Portable-izing: Why?

It almost seemed like a fad to build portable N64s and SNESs and various other consoles until Android phones started to emulate just about everything pretty well. What is the point of even making a portable anymore? Do you need to play Gauntlet Legends that bad?

I don't mean to diss anyone's work, but portables just seem like a $300+ novelty to me anymore.

 

Emulation is cool and all but it's not the same as playing on real hardware. I don't really even fire up any of the emulators I have anymore. Some of us are always on the go and a portable is nice for that. Combine being on the go and being the type who believes "emulation isn't the same" and you have the recipe for a portable.

Then there are those who do it just because. While I haven't made a portable (yet...) I have made many things and part of the fun for me is the building. Take my Xbox project. Half the fun is getting down knee deep into the hardware. Some build them for the fun of it.

It will mean more to you if it is something you created. I'll never part with my Xbox because of all the time, money, labor, blood, tears, and other whatnot I've put into it. It means too much to me. It'd take a high price that's way more than the console could ever hope to be worth before I part with it. Same principal applies to a portable built by your own hands.

 

But would you consider portables as original hardware? I mean, they are pretty heavily modded to a point where I think it'd* loose that "classic plastic" feel we all know and hold dear.

 

How about buiding something with their own hands? A hobby's a hobby!

 

Because it is a fad that was started by Ben Heckendorn. At first it was like "holy shit we can do this now?" and then it moved from consoles that get pretty good battery life to consoles where 3 hours of battery life might be the difference between barely making it between two save points or destroying the device in frustration.

Problem is there are people out there who destroy 24 GameCubes before he makes a reasonably half-not-shitty portable (I kid you not, dude exists on GC-Forever forums) and plenty more who start this stuff only to kill whatever it is they're working on because they falsely assume that a portable is a good "my first soldering project" idea. Short of being able to play a SNES in the back seat during road trips I can't imagine whipping out a portable N64 while standing in line at the DMV. I sure as hell would my DSiXL that has this really cool pause feature when you close the lid.

 

I dont like portables

 

emulation aint perfect, and most portable android / whatever devices are touchscreen and touchscreen controls suck major ass.

also, if you can, why not, whatever does it for you. SEGA and atari done it in the 90s because they could, if they only had better battery and screen tech available to them at the time... who knows what the world would be like now.

 

Gameklip and other controllers exist for bluetooth.

 

kind of defeats the portability for me though, controls should be built in or its just not the same. don't want to have to carry around even more extras than i need. device + headphones is all.

 

Might as well use a tablet+emulation if I'm going to need an external controller.

 

I forgot to add that some consoles haven't been emulated on prtable devices yet. Original Xbox is a good one. Sure emulation is being worked on but it's nowhere near good yet. Sure the classic Xbox is basically a low RAM Pentium 3 PC. Sure it's big and bulky. But if you like it as much as I do then making a portable version is a cool thing. It can't be a true handheld like a N64 due to the size of the main PCB but there is always the backpack option with plug in screen and controller. Or making it into a laptop of sorts. Been done a few times with original Xbox and plenty of times with Xbox 360 and PS3. After all, if you're waiting somewhere for a flight or something why not pass the time blowing players away in COD since most places you are at have some sort of internet connection.

Emulation can do Nintendo stuff up to and including the Wii but others are still far behind so you're stuck with portablizing the hardware. Then there's those who don't have the space for a full blown game room setup. I fall into that category...

 

a backpack xbox with occulus rift style glasses as a screen would be epic, haha

 

Welcome back to the 1980s if it took place in the early 2000s. Sure would get a few stares. LOL

 

I get the people who have the requisite time and skill to make them, what I don't get are the people who are then willing to pay ludicrous amounts of money to buy them, when there are quite a few very good portable options out there (which are also far more professional and cheaper). If I had the time I wouldn't mind doing one as a challenge, but even then I don't think I'd see myself taking it out and playing it in public, so it pretty much defeats the point as far as I'm concerned. I also really don't see the point in making them without batteries, as many people do in an effort to make them as small as possible.

 

more of for fun and to shoe off, i personally like modding consoles allmost as much as i like playing on them, ive never made a portable but i might one day.

 

What's wrong with a frikken Game Boy? lol

 

Does "a frikken Game Boy" play sonic 3 or Super Mario 64? Some people would like to play these on the go and don't care for emulation. Besides, good luck finding a decent emulator for N64 and Sega Saturn. I've tried several and they have all been crap...

 

These things are useless for the actual portable gaming.

Consider this a modding to give yourself self-satisfaction after building one.

 

Good luck finding a decent Saturn portable

 

I'd love a portable N64, as I could play my favourite games (Perfect Dark and Goldeneye) anywhere. As long as the portable was good, I mean, with good controls, a decent display, a decent battery life, etc. I don't have the skill to build one, or the money to buy one though (the ones I've see are all custom made and so cost a fortune), so I don't (yet) have one.

But as others have said (a) emulation is often less than perfect (especially for the N64, where some games still don't run on any emulator (i.e. Indiana Jones, or Factor 5's two Star Wars games, and even the games that do run often have glitches or less than totally smooth running), and (b) tablets only have touch-screen controls (which I detest, I have a tablet (Galaxy Tab 2 7") and it's great as an e-reader (which is what I bought it for), but I can't stand playing games on it (and I've tried and tried to get used to it), as I cannot stand touch-screen controls for real-time input. Yes, you can buy joypads to connect to the tablet, but then when you are holding the joypad in your hand, you have to prop the tablet up somewhere as the joypad does not support it, and this is problematic (or impossible at times, such as when stood on a crowded railway platform).

I really would like a tablet with a built in joypad, an all-in-one, but the ones I've read about are all out of my price range (especially since I want it for when I'm commuting to/from work on the train, so it might well get stolen or dropped and broken). Maybe if the Razor Edge Pro becomes popular then other companies will start creating similar all-in-ones, and competition will drive the prices down, and maybe by then N64 emulation will be perfect (http://cen64.com is making great progress towards 100% compatibility), so I will wait and see.