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Portable N64
Tha_Zanthrax writes "After the portable PlayStation a while ago, now there is a guy who built a Portable Nintendo 64. He already made a portable NES which he is now 'upgrading'. Cool, hacking your own hack."
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So, how long will it be until we see portable PS2s and then an XBOX? That would be cool.
Of course, and I highly suspect it, I may be talking out of my ass. -oqti
What's so grand about a portable N64? You could just as easily make a portable PS2 or portable X-box or Gamecube or even a Dreamcast. A portable SNES would be better. At least the games on SNES you didn't have to actually 'sit down and play' to have fun with them.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
...A portable Jon Katz. Then you could turn it on and warm yourself from the hot, hot air that would spew forth. Perfect for those cold winter nights.
Not really in the spirit of things, are we? Don't you know that no proper Nintendo unit has a backlight?
Why not just use the time to help port Linux to the N64 instead?
Looks like he hasn't even really started the project yet.. why not post this story when the portable N64 is actually finished?
from the pictures, it looks like all he's managed to do is remove the case, lay the mother/main board next to a flat panel display mounted on some painted black plywood and run games off it.
*yawn*
moox. for a new generation.
Seems to me that this article puts its concern in battery life. However, there are a lot of other things to consider as well, which is not mentioned in the homepage (or do I miss anything?) like the dimension and the weight.
The other thing is the legal side. IANAL, but have you heard about the case that Nintendo sues fan sites by using unauthorized Pokemon pictures. Well, watchout, they could similarly get you with some similar reasons... (eventhough you claim it's just fan site and fair use)... Again, IANAL...
--
Error 500: Internal sig error
Was his review of the XBox after Playing Odd World on it:
I can't say how much the Xbox sucks!
It really sucks...
The Xbox sux it really really sux!!!
I am really not sure why I enjoyed both hearing that, and they way he said it. I preorded a Game Cube too...
N64 is a pointless system compared to improving the portable playstation stuff
...enough said.
Why would a geek like him need this? It's not like he's going to go outside or anything...
AHHHHHH! The sunshine! It burns my virgin skin!
why not make some device based around an atari on a chip or a nes on a chip that used a portable cdrom or compact flash or something and just loaded roms.. that would cut the size of atari and nintendo portables in half since you wouldn't have to allow for the huge cart and you could have a whole lot more games that way..
It's possible to make almost anything "portable" like this. However, this is more like a "luggable" (EG the Kaypro CP/M luggables 2-4.) You even have to plug it in, so far, right? Though you could solve that with a motorcycle battery and an inverter, perhaps. Since we're obviously not concerned about weight.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
..now when will he create a portable GameCube?
They go through all this trouble just to rack up a huge bandwith bill for being listed on /.
"And, as has happened before, the internet community, strongly committed to free software, put things to work, which were not completed in the commercial field. At the end of last year an Italian programmers' team got hold of the US version of N64 and a SGI Indy, including the N64 card. Thus the team ported Linux/Mips to the play station. Linux/Mips originally had been initiated by the music company Waldorf (see iX 2/96) and, since the beginning of 1996, has been ready-to-run on R4x00 CPUs.
The main difficulties, according to the Italians, were caused by the port of the X Window System to the N64 I/O hardware. At first they ported the output routines to the dedicated co-processors. Although N64-X11 is not yet really stable, legendary 500000 XStones have been reached so far - running on an ordinary TV set, driven by high frequency signals. Of course, the quality of the picture is much better, if an AV cable and a high-quality monitor are used." (Read the article for the rest..)
There seems to be an awful lot of "why bother" posts on here. Obviously hardware hacking and/or "portablizing" isn't for everyone - so why assume that what you think would be cool is what someone else thinks would be cool? The fact is that this guy decided to take something apart and build a smaller custom cabinet for it, interfacing a few things that aren't supposed to go together. Regardless of what your iBook does, what the XBox could do with a really long extension cord, or what games look better on what system, the point is that some guy took one of his electronic devices, and repackaged it into something smaller and funky looking. It could have been anything - stop thinking about what device he chose (admittedly his contraption is pretty strange) and instead look at what he did - some interesting hardware modifications and some neat "use whatcha got" hardware adaptations. No need to fire off cheap shots of discouragement.
-- "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." (Charles Darwin)
This thing is cool, but I want a portable Genesis. It could be small, black, with 6 buttons and a battery pack.
:)
It could be called something cool... Like Nomad. Yeah!
Oh wait, why does that sound familiar?
SIGFEH
That thing is HUGE! What is the point, othr thatn to devise a portable means of power? The 'portable' unit is not much smaller than the original. I know the motherboard is the main culprit, but jeez....wasn't there some minor componet that could have been eliminated to make it just that much smaller? Now the portable Atari 2600 I can see because the original case was WAY bigger than it really needed to be, but the portable NES does not acquire much of an advantage over the original design as fasr as I can tell from the really quick look I have thus seen.
>>>>>> Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive.
Please place body of subject right here in this very spot..........:_________
>>>>>> Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive.
Did you guys see is X-Box Review! Bahahaha hahahha. Couldn't have said it better myself!
Why not use an emulator on a laptop... VAIO + N64 Emu ~= Joy...
Interactive Visual Medical Dictionary
As for the N64 one... it hasn't already been done, but this hack is pretty crappy. Much like the NES "hack", it's just the original system in a new case. in fact, this time it's just the original system outside of its case and hooked up to an LCD screen through regular video cables. If he had left it in the box and hooked it up to an LCD screen, it would've been the same thing.
This is a crappy hack. The portable PlayStation was much more inventive and generally cooler, as was the Atari portable from the same guy.
..has to have a logical explanation.
for some reason people assume that if one makes NES portable, it has to be useful and definitely in use.
why can't one make it just for the sake of making it? it's cool to play LEGO to build stuff, likewise it's cool to hack into electronics and modify them as you will.
bleh.
I'm sure that a Nintendo "Portable N64" would have a much better battery life, but that Nintendo still wouldn't do it. This is because, since the Nomad and Game Gear, Nintendo and their technology partners could undoubtably design more energy efficient systems. Also, Nintendo wouldn't use a backlit system, most likely opting for the current screens, which require an external light source, which would provide a comparable savings in power.
However, Nintendo is unlikely to release a Portable N64. N64 is one of Nintendo's close calls to failure. (Yes, it was successful in it's own right, with 30 Million units sold, but still, compared to the console market share it had with NES and SNES? It's absolutely not a resounding success.) Also, because of one of Nintendo's major mistakes in designing the N64 Using the most expensive parts available on market (ie- remember the Silicon Graphics fiasco?)), it would be technologically unfeasable to create a Portable N64 at an acceptable mass-market price point for handhelds (which is $100, just like the console mass-market price point is $200). People just aren't that likely to buy a handheld, even if it is capable of the N64's power, at more than $100. I'm sure it's feasable, but if Nintendo thought that a Portable N64 had a lick of a chance to be a success, I'm sure they'd be all over that, especially with PSone. But it doesn't. And with GBA coming out, that is capable of having many NES, SNES, and N64 games ported to it, there's no need for Nintendo to waste money on a Portable N64. Any Portable N64 would be yet another "Virtual Boy" scar on Nintendo's back, and right now, they don't need that, especially in the face of Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox.
Sounds to me like he already had his opinion about the machine before he ever laid a hand on it. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink.
Sounds to me like he already had his opinion about the machine before he ever laid a hand on it. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink.
never mind the fact that you have just stated an opinion. genius. but my mom says that all the time. you sound like my mom. clever.
It's especially true in your case- you force them both on anyone around you.
Apparently YOU haven't chosen to ignore it. Furthermore; since most people (according to you) choose to ignore my original post anyways, I can't help but wonder why you have taken the time and energy to post a reply to this in the freakin' first place.
>>>>>> Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive.
the "light" mode removes all of this frippery, except for the top banner ad.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
why not make some device based around an atari on a chip or a nes on a chip that used a portable cdrom or compact flash or something and just loaded roms
A typical NES cartridge contained a program ROM, either a tile ROM or an 8 KB tile RAM, and "mapper" hardware that bankswitched the ROMs and often provided timers. Emulating the different varieties of mappers in an FPGA may be trouble, given that you have to take into account CNROM (for Milon and Tetyais (tengen's tetris clone) plus fallback for old games such as SMB1, Duck Hunt, and one of my favorites, Binary Land), UNROM (for Contra, Ikari, Mega Man 1, and the Codemasters games), MMC1 (for Metroid, Zelda, Tetris, and Dr. Mario), MMC2 (for Punch-Out), MMC3 (for SMB2, SMB3, TMNT2, Mega Man 3-6, etc.), MMC5 (complex monster used in Castlevania 3), and more.
Learn more about mappers from Firebug's document at NESdev
Will I retire or break 10K?
It's especially true in your case- you force them both on anyone around you.
I force them? with.... my "you must read my comment" ray-gun? no no no, little cunt. no one is forcing you to do anything at all. as a matter of fact i urge you express yourself and your own opinions as often as possible.
with all this anthrax we can use the comic relief
It was a cold night, Hemos sat inches away from the old stove that occupied much of his room in the cabin. He glanced over at his fishing pole and grimaced. He wished he'd never even seen the accursed thing.
Jon Katz was, Hemos supposed, sitting in his room with his personal heater not even considering the possibility that his companion might want to share in its warmth. Hemos shook his head at the thought. He had already seen enough of Jon lately, it had been a full month since they'd lost touch with civilization. The boredom had become unfathomable.
Hemos caught himself falling asleep into the blaze as a knock at the door stirred him. Groggily, he stood and shook the ashes off his pants. He threw the door open violently.
There stood Jon, a frozen Milky Way in his mouth. He offered half to Hemos; the first friendly exchange betwixt the two in days. He watched Hemos eat with some degree of curiosity.
"Thanks." Hemos said when he'd finished, the first word he'd spoken to Jon in a day.
"You can thank me later!" Jon said, and he dove onto Hemos like a soldier leaping upon a grenade. His fingernails tore into the fabric of Hemos' sweater as he massaged his companion's mandibles with his tongue.
At last, all the tension dissolved like flakes of ice on a sock hanging over the radiator. Rising from the ashes was raw carnal pleasure as Hemos tasted the cheap Whiskey and chocolate on Jon's breath.
The cabin got a little warmer.
I have so far seen a lot of posts basically saying "Why would someone do this?" and "Nintendo is never going to come out with that". Phooey to you. This is someone's mod! Someone came out with Linux for the dreamcast, he modded an operating system to make it work with a console.... no purpose or function, just a modification. Everyone seemed to think that was cool. This guy really liked his NES, N64 and PSX enough to take them wherever he went to play with them wherever. I think that's cool, he even shows you how he did it in case you like to do it too. Why are people so pessimistic at such an early hour?
Can you imagine running mame on that thing ? It would be videogame nirvana. The best hardware, the best OS, and the best retro-games. Hard to think of anything more cool.
It's called my Dell Laptop.
The Project has only just begun. Of course you aren't going to carry around that piece of wood with you. if you follow the progress of the portable NES you will see that it to started out laid out on the floor. Making sure all of the electronics and the lcd work before jamming them into a case just plain makes sense.
As for those of you who are saying "WHY?". I used to teach snowboarding with the guy who is working on this, and if you knew him it would make perfect sense to you why he is doing this.
-doon
To E-mail me, replace the first period in my domain with an @
They have that already. It's called the Game Boy Advance. (Well, dual SNES/NES, looking at the games they're releasing...)
I think he should've called it the pNES
wink, wink, d'ya'know'what'I'mean
Apparently he knows the slashdot crowd and added these comments to his site. I don't know about youu but I am offended. Why would anyone post a discouraging message on an unfinished project that we don't understand? :-)
This site has seen a huge surge in hits since shashdot has linked ot it. Just so all the visitors from there know, this P64 project is just getting started, is no where near finished, so please hold your discouraging comments till it is finished.
The only project that is finished it the NESp, which I am working on a version 2 which will have a whole bunch of new features.
If you have nothing good to say, I don't want to hear it.
'Same speed C but faster'
This equals a Portable NES. Of course, you need roms.
You can get a flash advance in a lot of import stores, or at http://www.lik-sang.com
PocketNES is a NES emulator being written. You can get it at http://www.nolag.com Currently it's up to Beta4 and runs many games. PocketNES has the following strengths and weaknesses:
Pro) You can have 'infinite' amounts of games on 1 cartrige (by appending roms to each other)
Pro) It's portable =)
Pro) Batteries last 12 hours approx.
Pro) Costs $200 for everything
Pro) Doesn't require any build time
Con) Not all games are currently compatible
Con) The GBA resolution is smaller than NES, hence some screens are cropped. The author of the emulator has not written in resolution fix into the EMU.
Pro) The EMU is in development, and will get better with time.
Pro) The GBA + (insert favourite system)EMU is bound to come soon, I expect to see Sega master system, Sega genesis, and possibly even SNES emulation to come in the future.
SO WTF are you waiting for? Go get a GBA, a Flash Advance, and join the portable EMU community!
That's because I did something else to your mom
I guess around 4-5 months ago someone ported snes9x to the arm cpu and made it work nicely on the iPAQ. A year ago now, I helped on getting xmame to work nicely on the iPAQ (sound fix ;). xstella works well too (atari 2600). Plus it can ssh or receive ssh sessions for your remote pleasure.
Read: iPAQ == computer. (and wow, it's portable too!)
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess? - Joshua (Wargames)
Couldn't Zanthrax make one that has the size of a penny-whistle? I would certaintly buy one of those...one couldn't make a portable N64 that size, however. At least, one such as myself wouldn't think so.
I suck hun. Muh! Muh! Muh!
Is it possible to make a portable Beowulf Cluster now?
Men believe what they want. - Caesar
As far as I can tell, every single comment posted by Spootnik is stolen from Usenet. Send a few -1 Overrateds over here.