I want to know what the simplest one is, because I am trying to get a car so I figure, "Hey, I will make a portable <CONSOLE> and sell it to earn some money and have fun along the way!"

Also who wants to sell me it + a PS1 screen?

I think a job will get you a lot more money for your time than a portable. A well made portable will take hours upon hours to make (if you actually make it worth a crap) and you wouldn't be able to sell it for much more than $100 tops, and thats if its BRILLIANTLY done.

What in the hell do you base this on?!?!

A nice looking portable is worth waaay more than $100, its worth around 400, depending on the system.

Anyways, I reccomend you do a console you like, and that inexpensive at the same time.

SS

$400 if its an XBOX 360 laptop maybe. Unless you already have a numnut with a large checkbook ready to pick it up, there isn't a big demand for homebrew portables in the normal marketplace. Most people would just as soon emulate on a PSP (or n-gage QD like I do) or in the case of a Genesis just buy a Nomad, etc. Collectors only want official stuff, casual gamers just want whats cheapest, and anyone that doesn't know about electronics wouldn't trust a homemade portable. Most people that want portables are people that actually want to make them themselves for the fun of it, I really can't think of any specific demographic that would be clamoring for a PS1 portable made of duct tape and cardboard. Plus, once you consider raw materials (a PS1 screen and console + other materials could easily run up $100 bill) you won't be making a very big profit for your time. Unless people are already forming a line around the corner and waiving credit cards and checkbooks at you, I would find a better way to make some cash.

So when did you fall off the stupid truck?

You make me crack up.



Considering a 360 goes for $350, the screen, controller, case bits, cooling system, power supply modifications, and countless hours of work crafting the device are only worth $50? 360 laptops are worth half a grand in parts alone, never mind labor.



I don't know, Ben's portables seem to move pretty well, and I know a few people who would like a portable 360, PS2, or N64.



That's true, however emulation only gets so close to the real thing and ROMs are illegal no matter how you look at them.



You poor S.O.B.



Homemade Genesis portables are usually better than the Nomad. (It's a piece of garbage with horrible battery life and a blurry screen.)



Whoa, back the truck up. Nobody makes portables completely out of cardboard (unless it's meant as a joke machine). That's just stupid.



If they follow your extremely low pricing, they won't.



Hobbies aren't meant to be money-makers.

-------------------------------------------------
And on the original topic:

NOAC portables are really cheap and easy to produce.

Yeah srsly. Lurk moar.

How about a SEGA Genesis 2

It was my FIRST CONSOLE EVER!

Good choice. A Genesis 3 would be even smaller, though, so you might want to use one of those .

whoah, wtf? You're calling ME stupid? Whoah whoah, back the truck up a bit...

A.) I'm not knocking anyone for making a portable, I plan to do it myself when I have the time and materials to do so. It can be a lot of fun and if done with original chipsets very accurate as well (well, perfectly accurate if its original, duh).

B.) Ben is a reputable portable maker. He has a long list of well made and working portables under his belt, hence the reason his portables sell for a lot of money.

C.) Yes, an XBOX 360 laptop probably could easily fetch a grand, IF, and only IF, someone is willing to buy it and the designer has enough credibility to ensure the buyer that they aren't buying a $1k paperweight. Just like anything else, its only worth a certain amount if someone is willing to pay it.

D.) Portables are a very small niche market of people that want custom game systems (usually vintage) converted to a handheld with original hardware. When you can buy a used PSP or DS and load ROMs on to it for very little money, its not very appealing to buy a portable made of a wooden box, a cut up board from real hardware, a hacked-in-two controller attached with putty, etc. made by someone you don't even know or have any reason to believe they know what they're doing. The Nomad, etc. is a real OEM product, hence the reason it is the first choice for an average consumer. At least spare parts could be purchased for the Nomad, the same cannot be said for a custom job.

E.) The N-Gage QD is a badass phone and has done me very well for the past 4 years. Anyone that hates on it just doesn't get it. Yes the actual N-Gage titles suck (except THPS, that was a decent port), but near perfect Genesis and NES emulation and OK SNES emulation make it a better game phone than anything else out there. When you are sitting at the DMV waiting for 2 hours you'll be glad you picked the N-gage because I really doubt you'll have your bigass Genesis portable in your back pocket, much less a library of games.

F.) ROMs are not illegal. If you own the original cartridge, you have a right to have a ROM image of it, don't listen to Nintendo's crap, read the backup laws yourself.

G.) I never meant to flame anyone, I was just trying to talk some sense into him because just making portables without a buyer lined up isn't the best way to make money, by a longshot. If he's planning on buying a car, there are MUCH better ways (and more reliable ways at that) to get that much money. Plus, what if he makes a mistake and fries the board? He's in the red before he even got started making money. But, alas, this is the internet and everything is automatically a flame and basic logic is always eluded.

Just get back on to the stupid truck and go away already.

Also I think this belongs to you.

Ok that was kinda uncalled for.

Well all the fail was not called for but he brought it anyway.

I lol'd

Back to the topic of this post:

I say go for something with as little parts as possible, such as an SNES or NOAC. Each require only one voltage for the board, require no video modification, and are quite small. PSOne's are really easy to work with, too, but you need to figure out placement for the disc drive and a lid if you're building that.

As for how much portables earn, if your main intention is making money then you might be disappointed. But as you said you intend to have fun doing it so the next main hurdle you'd have is finding buyers. Yes it's a niche market, but have you ever visited the digitpress.com forums? I'm sure if you're able to build a good looking portable you might find someone interested there. I asked around about a year ago and found plenty of interested people.

My advice? Build a few portables first, work up some skills, experience, and reputation and then see if you can earn some money with it.