New to Portablizing...

[kirbyfanner]

Hello!

I'm completely new to portabilizing, but i'm very interested. I've been a programmer for ages, and have a wide knowledge of computers, but this is new to me. I've been doing a lot of research on it the past few days, and decided to order the book by Ben Heck. I wanted to ask some questions though I haven't found answers to.
First of all, I'm thinking of doing the SNES as my first portable, but why do all of the cartridges seem to stick out the back of the example handhelds?
Second of all, I've noticed a lot of the portables don't have any form of visual ventilation. Don't they overheat? Is there someway to prevent that?
Third, why is the N64 not a good system to start portabilizing?
I can't wait to delve into the community and hobby of portablizing!
Thanks,
Kirbyfanner.

[argelfraster]

Hey! Welcome to the forums.

Most people have the cartridges on a SNESp on the back because it makes the section of the portable which you hold thinner and thus more comfortable.
Many of the SNES portables have some kind of ventilation holes to keep them cooler.
And the N64 is hard to portabilize because it's very easy to fry and you need to build a new power regulator to make it run off batteries.

[kirbyfanner]

Oh cool. Thanks! I'm really excited for my book to ship (amazon says it'll be a while) but i'm going to start right away. One thing i'm unsure about is soldering and de-soldering though. Will the book explain that?