Goity
VIP Sleaze
It's a good idea to add a watch battery... They're only about £2.50 for the rechargables after all...
Project Ninja
- Thread starter EvilDragon
- Start date
Vimacs
Don't be evil!
the best way to power the rtc would be a little goldcap conencted to the batetry, the rtc shouldnt draw to much so it should hold hours, if not days, without batterys and be full in a sec as soon as power is atached.
Squidge
Certified Guru
I remember when the cmos settings battery in PC's wasn't rechargable, but still managed to hold the memory contents for about a year or so 
Fishbong
man of poor reputation
Oh, wait ´til DaveC comes and flames you for mentioning the Zod....
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Blah
Wanna Be Programmer
A RTC battery wouldn't be an issue if it took rechargeable batteries and could charge them itself (IC3 AA's?)
Oh, wait ´til DaveC comes and flames you for mentioning the Zod....
I will flame him for saying that there is a full speed GBA emu. That is a lie :rolleyes:
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Got to keep on track.
No 16:9 it SUCKS for emulators.
640 x 480? not needed, all systems that would be emulated are 320 x 240 or less. That higher res would only increase cost and demand more throughput to drive all of the extra pixels. Take that extra money and just make the screen bigger like 4-4.5" and 4:3.
No analog. It sucks for emulation. It should have a d-pad like the old SNES pads. Those were probably the best d-pads.
Touchscreen? Not needed for emus. You want a PDA buy a PPC. It would be ok if cheap enough. I wouldn't sacrifice screen size for it though.
PDA capabilities and RTC? No because those will cause the batteries to drain even if not in use. That is one thing I hate about PDAs, you need to constantly be charging them or they will be dead when you go to use it.
NO custom batteries. When the battery goes so does the usefulness of the system. Use STANDARD batteries that can be purchased anywhere.
Also the thing shouldn't be wafer thin. It should have enough bulk to be ergonomic and not have buttons and pad that are too small and close together (see DS for buttons/pad that are too small close together).
No 16:9 it SUCKS for emulators.
640 x 480? not needed, all systems that would be emulated are 320 x 240 or less. That higher res would only increase cost and demand more throughput to drive all of the extra pixels. Take that extra money and just make the screen bigger like 4-4.5" and 4:3.
No analog. It sucks for emulation. It should have a d-pad like the old SNES pads. Those were probably the best d-pads.
Touchscreen? Not needed for emus. You want a PDA buy a PPC. It would be ok if cheap enough. I wouldn't sacrifice screen size for it though.
PDA capabilities and RTC? No because those will cause the batteries to drain even if not in use. That is one thing I hate about PDAs, you need to constantly be charging them or they will be dead when you go to use it.
NO custom batteries. When the battery goes so does the usefulness of the system. Use STANDARD batteries that can be purchased anywhere.
Also the thing shouldn't be wafer thin. It should have enough bulk to be ergonomic and not have buttons and pad that are too small and close together (see DS for buttons/pad that are too small close together).
Blah
Wanna Be Programmer
I don't see what everyone likes about d-pads. The d-stick is clearly better.
D-pads are more robust and have less parts. Microswitches in d-sticks tend to loosen up and wear out faster (making diagonals more difficult etc). They are also more costly to make because of the more moving parts etc. That is the main thing.
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Blah
Wanna Be Programmer
D-stick build quality isn't THAT horrendously bad, and the loss in robustness is way worth the added gameplay value.
Fishbong
man of poor reputation
What do you mean by "Standard"? Standard is any battery you can pick up in a supermarket, the most popular of them being the mignon (or AA) cell.
If you really hope to use those, please keep in mind that they may deliver enough voltage, but a high current drain (as required for a fast processor and big backlit screen) will speed up the chemical processes inside the batterys in a way that destroys them, so they could only deliver a part of their max. charge.
The common guideline says that a "Standard" battery can only drained with one tenth of its max. capacity per hour, or else the battery will deliver only a part of its charge (because of the speeded up chemical processes).
That´s why PDA manufacturers use "Custom" batterys, which can handle a high current drain.
And as you have pointed out before (in one of those Zodiac threads), even "custom" batterys can be replaced, so what´s your problem?
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White Demon
Sandy Wich's Boy
I agree with DaveC on every point he made and add this:
For a handheld that's going to be seen as the GP32's replacement why the hell is RTC needed? It's totally pointless.
Even if it did have it, it would never be set on mine, since I always remove the batteries/disconnect power when not in use. The Xbox was stupid not to have a battery inside for the clock, but again most of the time I don't care about it not being set anyway.
As far as RTC is concerned, If the device is not a PDA (which this won't be), what's the point?
Oh, and if you want touchscreen merely for things like onboard keyboards in emus, go buy a chatboard. That's what they're for.
But I don't think it needs to be totally wafer thin. The GP32, for example, is a nice size. Not too thick but still nice and compact.
For a handheld that's going to be seen as the GP32's replacement why the hell is RTC needed? It's totally pointless.
Even if it did have it, it would never be set on mine, since I always remove the batteries/disconnect power when not in use. The Xbox was stupid not to have a battery inside for the clock, but again most of the time I don't care about it not being set anyway.
As far as RTC is concerned, If the device is not a PDA (which this won't be), what's the point?
Oh, and if you want touchscreen merely for things like onboard keyboards in emus, go buy a chatboard. That's what they're for.
But I don't think it needs to be totally wafer thin. The GP32, for example, is a nice size. Not too thick but still nice and compact.
Blah
Wanna Be Programmer
The GP32 has a RTC, it just isn't battery backup-ed. Adding a little battery is no big problem for the manufacturing.
Touchscreens work as a mouse, also, which would be great for ports of PC games, RTS games, or SCUMM.
Touchscreens work as a mouse, also, which would be great for ports of PC games, RTS games, or SCUMM.
White Demon
Sandy Wich's Boy
Well there you go, I never knew that and so far it hasn't stopped me getting on and having fun with it. It's just not required.
And if you want mouse emulation, just use the pad/stick on the damn thing. Laptops have done with that little green/blue stick in the middle of the keyboard for years.
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onionfrog
Sir Cheapass Gamer
A d-pad would be alright if its a good one.. Like The Megadrive D-pad that rocked so hard!
Blah
Wanna Be Programmer
A RTC is used for keeping track of timing. Without it, all the emulators would run at erratic speeds.
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White Demon
Sandy Wich's Boy
Yeah OK it's required for timing, but what I'm saying it's not needed is for setting a battery backed clock and so forth. That seems to be what everyone is talking (writing) about.
Blah
Wanna Be Programmer
Yes, but I'd pay a couple more bucks for my $200+ handheld to be a spiffy watch also. Also games can use it a la Pokemon/Tomagotchi, and apps too.
shinneri
Certified Guru
I don't know if I'm wrong in thinking this, but the Project Ninja site states "homebrew handheld"--not "gp32-wannabe." I would rather have a reasonably priced, feature-rich emulation/gaming/multimedia/application machine than a cheap, crappy, and featureless machine.
RTC should be included. It won't increase the price much and will add a world of new functionality to the console.
Touch screen would be sweet, but I don't know the going rate for one of those. If it isn't too big of an expense, it should certainly be included. It would, again, add a great deal of new usefulness to the console.
I'm still on the fence about the aspect ratio that would be best for the device. Just so the vertical resolution is at least 240, I would have to go with the 16:9. A 16:9 touch screen though... pricey?
Oh, and how about calling it the GBAX FreeStyle?
RTC should be included. It won't increase the price much and will add a world of new functionality to the console.
Touch screen would be sweet, but I don't know the going rate for one of those. If it isn't too big of an expense, it should certainly be included. It would, again, add a great deal of new usefulness to the console.
I'm still on the fence about the aspect ratio that would be best for the device. Just so the vertical resolution is at least 240, I would have to go with the 16:9. A 16:9 touch screen though... pricey?
Oh, and how about calling it the GBAX FreeStyle?
Vimacs
Don't be evil!
not backing the rtc would just be stupid couse theres no reason not to, the rtc is there, the batteries are there, the batteries will likely have nearly allways enugh power to power the rtc, even if you cant play with them anymore they still have a tiny voltage that would be enugh to keep the rtc alive, add a tiny cap for 1$ and it will last while changeing batterys, theres realy no reason at all to not have it.
also a touchscreen would be nice for many things, not only for linux/windows ce/emus/virtual keyboards and so on but you can also do great homebrew games with it, and 3d game ports would also profit from it, hell, when you have a 400mhz cpu iam sure you will have pretty nie quake1/2 and homebrew 3d games, and for 3d games theres nothing better than a touch pad/screen. i dont think that a touchscreen costs much more than a normal screen and we allready have the controller in the chip, so theres also no big reason not to.
Also a cheap microphone is only 2$ and can also be connected to the chip, so why not add this also.
All that little things that dont cost much but add great value are the things that can make a machine intresting.
also a touchscreen would be nice for many things, not only for linux/windows ce/emus/virtual keyboards and so on but you can also do great homebrew games with it, and 3d game ports would also profit from it, hell, when you have a 400mhz cpu iam sure you will have pretty nie quake1/2 and homebrew 3d games, and for 3d games theres nothing better than a touch pad/screen. i dont think that a touchscreen costs much more than a normal screen and we allready have the controller in the chip, so theres also no big reason not to.
Also a cheap microphone is only 2$ and can also be connected to the chip, so why not add this also.
All that little things that dont cost much but add great value are the things that can make a machine intresting.
