Random GP2X thought.

[Procyon]

A random thought occurred to me last night as I was trying to go to sleep.  Many of us have gone to a lot of trouble to gut an arcade cabinet in order to stuff a PC in there and play MAME.  Well, does anyone out there think something like this might work:

+ = ?

I'm wondering how feasible it would be to make a GP2X tabletop.  Some major hurdles that I could see having to overcome are:

• Allowing the screen to rotate 90 degrees for vertical vs. horizontal orientation.
• Along those lines, you'd have to be able to rotate the joystick 90 degrees as well.
• Finding controller parts that would correctly map to the joystick pinout (as well as the joystick button).
• Adding the remaining extra buttons
• Making the battery compartment and SD card slot accessible.

Do you think this project is doable?  Or is it kind of a waste of time?
(And please, no GP2X vs. PSP arguments or anything like that... kthx)

[tommy]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

[yalborap]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

I'd say the GP2X is not junk, personally.

As for this idea, yeah, it'd be POSSIBLE. However, it'd also be a pain in the ass, and you'd probably be better off relying on a dock and a hacked USB gamepad plus TV-Out than hacking the actual GP2X.

[danny_galaga]

about the hurdles Procyon. you do know that you can rotate the orientation of mame2x on the fly? and that when you do the joy is remapped automatically and the volume becomes button 1 and 2. isnt so great for games like 1942, where you have limited loops but it works well for xevious etc...

[AtomSmasher]

Do you think this project is doable?  Or is it kind of a waste of time?

It's a similar project to the Pocket Galaga project from a while back, except they used a PDA instead of a GP2X.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=16603.0

[Procyon]

@danny_galaga: Yeah, I know about the orientation thing, that's why I want to be able to swivel the screen 90 degrees when I select between orientations.  I figure if the screen is elevated a bit on a swivel, and an outside "stick" on the perimeter or something elevated is raised through the back plastic, I could just push the stick around to move the screen.  But that's also why the joystick would have to swivel as well, or it won't be mapped to the screen orientation.

@AtomSmasher: That's cool, it's sort of along the lines of what I was thinking, but the Coleco tabletops are so iconic of what "handhelds" were in the 80s, I figured I wouldn't mind messing one up if I could find a cheap broken one on eBay.

[versapak]

An interesting idea for a project indeed. Before my palm got stolen many moons ago, I had been planning to do something inspired by the galaga one linked to by AtomSmasher.

A GP2X seems like an even better way of going about it.

I hope you do manage to get the project off the ground, because I look forward to seeing it.

[Malenko]

Procyon:
I think it would all matter on how easy the GP2X is to take apart and alter, if its got a small enough foot print and easy to solder points I think its  a fantastic idea, but I think a wooden "cab" would be better then 20 year old plastic

[saint]

Paddles put to thread in hopes of resurrecting it. I'd like to see where this goes

[Green Giant]

Turning a GP2X into a tabletop is kind of a waste of a sweet system since you could easily use a laptop unless it is to be extremely small.

However, you could make a very portable control panel with built in mame through GP2X.  If you can figure a way to wire up the controls and possibly a second set for player two, you could make a very slim control panel with everything inside except the monitor.  The ability to output the GP2X to a tv and power it through AC would make it very cool.  It would format easily to any tv and probably be just 4 or 5 inches thick.  The original screen could be centered where a trackball usually goes for playing on the go.  A big 4gig SD card should be able to hold all the games the system is capable of playing including a few extra emulators.  Just a thought...

[versapak]

Turning a GP2X into a tabletop is kind of a waste of a sweet system since you could easily use a laptop unless it is to be extremely small.

However, you could make a very portable control panel with built in mame through GP2X.  If you can figure a way to wire up the controls and possibly a second set for player two, you could make a very slim control panel with everything inside except the monitor.  The ability to output the GP2X to a tv and power it through AC would make it very cool.  It would format easily to any tv and probably be just 4 or 5 inches thick.  The original screen could be centered where a trackball usually goes for playing on the go.  A big 4gig SD card should be able to hold all the games the system is capable of playing including a few extra emulators.  Just a thought...

I am guessing that you have never seen one of those old tabletops. They are indeed very small. That unit pictured in the first post is less than a foot tall,so he is definitely talking something considerably smaller than could accommodate a laptop.

[Green Giant]

Yeah, can't see the picture here, blocked by the network.  The smaller it is the more impressive though.

But just found out some interesting stuff.  You can keep your GP2X in perfect shape and still use it.  Just buy this http://www.gp2xstore.com/products/Gp2x_Commercial_Interface_Board_Cradle-68-1.html  along with an external power supply to save those batteries.

With it you could wire up regular happ controls through a GPWIZ or an ipac and connect them through USB.  It also includes tv-out functionality.  Extra memory could be added through a USB stick.  MAME GP2X would be able to work perfectly fine with it.

"MAME GP2X should be able to run the 1128 games supported by MAME 0.34, which include almost all NeoGeo games (except larger ROM sets) as well as some MAME 0.35b* games (see Supported Games).
TV-Out support was added in version 1.7.
Sample support was added in version 2.5.
Full 4 USB Joypad Support through the GP2X Interface Board was added in version 2.8."

[danny_galaga]

i actually have the break out board, which is just the pcb before they had even designed a cradle for it! and yep, it works quite well. you can attach most game pads and cps to it and then to a telly. and in fact you can run mame or watch video for about 45 minutes just on the batteries.

massive hint for current/future project. there is a reason i have the break out board and a gp2x ;-)

[deadmoney5]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

 ...goes back to playing a perfectly emulated game of Donkey Kong while sitting on the $hitter..

[danny_galaga]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

 ...goes back to playing a perfectly emulated game of Donkey Kong while sitting on the $hitter..

i prefer berserk or robotron myself when on the can 

[Green Giant]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

 ...goes back to playing a perfectly emulated game of Donkey Kong while sitting on the $hitter..

i prefer berserk or robotron myself when on the can 

Final Fantasy 4, all the way.  Gotten pretty far having only progressed while sitting on the throne.

[tommy]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

 ...goes back to playing a perfectly emulated game of Donkey Kong while sitting on the $hitter..

Maybe that's why i think it's trash, if i were to play on the shitter it might end up IN the shitter. 

[Green Giant]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

 ...goes back to playing a perfectly emulated game of Donkey Kong while sitting on the $hitter..

Maybe that's why i think it's trash, if i were to play on the shitter it might end up IN the shitter. 

And he is back to rag on portable gaming.

So which do you hate the most, Gameboy/NDS, PSP, or the GP2X?

[tommy]

Well, i think both of those are junk and would not be worth doing anything with.

 ...goes back to playing a perfectly emulated game of Donkey Kong while sitting on the $hitter..

Maybe that's why i think it's trash, if i were to play on the shitter it might end up IN the shitter. 

And he is back to rag on portable gaming.

So which do you hate the most, Gameboy/NDS, PSP, or the GP2X?

Chill out dude, im kidding with you.

[ChadTower]

Maybe that's why i think it's trash, if i were to play on the shitter it might end up IN the shitter. 

For Christ's sake, no wonder you can't tell good gameplay from bad.  You're too busy dodging turds while you play.

You know you're supposed to sit above the bowl?

[tommy]

Maybe that's why i think it's trash, if i were to play on the shitter it might end up IN the shitter. 

For Christ's sake, no wonder you can't tell good gameplay from bad.  You're too busy dodging turds while you play.

You know you're supposed to sit above the bowl?

Ah, and all this time i was looking for a waterproof hand held and could not find one.

[ChadTower]

Maybe try one of these.