Portable C64

[Ynot.zer0]

kinda what I wanted to do with my CPC6128 (by still haven't gotten around to it):


wpqrek - Things that I do!: My C64 mods

[Gryzor]

Ooh, cool! What battery will he use though?


Also, you only have space to do this on a Plus, unless you remove the drive (and the screen will be too small...).

[Bryce]

I was thinking of doing something like this with a CPC+ using a HxC and this display: Sony PlayStation 1 und TFT-LCD-Screen plus 3Spiele | eBay
Great little display and can be wired directly to the CPCs RGB signals with minimal extra hardware!

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

I was thinking of doing something like this with a CPC+ using a HxC and this display: Sony PlayStation 1 und TFT-LCD-Screen plus 3Spiele | eBay
Great little display and can be wired directly to the CPCs RGB signals with minimal extra hardware!

Bryce.

Any thoughts about the case?

[steve]

The PS1 screen looks about the same size as a GX4000, so it could make a nice portable gaming console, you could mount the PCB behind the PS1 screen.

[rexbeng]

Isn't this one the mother of all portable C64 mods? Bryce should have a look; there's some serious hardware here! 


rb

[Bryce]

Yes, that looks seriously well made. I was looking at using a Toshiba laptop. The floppy is "CPC compatible" and there's enough space inside for a 6128 or CPC+ PCB.

Bryce.

[Ynot.zer0]

Yes, that looks seriously well made. I was looking at using a Toshiba laptop. The floppy is "CPC compatible" and there's enough space inside for a 6128 or CPC+ PCB.

Bryce.

I've got the next week off work, so inbetween hot-rod work, I think I'm going to start measuring up old laptops and 6128 motherboards... will post updates if I make any... and obviously questions when I get stuck!

[MacDeath]

Reminds me of this chick who made a C64 handbag (also a NES one I guess).


Jeri Ellsworth



BTW a few problems may arise :
=no support for CTR tricks...
=Amstrad CPC motherboard are real powersink... don't expect good autonomy because +5V at 3A is somewhat more than any modern device.


Jery did her C64 purse with the C64toTV card, which is a compact modern thing who use less power.

I know that to get rid of real old 3" floppy Disk drive may be good to use less power, still.













Those should have had a monitor plug to be connected on TV IMO.










I would also love to see what can be done whith that :



They feature a ZX spectrum 128 emulator, from what i heard... oh shit, they should get a proper CPC/PLUS/PCW/PCW16 emulator too.


Look at this sweet speccy style keyboard...

[MacDeath]

Sorry for the double post but my past message was already heavy on pictures... needed a break.


I think a big issue with the use of small LCD/phone/mini flat display on CPC is that the CPC has a few extra resolutions that arte no more standard...
Modern developpers love to play with this...
Be it vertical or horizontal or full full screen.

compaired to a good old CRT monitor, you clearly can loose resolution even though the large majority of CPC games only use a modest speccy resolution (256x192...).

a common 640x480 display could get a few extra vertical overscan but can't deal with horizontal overscan, yet it can deal with X-standard Mode2.

What you may aim at is something able to get a 768 horizontal display, and perhaps 512 vertical one (256 is nice enough, but 272 is somewhat used for a few graphics...)

Good point : modern screen can be fliped, but are rarely 4/3 or 3/4 or 5/4...

So I guess some stuff to get re-dimensions may be welcomed.
Also beware of hasardous pixel ratios.

Pal emulation could be nice too.

A 320x240 (or 240x320) miniscreen could be nice, but would not do any Mode2 at all.

1024x768 (or 768x1024) is actually quite good...
Could do the whole overxscan modes...

=1024/4 = 256 : a correct vertical overscan/fullscreen, quite "safe zone" and somewhat supported by games (Arkanoid?)
=768 being the overscaned horizontal Mode2... (768/384/192...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_displays_by_pixel_density

Haha, lurk for an Ipad (1st gen) monitor then...

The ideal is to aim at monitors/screens with pixels ratio of 1:1 or even 2... mode2 is the de facto CPC stapple reference and is 2 (or 1/2 depending the flip of the screen).

Perhaps we should do some page to reference the CPC friendly modern LDCD/Flat screen (big or mini) which could be cannibalised..? 


some not so modern Cameras may have nice monitor to cannibalize too I guess...
Some 720x480 resolution could give a good enough safe zone...


in mode1 this goes for a decent 360x240.
Speccy ports and spanish games would still pull a large border, but you may not be able to check remaining lives or score while playing Arkanoid.

[Bryce]

The CPC mainboard doesn't use anything close to 3A. In fact it pulls just a tiny bit over 1A even when it's fully loaded. A modern Laptop battery could keep it going for quite a while.

Bryce.

[redbox]

This would be easier: