SNES Portable 182
Tha_Zanthrax writes "This guy is really good: the same dude that built a portable PSX a while ago and has also made some really old Atari 2600 portable has did it again. This time he 'compressed' a Super Nintendo System. The comicbook-like intro is nice to."
Meh. (Score:1)
What is impressive, however, is the way he's made it look like a comic strip this time around. That's nice stuff.
As an aside.. 'has did it again'? Nice to see literary standards are on the up with Slashdot contributors.
Re:Meh. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Meh. (Score:1)
Re:Meh. (Score:2)
Wait a minute...
I´m waiting til someone builds a compressed... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I´m waiting til someone builds a compressed... (Score:1)
That was really funny though, even though it was uninformed and all. Seriously. . .
Dot come failure pros and cons (Score:2)
Ahem (Score:1)
It's not polite to bitch about the individual's presentation choices.
In addition, what makes you think this guy ever worked for a dotcom? He appears to have actual electronics and design skills, unlike the geniuses who worked for dotcoms. I assume he has a real job, which pays him well enough and gives him enough time to pursue his hobby. That has nothing to do with the late mass hysteria which resulted in thousands of clueless, unskilled individuals getting paper-rich off the ignorance and greed of even more clueless investors. HTH.
Re:Dot come failure pros and cons (Score:1)
Re:Dot come failure pros and cons (Score:1)
What is so wrong with this? It amazes me how when someone has a unique idea and gets up off their butt and does it, people say that the person has "too much time on their hands." Yet a person can play Quake or sit in front of the TV watching Channel Zero for hours and nobody will ever accuse them of having "too much time on their hands."
Downloadable ROMS? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Downloadable ROMS? (Score:2, Informative)
One of the most popular of these devices for the SNES was the Mutli Game Doctor. Try a search for it.
Re:Downloadable ROMS? (Score:2, Interesting)
Even if you do preview you still have to read.
Game Doctor (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Downloadable ROMS? (Score:2)
He got these from someone who imports them from Hong Kong. ROMs via the net.
Re:Downloadable ROMS? (Score:1)
Portable XT (Score:4, Funny)
A portable 286.
Think about it.. you could run all the old favourites. Windows 286. GEM. DOS 2!
Re:Portable XT (Score:2, Interesting)
Hey, I have an old Mac Plus sitting around in my basement. I should convert that to a portable system and play Police Quest on my way to work (no, I won't be driving too)
Seriously, I would be interested in making a portable Dreamcast though. Now that the price has dropped it may be a fun and not-too-expensive project.
Re:Portable XT (Score:1, Funny)
Purchase Compaq iPAQ or Casio Cassiopeia handheld PDA.
Step 2.
Reflash PDA with linux. (Remember to write to Compaq or whoever informing them that that's what you've done - they care about such statistics!)
Step 3.
Compile bochs for arm-linux.
Step 4.
Install bochs on your PDA with a HD image containing Windows 3.1 or DOS or whatever.
Step 5.
Marvel at ancient PC applications running very slowly on your PDA...
Re:Portable XT (Score:2)
Step 1.
Source an Atari Portfolio [atari-history.com] from ebay [ebay.com]
Step 2.
Marvel at ancient PC applications running very slowly on your PDA...
Re:Portable XT (Score:1)
This guy probably makes portable consoles because you can't just go buy one off the shelf somewhere. Take a peek at Ebay or elsewhere and you'll find plenty of portable 286's.
Re:Portable XT (Score:1)
You know, ha ha. Not serious, etc.
Re:Portable XT (Score:2)
Re:Portable XT (Score:2)
Why not? I'd love a portable nes, gameboy, sega, c64, trs-80, COCO(3), and whatever else I could get my hands on in one little package.
PDP-11? (Score:2, Funny)
Yay! Secret of Mana in the Car! (Score:3, Interesting)
But the continued akwardness between Nintendo and Square will probably keep classics like Final Fantasy II & III and Secret of Mana from the Gameboy Advance. What a pitty!
Maybe this project is just the thing to take these great games on the road.
Re:Yay! Secret of Mana in the Car! (Score:2, Informative)
Of course hacks for hacks sake are just cool.
(Now if the GBA could just be hooked up to a TV, stereo and had a better controller.)
Re:Yay! Secret of Mana in the Car! (Score:2)
VisualBoy Advance [emuhq.com] or Boycott Advance [emuunlim.com], a PSX to USB controller adapter (or any USB gamepad), and Morpheus to download ROMS. I don't even play my GBA anymore, as I can actually see Castlevania now.
Morpheus sucks for ROMs (Score:1)
VisualBoy Advance or Boycott Advance
I recommend VisualBoy Advance, as it focuses on compatibility über alles.
a PSX to USB controller adapter (or any USB gamepad)
The official GBA development system uses a Super NES controller. Play the exact game the developers made with an easily-soldered parallel port adapter. Read More in this journal entry [slashdot.org].
Morpheus to download ROMS
Why? With Morpheus or WinMX, 1. it's illegal, and 2. you can never be sure you have a good dump. Better to buy the cartridge and use a Flash Advance linker to dump it. Follow the links at gbadev.org [gbadev.org] (I don't work for gbadev.org) to see where to buy a linker. Plus, with a linker and a flash cartridge, you too can make GBA games.
Re:Yay! Secret of Mana in the Car! (Score:5, Informative)
The GBA is actually more powerful than a SNES
Twice the CPU, twice the RAM, twice the graphics, and no more sound I/O lag.
it has pretty much the same gfx capability
Exactly twice as powerful. On Super NES, you could get three layers of 16 colors per tile or one Mode 7 layer of 256 colors per tile, and each line could hold only 256 pixels of sprites. On GBA, you can get four layers of tiles, two layers of tiles + one layer of Mode 7, or two layers of Mode 7. Each GBA scanline can hold more sprite pixels, allowing developers to fake more background layers. GBA sprites can also be 256-color and/or scaled.
worse sound
True, in a way. Super NES sound was 16-bit, with instruments compressed 4 to 1. GBA sound is 8-bit with uncompressed instruments. However, how many times will you be connecting the GBA to a rack system as opposed to a pair of simple headphones? Also, the GBA's ARM7TDMI CPU can see all the sound registers; the "loading" you saw on most Super NES games wasn't a problem with cartridge media but rather with the brain-damaged bus between the main CPU and the sound CPU. This was especially evident on Lord of the Rings, where turning off background music made map changes twice as fast.
it's not just a SNES in a tiny form factor, one has to recode
The Super NES was an enhanced NES, which used a single memory-mapped port for data writes to video RAM. The GBA is a new architecture based on memory-mapped everything, somewhat similar to the old Game Boy.
Recoding shouldn't be a problem; the GBA's ARM7TDMI processor has a decent GCC build [io.com] available, and this makes coding much easier than it was for the 65c816 and SPC700 processors inside the Super NES, which could only use assembly language because they each had only three semi-general-purpose registers.
However, you'll never see Square games on GBA. Nintendo hates Square and Square hates Nintendo after how each treated the other in the Super Mario RPG project and the early days of the Final Fantasy VII project. On the other hand, what I've played of Golden Sun doesn't suck at all, and you already have the old Dragon Warrior games on GBC.
I would pay big bucks for a port of Zero Wing to GBA.
Re:Yay! Secret of Mana in the Car! (Score:1)
Re:Yay! Secret of Mana in the Car! (Score:2)
For the record, so can SNES sprites, though they weren't used all that often because of memory reasons (video memory moreso than system memory).
--an old SNES game programmer
Re:Yay! Secret of Mana in the Car! (Score:2)
So long as it still had the badly translated introduction, right?
Not only the badly translated intro (Score:2)
So long as it still had the badly translated introduction, right?
Not only the badly translated introduction, but the entire Flash movie along with it. That would be very doable on GBA; heck, I've done it on an NES cartridge (but couldn't fit anything else on the cartridge).
neat, but... (Score:1, Interesting)
Now, PS2, XBox, those are at least current. I wouldn't mind seeing one of THEM in a portable model.
Re:neat, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about you, but even though I own some newer systems, the ones I play the most are NES, Atari, and SNES. Who cares if they aren't current, they are FUN.
Also, the games on SNES are a hell of a lot more entertaining than the games on Cellphones. If I wanted to play "Snake", I would load up QBasic on my 486.
The fact of the matter is that many gamers love playing older games. New games can be fun, but I often find myself longing for the days of 2D, side-scrollers. Myself and those like me would love to have portable NES & SNES systems.
Besides, a system like this is GREAT for buying old games at Flea Markets, etc. You can test to make sure the games work right then & there! That's enough right there to justify having one of these.
Hear hear! (Score:1)
The fact of the matter is that many gamers love playing older games. New games can be fun, but I often find myself longing for the days of 2D, side-scrollers.
Not that I want to revive the old games vs new games rant...but I can't help it...I TOTALLY agree with this, most older games were a truckload more fun than most new games (with few exceptions).
Space Taxi,Archon or Zaxxon anyone?
Or even Ghost n' Goblins or Moon Patrol :)
Re:Hear hear! (Score:1)
Re:neat, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
I for one think it's really cool, and the comic-book style presentation was hilarious.
Thanks portable video game guy!
Wisconsin... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wisconsin... (Score:1, Offtopic)
that isn't strictly true, however deer season is only open for a couple weeks a year. That least 50 weeks of boredom and 2 weeks of watching out for your life while trying to kill something else.
Re:Wisconsin... (Score:1)
This guy kicks ass (Score:5, Interesting)
My favorite line:
Like Timmy T, I had to give it one more try
What an amazing obscure reference. Anyone remeber that old joint from about 10 years ago?
One more try,
Let me show how much
I love you.
One more try,
Let me put my arms
Around you.
Livin all these lonely nights
Without you.
Oh baby, can we give it
One more try?
Ugh, jesus, thanks for that... (Score:2)
Blasts from the past they ain't.
Re:C&C Music Factory (Score:2, Funny)
Let the rhythm take control...
Let the rhythm move you...
*bump* *bump* *bumpbumpbump*
Re:This guy kicks ass (Score:2)
Re:This guy kicks ass (Score:1)
(were the hell is that damn TKA album)
/. AWARDS NOMINEE (Score:2)
/. Awards! Categories will be obvious - I nominate this guy for
'cool but wierd' 2001
Portable Gaming (Score:1)
Re:Portable Gaming (Score:1)
Schematics? (Score:2, Interesting)
iPAQ gaming (Score:1, Informative)
xmame, snes9x, 2600, C64, etc. games all run, from pretty good to damn slick. The snes9x port was running over a year ago.
You can get a *TON* of ROMs on a 1GB udrive, too.
The new Sharp Linux handheld should rock too, once somebody gets an X server running on it.
Cpt_Kirks
Next: Portable System Utility Belt (Score:4, Funny)
I think we should call him "PVGSman" (portable video game systems).
how many times? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:how many times? (Score:1)
Many pictures - now can we see the actual device? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Many pictures - now can we see the actual devic (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Many pictures - now can we see the actual devic (Score:1)
Here is a picture of the SNESp [classicgaming.com] since you seem to have such a hard time finding it.
--
I seem to remember... (Score:2, Troll)
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:5, Interesting)
Gotta tell you, when I heard about that, my first reaction was not "So what? You've been able to buy helicopters for decades now!"
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:4, Funny)
Don't you mean he FLEW around in the thing? Until he stopped in a firey ball of death?
That's crazy than that Rocket Guy! At least he can parachute down if he doesn't die in the explostion, a helicopter would give you just enough time to think, "Oh shit, I knew I should have used a stronger rubber belt to-"
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:2)
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:2)
That's crazy than that Rocket Guy! At least he can parachute down if he doesn't die in the explostion, a helicopter would give you just enough time to think, "Oh shit, I knew I should have used a stronger rubber belt to-"
Actually, with commercial helicopters (and I'm assuming that his home built helicopter's design won't vary that much from commercial designs), the helicopters are built with an auto-rotation design. I.E. if the engine ever stops, the helicopter blades will just automatically rotate to give a slow decent to the ground below. If the belt ever gives out, all the guy needs to do is shut down the engine and just wait it out as the helicopter decends on it's own. You'll probably get a little dizzy as the body of the helicopter will most likely want to counter-rotate and you won't have any direction control (then again you wouldn't have any direction control without the belt, either), but at least you won't come hurtling down, gaining speed at a rate of 9.8m/(s*s), eventually crashing and burning in the horrible flaming wreckage.
On a slightly related note, a friend of my dad's built his own airplane, powered by a small block Chevy V-8. There's no instrumentation and only very rudimentary controls, but it's as safe as any other airplane, and I'm sure he enjoys it a lot more knowing that he built it himself. He painted it John Deere green and calls it his John Deere airplane. :-)
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:1)
My understanding was that in the event of an engine failure you had to dive pretty much immediately in order to keep the rotors spinning fast enough to give you enough lift to slow down right before you plow into the ground.
I don't think 'turning off the engine and letting it land itself' is a very good idea at all.
hummer
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:2)
Hmm... I apologize. It appears that my understanding of autorotation was somewhat inaccurate. In effect, you take that sharp dive in order to achieve the autorotative effects. Previously, when I read about helicopter control mechanics, it was worded such that it seemed that the autorotation process was automatic. Here's a link about autorotation:
http://www.helicoptersonly.com/Helicopter_Traini ng /Autorotation/autorotation.html
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:1)
Heh... like comparing apples to.. heh... oh.
Re:I seem to remember... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why I Like these Devices. (Score:1)
Metal Gear (Score:1)
It's been a slow week.
What about a genesis? (Score:1)
I know, they could call it a nomad or something...
oh wait, never mind!
Re:What about a genesis? (Score:1)
Emulators! (Score:4, Interesting)
If you mean a gameboy is portable, it's only a few more iterations until we get there. Right now, I run PocketNes [retrogames.com] and it works great! Genesis and Lynx emulators [pocketemulator.com] also exist. I haven't tried Lynx but the Genesis one is still too slow. If you are willing to run Linux on your iPaq, you can run SNES [wpi.edu]. As for people who want XT, there is even an 80186 emulator [xt-ce.com]! That means you can run DOS on top of WinCE! They even have screenshots of Windows 3.0 [xt-ce.com] running on a PocketPC.
In short, I am amazed at my iPaq. These things are actually powerful enough to be classified as PC's. These 200Mhz handhelds are what sat on desktops in 1997. Check out Gateway's homepage as of 1/1/1997 [archive.org], they are selling P166's.
Simply put.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Laptop plus emulator (Score:1)
Conan O'Brien (Score:1)
Re:Conan O'Brien (Score:1)
You gotta read this guy's... (Score:3, Interesting)
...alt tags.
I swear the comic is funny enough, but get read the alt tags for a bigger laugh... Montezuma's Revenge... Hehe
GameBoy Advance ZX-Spectrum Emulator (Score:2)
You need a GBA flash cart (available from a number of vendors), and a GameBoy advance. Hey presto - portable Speccy!
This man... (Score:1)
Seriously though, it makes me eye my old portable TV with an evil grin... makes my wife worry.
-jhon
Where does this guy get his screen from (Score:1)
Re:Where does this guy get his screen from (Score:2)
older-school than this (Score:1)
I think these are even cooler than the snes version...Zelda anyone?
Cold-cathode (Score:1)
Re:Cold-cathode (Score:1)
Ben and His Projects (Score:3, Interesting)
The Gamecube is already a very much portable unit, considering it's external and internal size [segatech.com], carrying handle [nintendo.com], and detachable screen [ign.com]. This is Ben's next un/confirmed project over at his site. I found his comment on this in the forums [classicgaming.com]. While the portable aspect of the Gamecube is nifty, Ben focuses on making consoles into handheld units (so yes it is portable already, but not handheld). The SNES is interesting, but I'm waiting to see how this turns out.
Re:Grammar check please (Score:1, Informative)
"to" wasn't the last word of the article, the real last word was filtered by the Slashcode obscenity filter. You'll have to use your imagination to figure out what it's nice to do to the intro.
Re:Grammar check please (Score:1, Troll)
"to" wasn't the last word of the article, the real last word was filtered by the Slashcode obscenity filter. You'll have to use your imagination to figure out what it's nice to do to the intro.
Why didn't the Slashdot stupidity filter stop somebody from modding this up as "informative"?
Oh wait. There is no stupidity filter...is there...
I'm not saying that the post doesn't deserve to be modded up, I found it sort of funny, but to mark it as informative is sort of stupid. I might even say that it's obscenely stupid.
It might be a good idea to place the name of a person who mods a message a certain way into the footer of a message when it's brought up (like how it shows induvidual moderations now), because then the people who mod that way will at least be mocked and ridiculed...
OT? Depends. It's not like I'm talking about my own board on slashdot, or slashdot there...
Horrible (Score:1)
Re:Horrible (Score:1)
Oops, I did (or done) it again.
Was Taco on a sports team in school? His coach must have got him out of taking English 101?!
Re:Grammar check please (Score:1)
Identify yourself and I'd be happy to talk with you.
Re:Grammar check please (Score:1)
Don't feed this troll (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:um.. (Score:2)
Ya, right... sure... Unlike the Gameboy advance, this unit has a display that is actually visible in a room without a 3000 watt light, and your hands don't cramp up trying to play it for more than 5 minutes. Oh, and a good software library to boot.
GBA is not binary compatible with Super NES (Score:2, Insightful)
um...didn't Nintendo already do this? I think it's called Gameboy Advance
GBA isn't binary compatible with Super NES. Thus, even though you have ports of many Super NES games, you don't have ports of anything by Square (FF, Mana, Chrono) because Square and nintendo no longer talk to each other after SMRPG and FF7.
However, this curse becomes a blessing once you get GCC for ARM and a $50 "MBV2" PC link cable: you can easily write your own code for GBA.
Re:um.. (Score:1)
Re:um.. (Score:2)
Sports games? How about FIGHTING games? In the first Street Fighter II game for the GBA, you have to change the button arrangement in the options when you switch between characters to get the most special moves out of each character, and in the second one, they just plain cut out two of the buttons. :(
A controller with four main buttons and two or more secondary buttons isn't absolutely necessary for a solid gaming system, but it's certainly necessary for ports from a system that had six main buttons.
easy 2-player (Score:1)
Re:Man that was lame (Score:2)
I guess you didn't see the video of him playing it.
Re:Portable SNES? (Score:1)
Oh wait, you can't play Star Fox on the Game Boy Advance. I guess it's not the same machine.