Teeny tiny arcade machine?

[ArugulaZ]

So here's what I was thinking. You know those handheld games Coleco sold in the early 1980s that looked like really small arcade cabinets? They were really cool conversation pieces, but the only problem is that they only LOOKED like arcade cabinets... the games didn't follow suit.

What I'd like to do is to replace the old LCD game in one of these systems with modern hardware, capable of running MAME. It doesn't have to be cutting edge; the hardware just needs enough pep to run arcade games from the early to mid 1980s.

That opens up a wealth of options, but here's the tricky part... the Coleco tabletops have a vertical orientation, so the screen would need that same aspect ratio. So the only systems that would fit the bill are those old touchscreen Pocket PCs and the N-Gage.

I've tried emulation on a couple of Pocket PCs, and it's been varying degrees of underwhelming. The Compaq iPaq runs NES games well enough, but trying to play them with the built-in keypad is an exercise in frustration since only one button press can be read at a time. The Cassiopeia was a lost cause, running MAME at the speed of slug. There's no way it could capture that arcade experience with a frame rate like that!

This just leaves me with the N-Gage. I have one of these little paperweights; the little QD model, and was wondering how well suited it would be to a project like this. There's a version of MAME available for the N-Gage, but since the QD doesn't have a USB port, I can't install it without a Bluetooth adapter.

Has anyone here used the N-Gage flavor of MAME? Is it any good? Does it require a lot of buttons? Is there any way to skip the Nokia introduction screen and jump straight into MAME? Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I've been wanting to work on a project like this for a while... it's not feasible for me to start it right now, buuuut that may change in January when I'll have a little money to throw around on parts.

[bacteria]

Better option - GP2x. You can run lots of old arcade games (about 1000 or so); you can orientate the screen vertical or horizontal by pressing the left / right shoulder buttons.

The GP2x also has a built-in 3" TFT screen too. Doesn't matter if you get a MK1 or MK2 model, they are also going a bit cheaper at the moment / soon as many GP2x owners are waiting to get the Wiz or Pandora as upgrade. This will bring the price of old GP2x's down further.

Quite a nice little project idea, not difficult but quite time consuming to do. Have a go!