Hey everyone, its been awhile since I've been active here but I was brainstorming a new idea and was hoping for some input. In my signature is a link to a mame arcade I made a few years ago, I still have it and it gets tons of attention. I decided to make another mame based creation but something much smaller and more portable. Also I find I'm very rarely plaing anything but fighting games and a few horizontal/vertical scrollers. What that means is my spinner/trackball/guns are almost unused. So here is the newest idea... I've seen a few fighter joysticks floating around online and at the electronic stores like so... The plan is to have an all-in-one system in one of those lap joysticks, computer and all. I have access to and am willing to buy an older laptop as a donor for this. I'm thinking to gut the laptop and (no cd/dvd/lcd ect) install it into one of these joysticks or build a custom one. The problems/goals The buttons/joysticks on these premade ones suck. They are very soft and cheap, I'm going to install the cherry buttons with that familiar click and the happ joystick just like the original and current fighting machines have. The catch is they add additional depth in comparison to the cheapies that come installed. I have the software end under control after alot of experience with the original mame build so thats not an issue TV out. Is wireless HDMI mature enough yet? Is there a wireless standard def alternative (mame is standard resolution so hd would be wasted) Should I just use the laptops dvi / monitor out with an adapter? Should I use the laptops battery? Should I go purely wall outlet or a combo of both? I'm trying to minimize wires. Is there a case big enough premade to house all of this or do I need to go custom? I would rather go prefab for the factory look but if no other option is available I can make something. If I do go custom (more likely unfortunatly) any ideas how to make it look as prefabbed or factory as possible? Should I try and make some sort of companion joystick that can connect to the first one for 2 player gaming? Are SSD drives worth it for speed/battery life (more concerned about battery life if I decide to go that route) Anyone have any brainstorming ideas? I figure I need 7 buttons to cover every fighting game I'm aware of/play. I would need a player 1 and a coin button as well. I figure I can use a smaller button for those since they dont affect game play. Any ideas or help would be appriciated, I look forward to seeing what you guys think of. I'm very open to suggestions and your suggestions is what helped make the arcade I have now so impressive
Sounds like a sweet idea.. IMO, build your own case, keep the laptop battery, forget SSD and just use a big USB flash drive and deffo add a 2nd joystick.
I have a 32 gig flash drive, how hard is it to boot from that, how much speed do you lose going off the usb drive?
