Someone should make Laptop portables

[veronica_marsfan]

Laptops are nice and compact to carry.
But feature large 10 inch screens.
Perfect for gaming & not having to squint at tiny postage-stamp-sized DS, GBA, or PSP screens.

[Kejoriv]

umm, what? Are you saying that portable gaming systems need bigger screens?

[monkeysuit]

Last time I checked you can play games on laptops.

[rbudrick]

Someone should make Laptop portables

Last time I checked, laptops were portable.

There's always emulation and TV adapters, though.

-Rob

[Lady Jaye]

Yeah, I'm also trying to understand the point of this thread.

Although the idea of trying to fit in a laptop in a pocket makes me chuckle...

[neuropolitique]

I think I may get it. Make a device the size of a laptop, but dedicated to gaming? These systems could be nearly current gen in power. With TV out they could be very neat devices.

But, seriously, laptops already exist. There are more games available to them than for any console or portable. Many have bluetooth, and so can use wireless controllers. Many also have TV out. So the big question in Why?

[CartCollector]

If a dedicated gaming machine was made with a laptop-sized case, it might be able to be more powerful for games than a similarly-priced laptop. For instance, you wouldn't need as large a hard drive, and you wouldn't need the disk drive to write to -R or -RW discs. You also wouldn't have to have as many ports on the side/back, and could take out the keyboard and touchpad. What all this means is that you'd have more space for less money, so you could fit in more cooling and components, yet still be cheaper than a comparable laptop.

[kedawa]

Someone has made 'laptop portables'.
There's a PC Engine one, iirc, and there are pictures of a notebook Wii mod floating around the internets.

[veronica_marsfan]

I think I may get it. Make a device the size of a laptop, but dedicated to gaming? These systems could be nearly current gen in power. With TV out they could be very neat devices.

RIGHT. In other words you would have a "Nintendo Gameboy 2010" or "Sony PSP-2", but in the same shape & form factor a laptop.

It would be portable, like a notebook, but with a good-sized screen that would feature 1080p resolution. (Instead of the current wallet-sized portables that you have to squint to see the little mario.) And no keyboard.

[monkeysuit]

It would be portable, like a notebook, but with a good-sized screen that would feature 1080p resolution.

Jesus fucking christ.

[jcalder8]

It would be portable, like a notebook, but with a good-sized screen that would feature 1080p resolution. (Instead of the current wallet-sized portables that you have to squint to see the little mario.) And no keyboard.
Who would this be marketed to?

I mean how many people would want to spend the kind of money it would cost to make a dedicated portable gaming system with HD 1080p a sizable screen(I'm guessing at least 18 inches) Besides if you look at the thread about the portable Wii that someone made such a thing already exists to those who care enough to do it and I'm sure it costs them a lot less than it would cost a company to do it.

[Lady Jaye]

RIGHT. In other words you would have a "Nintendo Gameboy 2010" or "Sony PSP-2", but in the same shape & form factor a laptop.

It would be portable, like a notebook, but with a good-sized screen that would feature 1080p resolution. (Instead of the current wallet-sized portables that you have to squint to see the little mario.) And no keyboard.

Squint to see the little Mario? Maybe you need glasses...

[§ Gideon §]

Make it with a special graphics chip that can only display red, and I'm sold.

[veronica_marsfan]

I mean how many people would want to spend the kind of money it would cost to make a dedicated portable gaming system with HD 1080p a sizable screen(I'm guessing at least 18 inches)

I said 10 inches.
Perhaps 1080p was a little aggresive.
Let's say 720p instead.

Pricetag would be somewhere around $250, and target audience would be preteens, teens and 20-somethings who want a "cool" laptop Gameboy2010 or PSP-2 instead of the tiny wallet-sized toy.

[cyberfluxor]

..... Alright. It would seem quite pointless for the fact that for $250 that is around the price it'd be retail for the screen alone. It's a wild goose chase. You're better off getting an older laptop for $100-250 and installing emulation on it.

[jcalder8]

I said 10 inches.
Perhaps 1080p was a little aggresive.
Let's say 720p instead.

Pricetag would be somewhere around $250, and target audience would be preteens, teens and 20-somethings who want a "cool" laptop Gameboy2010 or PSP-2 instead of the tiny wallet-sized toy.
Only 10 inches? With a screen in 720p I want games like Gears, Halo and Resistance and 10 inches would be way too small for that. I mean who wants to see a 2d platformer in 720p?

Also there is no way this would be under 700, just look at the cost of the psp.

[TheRedEye]

My lap feels like it's on fire just imagining the heat that thing would ouput (not to mention it would probably be at least $1,500 at retail).

Also, if you think 720p or 1080p is acceptable in 10", I don't think you understand what HD signals are.

[kedawa]

I mean who wants to see a 2d platformer in 720p?

{raises hand}

[veronica_marsfan]

{raises hand}

Since both the DS and the PSP can do three-d games, the question was rather silly. The question is about 5 years behind the current state of technology. This laptop would basically be a PS2 (or Gamecube) in the size of a notebook.



As for cost, a ten-inch screen is not really anymore expensive that the 2-3 inch LCDs used in the DS and PSP. A few dollars more, tops.

I wonder:

Whoever suggested the "touchable" Gameboy (DualScreen) to Nintendo. Did he meet the same kind of close-minded resistance to the idea?
"A touchable gameboy? With two screens??? Foolishness."
"Yeah it would cost too much to have two screens!"
"Insane idea."

Probably.

And yet the touchable Gameboy called the DS turned-out to be extremely popular.

[exit]

The whole idea of the portable game is that it's portable, as in you can walk down the street, sit on a bus, stand in line and play a mean game of Tetris. Having a laptop sized "portable game" would defeat that purpose, since in the long run it would be extra weight to carry, thus not being very portable as compared to a PSP.

And squinting while playing Mario? Maybe you should get your eyes checked.

[Anthony1]

I'm interested in portables with larger screens, but I'm not interested in a foldable device that you have to rest on your lap or whatever. That really isn't portable and comfortable as far as I'm concerned. Now, having said all that, I would love to see a device that would take a Xbox 360 controller, chop it in half, and in the middle, have a 16:9 screen like the PSP, very bright like the PSP, but about 40 percent larger in terms of screen real estate.


The Thumbsticks would be retractable, so that it would make it easier to fit into bags and such, and the 360 controller would be reduced in size by about 24 percent or so. So basically, you take a Xbox 360 controller, shrink it about 24 percent of it's normal size, chop it in half, put a screen about 40 percent larger than the PSP screen in the middle, put 10 gigs of internal ram inside it, and built in Wi-Fi, and your good to go.

[jonjandran]

My lap feels like it's on fire just imagining the heat that thing would ouput (not to mention it would probably be at least $1,500 at retail).

Also, if you think 720p or 1080p is acceptable in 10", I don't think you understand what HD signals are.

There is a very nice 10.6" 1280x768 (720p capable) Lcd with controller for sale from China right now for $220.

But the best 1080p lcd is the 15.4" Wuxga screens from Dell laptops. And they need a controller that currently costs about $300-350. And the screens are a minimum of $225 on Ebay.

So you can get nice 720p and 1080p screens right now but they will cost you :)

[CartCollector]

Maybe, instead of a screen, you could have something like these video goggles (http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__WT215). They (supposedly) give you what appears to be a 43" screen without having to carry the 43" screen. Caveats: Price (It's more expensive than some of the LCD screens listed here), resolution (480p), and that putting them on makes you unable to see around you. It might also cause Virtual Boy headaches, but then again, I haven't tried them. Now to BRING ON THE PESSIMISM!


I wonder:

Whoever suggested the "touchable" Gameboy (DualScreen) to Nintendo. Did he meet the same kind of close-minded resistance to the idea?
"A touchable gameboy? With two screens??? Foolishness."
"Yeah it would cost too much to have two screens!"
"Insane idea."

Probably.

And yet the touchable Gameboy called the DS turned-out to be extremely popular.

I wonder:

Whoever suggested the the "3D" Gameboy (Virtualboy) to Nintendo. Did he meet the same kind of close minded resistance to the idea?
"A 3D gameboy? With only 32 shades of red??? Foolishness."
"Yeah it would cost too much to have that many LEDs!"
"Insane idea."

Probably.

And yet the 3D Gameboy called the Virtualboy turned-out to be extremely popu... Oh, wait, it didn't.

Remember, for every sucess, there are many failures. Some of which don't even get past the drawing board.

[Rev. Link]

Pricetag would be somewhere around $250, and target audience would be preteens, teens and 20-somethings who want a "cool" laptop Gameboy2010 or PSP-2 instead of the tiny wallet-sized toy.

I don't have to say this to people here often, but this is just idiotic. Did you escape from GameFAQs or something? Wallet-sized toy? Squinting at Mario? Please.

[neuropolitique]

Maybe, instead of a screen, you could have something like these video goggles (http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__WT215). They (supposedly) give you what appears to be a 43" screen without having to carry the 43" screen. Caveats: Price (It's more expensive than some of the LCD screens listed here), resolution (480p), and that putting them on makes you unable to see around you. It might also cause Virtual Boy headaches, but then again, I haven't tried them. Now to BRING ON THE PESSIMISM!

Bring that battery life up to about 8 hours and you may have something. Not very portable, but neat none-the-less.

[Zing]

The PSP has a resolution of 480x272. I don't think you need a 1080p or 720p screen to display graphics that are lower resolution than the original PlayStation.

I think what you really want to ask for is that the current generation of consoles not be so freaking huge. If this was 2001, a PSOne with the LCD would probably be exactly what you are asking for. If the PS3 or 360 was the size of the PS2 or smaller, you could simply attach on a 7-10" LCD and have a "portable" system.

[MonoTekETeA]

http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/28/the-rogue-gaming-tablet-pc/2

This is an old idea that I wish did get off the ground. A gaming tablet PC, portable and all. Would have been nice, because it would have been a full fledge PC.

[j_factor]

I instantly thought of those Gamecube screens they used to sell.

Also, ever heard of the Treamcast?