Portable Atari 2600 gaming......

[Atari2600Lives]

I noticed some real cool emulators for Pocket PCs...The cassieopia 125s go for under $300.

 

Anyone ever try these emulators? it seems you can get a couple of hundred roms in there and the emulation is suppose to be pretty solid.....hey for under $300 you would have your own portable 2600 pocket size machine!

[Velvis2001]

I use a Casio EM500 (similair to the 115) and run Pocket VCS. Its ok but a little slow on some games but each game is configurable.

 

But:

1) $300 is to much for the 115. The EM500,115, & 125 are very old models and can be had for less.

 

2) Faster machines exist. There is a new PPC for around $350 (cant remember the name) These will run PocketVCS (and other emulators) far better.

 

3) That said the older Casios have the best screens, best joypads/layouts for gaming, and can be overclocked to run emulators full speed, If you can pick one up for <$200 I'd recommend them.

 

4) Watch out for the older Ipaqs as the gamepad cant be used at the same time as a fire button....

 

5) The older HP Jornadas have a horrible layout and have very slow processors.

 

I really love being able to whip out a quick game of Demon Attack whereever I am....

[Atari2600Lives]

Hi Velvis-

 

First off welcome to the forum!

 

If I had to go buy one tomoorow which one do you recommend and what's the price you would pay for it?

[Velvis2001]

It really depends on what you want:

 

Do you want to spend under $200?

Checkout used and discounted Casios (EM500, 115, 125) The EM500 is physically smaller but only has 16MB's of ram (you can plug in MMC/SD cards to expand its external memory though). The 115 and 125 come with 32MB and also are expandable. The 16MBs is real tight on the EM500.

 

Will it be used outside?

The Casios have a screen that is really only useable indoors. All the PPC 2002 devices have a screen that can be seen indoors/outdoors and they use a lighted screen to achive that. (ie it is lit from the sides so it can be seen indoors, outside it uses ambient light) The downside is the screens dont look as nice indoors as a older Casio. Personal preference and a needs issue.

 

Is it mostly for gaming?

Look for a device with a nice button layout. All the newer PPC2002 devices have the control button in the center of the unit. This may or may not be a factor if you like how it feels. Again the older Casios have the controller on the left side like a Gameboy.

 

 

Deciding between a PPC and a PPC2002 device:

The Pocket PC 2002 units are all very similar and all run the same processor (ARM), Software is slowly being phased out for the older processors (MIPS:Casio and SH:HP), as time goes by more and more stuff will be ARM only.

 

If your willing to spend $350 the Toshiba E310 is the cheapest (I think) PPC2002 model. I dont know any specifics on it (again the PPC2002s are all very similar in specs) or if it has any pros/cons as far as gaming goes. There are plenty of PPC websites with this kind of info www.pocketgamer.org is one where you could post any questions realated to games and a specific device.

 

 

I have the EM500 with a 64 meg MMC card and it runs everything pretty good, but I am sure the new faster units would make mine seem slow.

 

I guess it boils down to how much you want to spend, but there are many who were disappointed in that fact that all the new PPC2002's have the same button layout (centered) and all have the indoor/outdoor screens and these people are sticking with the old Casios rather than upgrading.