Thinking about turning an old laptop into a TV rombox

[kaedesdisciple]

I got to thinking the other day, "hey, I can take this old laptop with a vga out and make it into a rombox for my HDTV!" All I should need is a vga cable, a 3.5mm m/m audio cable, 2 of the retrousb snes ports, 2 snes pads and I should be all set!

I'm thinking about doing this with an old ibook g4 that I don't use regularly anymore.

Has anyone done something like this before that can share some thoughts/ideas?

[izarate]

I've done one but with a small PC that I built from spare parts. All in all it works well, but you'll need a wireless mouse for selecting the ROM and such tasks.

[Tommy]

Sounds very doable. Won't see why it wouldn't work if you can have your laptop setup for dual monitor or something or just video out? Can't wait to see.

[jb143]

I've done one but with a small PC that I built from spare parts. All in all it works well, but you'll need a wireless mouse for selecting the ROM and such tasks.

They make wireless trackballs that look like TV remotes for presentations and the like. One of those would work pretty well. If you have an old style serial port I've got one I'd let go for cheap.

It's the same as this guy here (http://www.waltermorales.net/images/webremote.jpg).

[Nick Goracke]

I'm thinking about doing something similar, but...

Do they make any nice wireless controllers for the PC? I've been looking for an XBox 360/PS3 Bluetooth equivalent, but everything I see is wired.

[DeuZZ]

I've done one but with a small PC that I built from spare parts. All in all it works well, but you'll need a wireless mouse for selecting the ROM and such tasks.

If you would be able to get ahold of a multi-emulator front-end for mac, I think that would be a better solution. With that, you have all your emus/roms in one place, and everything can be controlled using only your joypad/joystick.
I've had a good experience using MaLa (http://malafe.net/), to bad there isn't a version available for mac.

[FrakAttack]

Do they make any nice wireless controllers for the PC? I've been looking for an XBox 360/PS3 Bluetooth equivalent, but everything I see is wired.

I'd been using a wired Xbox 360 controller for all of my emus until I picked up a Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows last month at K-Mart for $10. Works great for a living room setup.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessgamingreceiver/

[skaar]

The xbox setup seems like the way to go... either that or build/buy yourself one of those arcade "consoles" and run a cable.

Myself I've been using a few xboxes for that kinda thing still. I had a mac mini running to the hdtv for awhile but didn't have the patience to dig up all the emus and whatnot.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

This is what I do with my old Thinkpad. In fact, it's what I used the laptop for a lot even when it was my only one. In addition to games, it's also what I watch all my movies and listen to all my music through. Using a laptop as a media center computer makes a lot of sense because the built in screen is really useful, either for when you only want to listen to music or just because seeing the image on the TV screen is sort of hard when you're standing right up in front of it like that.

I use one of those Magic 3-in-1 adapters that accepts Playstation, Saturn and Dreamcast controllers, this give me just about all the input options I need for any system including arcade sticks and dual analog as well as a couple good plain digital pads.

I don't know if there's anything similar for Macs, but I use an app called XPadder that translates joypad inputs into keyboard and mouse inputs. You just set it up so that buttons perform whichever keystrokes you'll need and put mouse movement on an analog stick and you're all set to go. I just keep XPadder running in the background and have it set up so that if I press down on the Playstation's L3 or R3 button it will switch back and forth between different control modes, either mouse and keyboard hotkeys for navigating around in Windows, an all keyboard setup for playing games that don't support a joypad (Flash games and such) or just pure joypad with no keyboard or mouse mapping. Works very well.

Nice thing about using a computer is that in addition to all the emulated consoles and MAME and PC games, you open up a whole world of PC homebrew and Flash games and stuff. I love those types of games and it's great to have access to them. Grid Wars 2 and all of ABA/Kento Cho's games (especially Gunroar) are probably actually my most played games.


...word is bondage...

[Nick Goracke]

I'd been using a wired Xbox 360 controller for all of my emus until I picked up a Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows last month at K-Mart for $10. Works great for a living room setup.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessgamingreceiver/

This is what I was looking for - thankyou!

[boatofcar]

As I've lamented in previous posts, the Mac emu scene sucks compared to what's availble in Windows. If you want to have a computer for a rombox, sell your iBook G4, buy a used Thinkpad, and buy a new current gen game with the money you have leftover.