Advice Please: Portable MAME Device

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

I've been looking around to no avail, and was hoping that I can get
input on what kind of PC I can use to play several older MAME
games.(ie: Pac-man, Donkey Kong, ect.).

Laptops and notebooks don't seem to be much of an option because of the
battery life issue, and I was hoping to find something that I can play
for no less than 8 hours on a charge.

Does anything like this exist?

Recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Searcher7@mail.con2.com wrote:

> Laptops and notebooks don't seem to be much of an option because of the
> battery life issue, and I was hoping to find something that I can play
> for no less than 8 hours on a charge.

Don't overlook the laptops (like certain Dells) where you can remove the
CD-ROM or floppy drive and insert a second battery. Those can get pretty
close to 8 hours across the two, and if you hot-swap 'em (charging one
while the other's in play), or have more than 2 charged and ready, you
can go pretty much forever. -JW

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Searcher7@mail.con2.com wrote:
> J. Weaver Jr. wrote:
>> Searcher7@mail.con2.com wrote:
>>
>>> Laptops and notebooks don't seem to be much of an option because of
>>> the battery life issue, and I was hoping to find something that I
>>> can play for no less than 8 hours on a charge.
>>
>> Don't overlook the laptops (like certain Dells) where you can remove
>> the CD-ROM or floppy drive and insert a second battery. Those can
>> get pretty close to 8 hours across the two, and if you hot-swap 'em
>> (charging one while the other's in play), or have more than 2
>> charged and ready, you can go pretty much forever. -JW
>
> Thanks.
>
> Thats's interesting.
>
> You wouldn't by any chance know of any particular model
> numbers?(Perhaps I can find a cheap one on Ebay).

Inspiron 2500 has 2 bays, ours has a battery in one and a floppy in the
other, according to the manual a 2nd batt can be swapped for the floppy.

> I guess only a hard drive and ram on the mobo are the only things I
> really need.
>
> I just have to figure out how long the total life of these batteries
> are, since their maximum charge will decrease over time. I also have
> to determine whether or not these batteries are standardized enough
> not to worry about finding replacements when needed.

Depending on how mobile you want it and where you'll use it an external
power pack could be used. A big battery connected to a laptop car power
supply would do and would form a scaleable supply:-
Not going far take 1or 2 internal batteries.
Going further but no power source take the external source.
Away for a few days but have a mains supply available - take a charger to
top the battery back up.

--
James...
www.jameshart.co.uk