Mame In A Briefcase Project....

[PsychoPCFan]

Sup All...
Now that I have a whole lot of free time now I figured I would start on a project that I have been thinking about for some time now. I'm a sucker for any classic arcade game (as well as my wife). We have 8 of our own cabinets here at home (Ms. PacMan, Galaga, Frontline, Star Wars, Burger Time, Zaxxon, Q-Bert, and Track and Field). I want to be able to play when I am not at home and/or on the road. This is where my next project came to mind.

Mame In A Briefcase.

First the technical side...

I want to be able to run Mame32, games between 1979-95.I am looking for ideas/opinions here on which direction I should go. I'm thinking either a mATX (nForce 2 chipset) or one of those Via Epia (mini-itx) setups. Speed wise if I go with a mATX, I would stick with an AMD 2400+ XP (Can I go less?). If I go with the Epia's, I am looking at a VIA EPIA CL 10000. I would load either with 256MB ram and use the onboard video/audio. Can I avoid using a keyboard all together? I figured I would use 2 USB game pad’s and/or USB/Wireless mouse/trackball. I have some other ideas for the controls but that will be for the construction side of things. I also want to have a nice LCD/Video Monitor mounted inside. A good example of my idea is right here. http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/attacheserver/

Next ... Instead of running a hard drive, can I get, let's say a 1 gig USB key, load Win 98SE or Win 2000/XP with Mame, roms, samples, etc. and run everything from the USB key?

That's what I have in my head right now, is this something that seems like it can become a reality or no?

Ideas, Suggestions, Thoughts etc are welcomed...

Thanks.

 

[GlobalFear]

Now I don't know alot about mame,But imo a gig wont be enough if you want to have a decent sized library.

 

[specialk]

Speed wise if I go with a mATX, I would stick with an AMD 2400+ XP (Can I go less?).

Of course you can go less. Buy an old Pentium 266MHz+ laptop and there's your portable MAME system...

Next ... Instead of running a hard drive, can I get, let's say a 1 gig USB key, load Win 98SE or Win 2000/XP with Mame, roms, samples, etc. and run everything from the USB key?

Don't do it. Flash memory (which is what the "USB keychains" use) has a finite lifecycle (actual length varies from manufacturer to manufacturer). The problem is that Windows has a swap file that will eat up the life of the flash pretty darn quick, so you would probably want to go a Linux route instead. Even if you did, pricewise it is not worth it. At all. Buy a 1GB laptop hard drive instead.

-special [k]

 

[rm.o]

You could always go the bootable cd route, I seem to remember a mame distro that was a boot cd, I'll see if I can find it.

Edit:
Found it, http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/cd-readme.html

 

[MAXX RS4]

All I have to say is:

Don't bring a suitcase like that to the airport. Unless, of course, you liked to be victim of full cavity searches..