jack was a last-minute addition, though I'm not entirely pleased with its "add on" look and feel. Oh well.
So that's it. My first portable. I've got 2 different Colecovision portables in the works, and I just finished up everything (save batteries) for my NOAC in a light gun semi-portable, so I'll post them soon.
Without further ado, here's some photos (starting with a full-sized cabinet which is the overall design inspiration).
