console without disks/cartridges...

[Flinkly]

after building a mame cabinet, i'm looking into new projects...

my new idea is to make a console with the outer shell untouched but with a computer inside running an emulator with all the games, so you don't have to use cartridges ever.  fist off, i'm looking into small computers that could run systems up to n64 but don't take up too much spoace, including heat sink.  also, i was thinking, is there any way to make an all-in-one cartridge with a hd or something where you wou;dn't be emulating the whole system but just the cartridges...so the console would be more true to form and function?  anyways, hope some computer techie can help me out with my idea...

[johnnysmitch]

sounds like a pretty tall order to me...
don't know if you've already seen them, but there are several people who've taken old NES systems, gutted them, and installed micro-itx based computers into them to use for emulation and whatnot - they've even hacked NES controllers into usb...
As far as your cartridge system idea goes - maybe instead of having a whole harddrive type deal, get a few large memory key/memory stick type devices, and hack them into cartridges, with a USB slot inside the system, so you'd essentially have a cartridge for each system's games that you'd plug in.  Just an idear.

[GGKoul]

You can get all in one motherboards with a built in CPU with out a fan.  So this reduces the width required.

It would be interesting if you could mod a computer in a N64.

You could have a small harddrive installed inside the N64 to host all the O/S and driver stuff.  But then make the cartridge slot into an IDE or USB connector, so you can can plug in as slave drive with the various roms you want to play.

[Trimoor]

I'm pretty sure a laptop HD would fit inside an NES cartridge, but good luck programming the circuitry.  You would have to program your own "game" using NES assembly to create a menu for he games.  Then you must find a way to interface the HD.

It could be done, and the idea is very intrigueing.
Onece the "game" menu selecter is loaded, the HD games will be loaded as sub games.

[Hoagie_one]

im in teh planning stages of doing just that.  In fact, im going to mount the computer inside of a SNES case with teh SNes controllers actually controlling the games.  Furthermore it will run windows media center, have a PVR card inside and network support.

tall order, but doable.....and expensive.

[DYNAGOD]

if space is an issue check this out!!
 
wireless Hard drives are coming!!

http://www.madville.com/link.php?id=71483&t=23