At 11:07 AM 4/15/00 -0700, Pete Holland wrote:
If there wasn't, what would it take to make one,
assuming I found a housing for it? How much would it
cost?
Hobbywise, it's probably too expensive, and the end result too builky. But
the electronics in the 2600 could definitely be reduced down into a very
small, very inexpensive, low-power consumption VLSI chip.
I think a portable 2600 could be made with all the good games in it and
still be cheaper than a gameboy color, and with long battery life. Plus,
LCD resolution wouldn't have to be greater than 160x200 since that's the
effective resolution of the sprites, so there wouldn't be the same loss in
clarity that you might see on the Nomad running Genesis games. The only
thing you'd have to worry about is how fast the LCD refreshes due to the
games that feature flicker.
I think this would be a pretty cool unit if it:
a) still had a way to plug in cartridges (flip a lid or something)
b) had composite, S-Video, and dual channel audio outs (with a switch for
mono) so it could be used as a regular 2600.
c) had 2 mini DIN ports with an adapter to plug in regular controllers to
bypass the on-board (let's say single) joypad.
d) could run in NTSC or PAL mode
e) had a way to halt the 6507 while holding a full image in framebuffer
memory for true hardware pause.
f) Hacked some of the games so you could store high scores in internal
battery backed SRAM or EEPROM.
g) Had the equivalent of a 64K Supercharger on board with an audio jack so
you could load games or any size from the PC, any banking scheme, and store
them in SRAM/EEPROM with a selection menu.
h) headphone jack
i) 2 small internal speakers for the dual channel audio
Even cooler would be if they came up with a color 2600 GAME WATCH. Now
that I'd pay a good $100 for. Talk about a conversation piece.
Glenn Saunders - Producer - Cyberpunks Entertainment
Personal homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698
Cyberpunks Entertainment: http://cyberpunks.uni.cc
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