Travel Controller

[Lilwolf]

Im considering taking a position which would require a LOT of travel.  I might be in a hotel room 10 days a month.

The question is this.  If you have a good notebook... Could you create a decent 1 player cp that you could plug in... and travel with? 

I know its lame... But to tell you the truth... I would rather spend time at home with my kids then doing my own stuff... and it seems like it would be a good time to increase my TOKI scores.

I just have a feeling that whatever I bring will be ripped apart by customs every few flights... And it can't take any real space... And I'm not sure if I could mount it to anything... 

I guess I"m just trying to come up with ideas.

[Samstag]

How about a NES or SNES controller with a USB hack?  They're not going to be great controllers, but very compact.

[Stingray]

One switchable 8 way/ four way and say three or four buttons along with an ipac could be mounted in a pretty small enclosure. Just make the top hinged with a latch so customs can look inside without needing any tools.

-S

[RayB]

One switchable 8 way/ four way and say three or four buttons along with an ipac could be mounted in a pretty small enclosure. Just make the top hinged with a latch so customs can look inside without needing any tools.

That will help, but keep in mind customs and security people tend to be idiots. If you can't "show it working" they may be stubborn about letting it through.

[GGKoul]

Yes, but then you'll be packing this 6' x 6' joystick pack were ever you go.

Trust me, when you travel that much.. You want make sure you don't have to check your luggage.

[GGKoul]

One switchable 8 way/ four way and say three or four buttons along with an ipac could be mounted in a pretty small enclosure. Just make the top hinged with a latch so customs can look inside without needing any tools.

-S

I think Groovygamegear's new GP-Wiz could be used to reduce the size of the unit.  As it looks smaller then and IPAC

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,31677.0.html

But then again, the IPAC/VE may work best... http://www.ultimarc.com/ipacve.html

[Stingray]

Either would probably fit, but since the GP-Wiz costs less, it would probably still be the better choice.

-S

[Lilwolf]

Ok, how about THIS for an idea!

buy some hard sided luggage!   (I think you know where I'm going)

and build it into the luggage itself!  So open it up and boom a control panel.  So I pack around it!  Sure I would have to be careful with the wires below (but that should be coverable) when I pack the bottom 1/2 of the suit case... but open it up and plug it into my notebook and boom... done!

Heck... big enought suitcase and I might get a trackball in there!

[RetroJames]

Someone here did just that recently

[GGKoul]

Ok, how about THIS for an idea!

buy some hard sided luggage!

[Flinkly]

i'd either go with a gamepad from something, or make a small control panel and be ready to take the joy off everytime you packed and pack it inside the box to cut down on space.

i'd probably go with an xbox controller.  you get the dual joystick thing plus six buttons in a row plus start and back....plenty of buttons for a single player to play alot of games.  you could even get one with the macro button if you needed more buttons.  anyways, thats my two cents...

[tetsujin]

If you're going to be travelling with it, I don't think real arcade controls are going to be practical at all.

The next closest thing would be a cheap "arcade-style" joystick.  These are a lot smaller than actual arcade controls (in terms of vertical depth under the panel, especially).  Add (or build-in) a USB converter (if it's a console stick) and there you go.

But by far the easiest (IMO) would be a regular USB gamepad.  They're cheap and ubiquitous, and they'll be good enough for most games.  (Though playing games like Smash TV on dual-analog sticks is pretty annoying, actually...)  For portability something like a USB-converted NES or SNES controller (or USB-native equivalent) would be great.  Much easier to stick in a laptop bag than a PS2-style gamepad.

[spystyle]

http://www.inanna.com/~calhoun/ibox/index.html

[RetroJames]

http://www.inanna.com/~calhoun/ibox/index.html

Is that your site and projects spystyle?

[spiffyshoes]

How about useing a Japanese Style Sanwa Joystick from Himuragames.com?

[spystyle]

http://www.inanna.com/~calhoun/ibox/index.html

Is that your site and projects spystyle?

oops, I should have noted it is not.

That is DAMN sleek, all my projects look REAL rough around the edges.

I posted that because I feel it is the ultimate miniaturized cocktail cabinet!

Sometimes I imagine it with an integrated motorcyle battery and AC inverter, and call it MAMEboyAdvance

It's the smallest cabinet to use full size controls that I've ever seen, I'm real fond of it.

I think Lil' Wolf should use that idea to build his portable. Maybe he could build it out of sheet metal to make it portable yet tough. (things get banged up on the road, yes?)

Boy it sure is cool...