PORTABLE JAGUAR

[kevincal]

Hey that would look sweet if someone could make a "mini-Jag" with the cartridge and cd in one..hmmm

[midwest_cdn]

Yeah thunder I hear u, but the difference is the playstation is still in manufacturing stage , the jag isnt.Of course they are going to find a cheaper and more practical approach to produce a playstation at a cheaper cost to sell additional units. As far as hard I really dont think so, after taking apart my burnt jag, modifications to the actual case could be pretty easy and also smaller.There is alot of dead room in there.

[Stone]

hi,

 

let me clear this all up for you guys:

 

EXTREMLY HIGH CHANCE THAT IT CAN BE DONE

 

why? because i have seen psx handhelds, dreamcast handhelds, n64 handhelds. i kid you not.

 

just search for nesP. you know, that portable nes. if you can create portables of snes, psx,dreamcast,n64 why no atari jaguar?

 

Did you even read this thread:?

 

What T-bird said. Anyway it's obviously possible, the question is whether you're happy to call a Jag with a battery pack and a screen on top 'a portable Jag'. Obviously it's portable in the sense that you can carry it, but then again I can carry an XBOX around too (with a little mental preparation and a favouring wind) but I wouldn't call it 'a portable'!

 

Stone

[TheBizDude]

Well, one thing's for sure - the Jag's graphics would look SHINE on a 3.5" LCD - they're impressive on my 53"

[Thunderbird]

Yeah thunder I hear u, but the difference is the playstation is still in manufacturing stage , the jag isnt.Of course they are going to find a cheaper and more practical approach to produce a playstation at a cheaper cost to sell additional units. As far as hard I really dont think so, after taking apart my burnt jag, modifications  to the actual case could be pretty easy and also smaller.There is alot of dead room in there.

 

Did you look at the photos posted above??!?!? There's almost zero "dead room" on the jaguar circuit board.

 

Sure, the chips on the board are not packed on the board right next to each other, but that's because there has to be room on the board for the traces to connect the chips together. Look at all the copper traces on the board and tell me how you're going to remove all this "dead space".

[Guest]

hi,

 

DONT Get me wrong. but the n64 doesnt have an "compact: Version neither does the dreamcast have. I AM not saying that you guys are wrong. i dont know anything about creating an portable. i just know that these systems have been put into an haldheld by hobbiyst.

 

(Now that someone is creating an atari2600 on an chip/ it would ber possible to create an atari 2600 handheld right? and the data could be stored on an smart media card just like the gp32 eh?

 

 

best regards,

 

dragonforce

[Thunderbird]

hi,

 

DONT Get me wrong. but the n64 doesnt have an "compact: Version neither does the dreamcast have. I AM not saying that you guys are wrong. i dont know anything about creating an portable. i just know that these systems have been put into an haldheld by hobbiyst.  

 

 

How can anyone get you wrong when you're already getting yourself wrong?

 

Everything you have read about making a portable jaguar here is 100% true. If you choose to say it is false, then you'd better be prepared to back it up with some facts. You're not going to get very far by sayng that you don't believe us.

[Guest]

I AM not saying that you guys are wrong

 

this means.

 

that i know that you guys AINT WRONG

 

hope you understand it now tough.

[Thunderbird]

I AM not saying that you guys are wrong

 

this means.

 

that i know that you guys AINT WRONG

 

hope you understand it now tough.

 

You can say you don't think we're wrong, but then how can you mean it when you go on to say that something we say is not practical should be because someone else did it for a completely different system?

[Guest]

my english is pretty bad (I Think) so i must have misunderstood this whole thing?=

 

what are we aguing about >_<

 

best regards,

 

dragonforce

[Punisher5.0]

Hey glad someone else has seen some other home  portables made.And punisher 5.0 I would love your input for the power supply problem.After thinking about it, I either do 2 things, use the jag case and modify it.I might have to sacrifice a jag controller and see if I can some how insert the contents in the shell. Also if i did decide to use the case  do you think I should use it  on the top side, or flip it over?Now looking where the circular part is, it would be pretty sweet  for the fold down lcd screen.And no, you dont need to get to technical, It can be built with off  the shelf parts.Sometimes the simplist approach is the best.Also, can a jag controller be modfied for both a rotary and directional pad? I figure if I atttempt to build one, I should go full hilt and built one within the unit for my beloved tempest 2k.Anyone got a cheap interact lcd they want to sell me?

 

You basically have two good sources for battery power.

 

1. A camcorder battery. You want to get one that has a high amp/hour rating and a voltage rating as close to 9 volts as possible.

 

2. A Li-ION notebook battery. I'd recommend Li-ION to Nickel Cadmium batteries because of the weight factor.

 

The only part of the Jaguar that I can think of that you can get rid of is the voltage regulator but I don't recommend it because you have to supply exactly 5 volts to the Jaguar. Any more and it's fried any less and it'll start acting up.

 

About the case: I recommend looking for project boxes. You can find them on the internet in many different sizes.

[LinkoVitch]

I am sure the last lines of the ARM CPU ran at over 33MHz which is faster than the Jag, so FPGA should be able to handle the 25 MHz of the Jag.  As I said, not the best soultion for a final product but still a possibility.  Since Acorn sold off ARM to Intel several years ago I would guess that FPGA technology has improved so possibly better than what they used.

 

The stuff I have read regarding ARM ip cores on FPGAs is that they have to run at a reduced clock rate to achieve full operation. Higher speeds are achieved when some of the complex arithmetic instructions are omitted.

 

You might be able to get the speed up if you split the Jaguar custom chips up into individual FPGAs, so the fitters could have more gates on each chip for optimized routing, but that defeats the purpose of the portable Jag.

 

In that case, to be different.. how about scaling UP a jaguar "Jaguar in a Room" "Cutting edge valve technology" That would also be cool in a sick sort of way

[midwest_cdn]

Sorry I have to disagree thunder, there is alot of dead room.The cart opening is about 2 and half inches high, and the sides almost a full inch on either sides.The is ample room to size it down.Hey thanx for the battery input also punisher.If i get really into the project i will need more input.(I am bidding on some lcds) .My thinkpad battery says 14.4 v, I figure it be a tad to much.i guess i will look round for a 9 volter.Also I did go over the thread about the cheap rotary controller, and if i did just get the guts of the controller within the box I would also add that rotary within for added tempest 2k pleasure.Anyone know what voltage the psone battery pack is?

I guess if i do give it a try i will have to buy yet another jag.Also anyone have any other links to the other home brew portables, I love to read how they went about it.

[Thunderbird]

Sorry I have to disagree thunder, there is alot of dead room. The cart opening is about 2 and half inches high,

 

That's just plain silly. The cart opening isn't inside the Jaguar, it's on the exterior.

 

Besides that, once you install a cart you take up even MORE room.

 

and the sides almost a full inch on either sides.The is ample room to size it down.Hey thanx for the battery input also punisher

 

I'm looking at the photos posted earlier and I'm not seeing an inch of dead space on the sides of that Jaguar board. Like I said, the board is about as small as your going to get it. You would be lucky to shave off 1/4" on the sides. If you chopped off 1" you'd lose the ROM and most of the video circuitry.

[Punisher5.0]

Sorry I have to disagree thunder, there is alot of dead room. The cart opening is about 2 and half inches high,

 

That's just plain silly. The cart opening isn't inside the Jaguar, it's on the exterior.

 

Besides that, once you install a cart you take up even MORE room.

 

and the sides almost a full inch on either sides.The is ample room to size it down.Hey thanx for the battery input also punisher

 

I'm looking at the photos posted earlier and I'm not seeing an inch of dead space on the sides of that Jaguar board. Like I said, the board is about as small as your going to get it. You would be lucky to shave off 1/4" on the sides. If you chopped off 1" you'd lose the ROM and most of the video circuitry.

 

I think he's talking about the size of the case in relation to the size of PCB.

[Stone]

I think he's talking about the size of the case in relation to the size of PCB.

 

Yeah, well, you could take the cart ports off the bottom and wire it direct to a controller...that'd save you a quarter-inch or so...

 

I have terrible visions of the 'portable' being a controller duct-taped to a bare PCB with a battery hanging off it, a bit like T-bird's Scatbox advert...

 

The best you're gonna be able to do is take the pcb out of the case. It's really quite packed with stuff, trust us on this.

 

Stone

[Thunderbird]

I think he's talking about the size of the case in relation to the size of PCB.

 

I've been talking about the PCBs all along in this discussion, so I don't know how we suddenly got talking about various systems case sizes. No wonder he insisted that Playstation was the only system that got smaller. He's talking about CASES here.

 

We don't care about case size when making a portable. You don't have to put the CASE into the portable box. You have to put the CIRCUIT BOARDS into the portable box. Usually, the CASE is thrown away in this process.

 

The Jag Circuit board is way big for a portable design, and has little room for reduction in size without a complete redesign. I suspect you could cut the size by 30% or more if you went with an 8 layer PCB.

[Willard]

Although a portable jaguar would be hard to make, wouldn't it be possibe to make a portable system capable of emulating the jaguar, but NOT include a socket which connects this portable jaguar to the computer, but have the cartridge slot only to load a rom from.

 

In more simple words, just make a cable which would quickly upload a rom from the jaguar cartridge, and send the rom strait to the emulator where it could be booted, and self-delete once the system would turn off?

It would give it the feel of a portable jaguar, being that the cartridge does have a purpose, since the roms couldn't be downloaded and stored, and it would be soooo much easier to make than re-doing the jaguar!

 

Is this possible? Maybe less expensive?

[jsoper]

Yeoww!.......

I've done a portable 2600 and have a couple other systems in mind, but would never try a jag, just too much complexity and board area (for example, no one has done a portable 7800 yet).

 

How about just getting a psone with screen, battery pack, Doom, Tempest X3, Rayman, Zoop, and Primal Rage and pretending it's a jag

 

PS: If that's not enough, try Pitfall 3d, the Raiden Project, and the Missile Command and Breakout updates as a stretch