Portable-Palooza (voting thread opened!)

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:19 am

I guess I should start soon if I'm going to enter anything lol

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:02 am

Personally, I think 1 or 2 pics and a video and description per entry. 2 pics as you can show the front and back then if you want to.

Those soft-touch tact switches look sweet. I only use tact switches for Start / Select, don't like them for general controls. These rubber contact tact switches are a good compromise.

I experimented with the joystick on the top of a d-pad (I think Brian got inspiration from my idea (GP2x mod I did months ago was initially going to do this)). A joystick on a d-pad works great for games where you aren't just using 4 directions, like Starfox (as Brian loves) and side-scrolling shoot-em-ups, ideal; but not that good for 4 way games like Tetris Attack or many others as a joystick is good for getting quick diagonals, so on games where you don't want diagonals it introduces a margin of error. It all boils down to the sort of games you play - as with everything, it is a compromise...

BTW - this has taken be about 7-8 hours work - first "game cart" finished.

Onto a second one now - harder one to do as a lot of the board needs quite a lot of trimming and the traces relocated - Intellivison. If I make a mistake I will try and make a different game cart until I get a new board. At least I have one game cart completed for the compo, so I have something to prove the system works! More game carts will be a bonus if they can be made before compo end (I will continue to make more after the compo ends of course). Doing this Intellivision one will probably take more like 9 hours work, including testing - and time is getting short at the moment...

I think this looks rather neat!

UPDATE - halved (approx) the Intellivision board. Finished game cart will be about the same length of the other one, and about 7mm wider. Can't make it smaller.

I used to love Intellivision when it came out, I was mid-late teens at the time - particularly loved Astrosmash, Space Invaders and Night Stalker - all are on this system. Played them a couple of days ago, for nostalgia, quite fun but rather basic now!

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:32 am

bacteria wrote:I experimented with the joystick on the top of a d-pad (I think Brian got inspiration from my idea (GP2x mod I did months ago was initially going to do this)).

Actually I was inspired by vomitsaw's custom acrylic nintendo controller.

CronoTriggerfan wrote:I must say, that portable you've got yourself is godly, Brian. Though I've never been a fan of analog sticks (or even "digital" sticks) for 2D games, how's yours fare?

It controls surprisingly well for platformers. I was blasting through Super Metroid last night. I also won gold on the Mushroom cup on MarioKart at 100cc so I guess it's good for that too!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:12 am

Excellent work Brian.

Zereo_XI · Post by **Zereo_XI** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:19 am

Sweet Brian. I wish I had the money to do one.

techknott · Post by **techknott** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:26 am

Brilliant, just brilliant.

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:36 pm

lovablechevy wrote:

it's crunch time, y'all!

I cant tell, but its an n64 or nes portable. I think. Maybe perhaps.

LoB: You got one epicly awesome portable there!

You beat meh! ARRRRRGH!

Why did I think I was going to win?

Bacteria, hurry up!

SS

Quetzalcoatlus · Post by **Quetzalcoatlus** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:39 pm

ShockSlayer wrote:I cant tell, but its an n64 or nes portable. I think. Maybe perhaps.

Must be N64, the NES doesn't have a 50 pin cartridge slot.

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:40 pm

Thank you everyone!

lovablechevy · Post by **lovablechevy** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:52 pm

Quetzalcoatlus wrote:
ShockSlayer wrote:I cant tell, but its an n64 or nes portable. I think. Maybe perhaps.
Must be N64, the NES doesn't have a 50 pin cartridge slot.

hehe! guess you'll just have to wait and see!!!

Quetzalcoatlus · Post by **Quetzalcoatlus** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:04 pm

I think it's a Master System portable, it has a 50 pin cartridge slot and it's cartridges look like they're the right shape.

atarihacker · Post by **atarihacker** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:06 pm

i think its a ATARI PORTABLE OF SOME KIND MABE A 7800
(EDIT opps didnt mean to make it all caps)

Post by **Skyone** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:48 pm

Contest ends in less than 4 days, guys.

lovablechevy · Post by **lovablechevy** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:50 pm

Skyone wrote:Contest ends in less than 4 days, guys.

you mean less than 5 days...?

Post by **Skyone** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:55 pm