Gameport: retro-focused portable with help from Ben Heck

by Christopher Grant { May 30th 2007 at 1:14PM }

The inimitable Ben Heck is taking his considerable console building talents and going pro. Well, maybe "pro" isn't the exact right word, but he's lent his design skills, as well as his portable handheld naming skills, to the Gameport handheld system. The device is just a prototype, so we have no information on availability or price, but we do know it should pack a 5-hour battery life, a 480 by 234 pixel screen, a video-out for playing on your television, SD card support (for storing your games, et al), and a USB 1.1 port for loading the thing up. Their goal is to create a system that reproduces the original experience of the 8-bit classics as closely as possible and, with open source software, encourage a development community to grow around the platform. Check out Ben on GameTrailer's GameOne and jump ahead to the last segment for some video of the Gameport.

[Via Engadget]

Tags: BenHeck, Emulation, Gameport

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

jadenguy @ Jun 1st 2007 12:22AM

so it's like a lower priced (hopefully with those specs) gp2x?

Chalito @ May 30th 2007 1:26PM

I'll stick to my GP2X, thanks :)

Jon @ May 30th 2007 1:30PM

GP32 & GP2X, both has a much nicer design, can emulate more and been out for years.

kingofwale @ May 30th 2007 1:35PM

sticking with my OE firmwared PSP, sorry.

Fatass of Kickassness @ May 30th 2007 1:37PM

Just 8 bit? Nah. Now, if it could handle sNes games...

NintendoFanbot @ May 30th 2007 2:19PM

"encourage a development community to grow around the platform."

Uh-huh. Suuuuuuure. Whatever they say.

To be honest wasn't making games for consoles of Atari, Colecovision, Famicom (with Famicom BASIC)'s generation, much, MUCH more accessible in their original hardware forms (with keyboards and memory cartridges/tapes)?

Progression of technology FTL.

Jonathan Tran @ May 30th 2007 2:38PM

I am pretty sure that, short of outpute and color, every TI-89 calculator can run any 8 bit game. I mean that's how my physics class showed each other their pokemanz.

If this could do 16 bit, then we're talking.

Also, wireless multiplayer would be nice.

Johan Kr�ger-Haglert @ May 30th 2007 3:06PM

Exactly, just get the GP2X instead.

Kerber @ May 30th 2007 2:47PM

Uh, is it me or is this thing sorta ugly?

Steve @ May 30th 2007 10:44PM

The alignment of the orange and blue buttons look like they'd be difficult to manage.

Zed @ May 30th 2007 6:06PM

It's not emulation, mind.

"The team at RetroGames has decided to take a radically different approach and provide synthesized versions of the original hardware for all the popular 8 bit classic systems. With this method, everything is faithful to the original consoles, from the small glitches to the authentic feeling when you play with the GamePort".

Aberu @ May 30th 2007 7:27PM

PSP or a GP2X would own this thing anyday. GP's can emulate 16 bit, play their own original games and look a lot better than this fat piece of crap. Ben Heck may be some revered legend around Joystiq here, but c'mon people won't buy just anything. It looks uglier than the first Gameboy for cryin out loud. And bigger. Only 5 hours? My PSP does better, and is smaller and more complex. L2lithiumion nub.

letmethink @ Jun 1st 2007 1:51AM

Aberu, before you bashing it, you should maybe read a little bit more about it. On Atariage they say "it is smaller than a PSP and as tall as a can of soda. Also it is just a prototype which was made in a few days for a TV apperance, the real case actually folds like a DS"

BoogerMan @ Jun 1st 2007 5:27AM

I love it when people make retro hardware! Copied chips (into FPGA, I would assume) is a new approach. But if it's going to be big it will have to compete with GP2X and also PSP.

The GP2X is the leader of this field because of a better joystick, battery life, screen and TV-out, but both already have a huge developer community with stuff getting ported from one to the other.

So I don't think it will compete efficiently, but I like the idea of emulating the CPU etc with hardware. I hope they cut down on the buffering and have a fast screen, so you can get as close as possible to the real thing. That would be a true advantage over an emulator since the original had no buffers of any kind. It's called immediate feedback.