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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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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)
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.
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?