Remember the Sega Saturn? You know, that short-lived game system of the mid 90’s. Well, [c_mon] is still a fan and decided to make a portable version with a built in screen.
As you can see from the photos, the main case is made from wood, plywood to be exact. Several pieces of the plywood were cut out using a CNC Router and laminated together to achieve the full height needed to enclose the internal electronics. The finished case takes up a little less real estate than the original, however it is slightly taller.
You may recognize the screen as an old PSOne unit. The screen was taken part and housed in it’s own wooden enclosure which is hinged to the main case. The video is supplied to the screen by a composite output from the Saturn. There is no unique CD lid either, the screen functions as one when it is folded down. For sound there are a couple built in powered speakers that tap into the stock audio output.
To ad a little pizzazz, [c_mon] routed in a groove in the top to accept some EL wire. There are also some cool engravings in the wooden case, including the Saturn Automobile Manufacturer logo on the top of the screen lid…. whoops!
This is pretty cool- I dig the EL wire. And the Saturn car logo- well played!
it took me a few to figure out where I knew that logo from… and why it didn’t belong. well played, sir…
Nice, but it would have looked nicer in matte black.
I will never understand why these guys go to all the effort and expense of CNC routing a case, embedding EL wire and fancy lights, all the finishing touches, expensive batteries, slicing edges off PCBs for a better fit… and then they put a microscopic screen on top. That PSOne screen is like 5″ diagonal.
+1. LCDs are so cheap nowadays. I think the problem is finding one bigger than 7″ but smaller than 19″ without buying a laptop screen and one of those adapters. A new 19″ LCD TV can be had for $60 to $80, but the above combination usually costs more.
Those adapters can be had for less than $10 these days if you only want VGA/DVI in.
The other problem is finding one that are 4:3 ratio. It’s been some years since I’ve seen new source of LCD with composite or 15khz RGB input that is 4:3 and if playing on 16:9 the image usually gets stretched ugly. Most small 16:9 LCD do not offer 4:3 mode with black bars at all.
composite to the screen? Why? The Saturn puts out RGB natively and the PSOne screen takes RGB natively. Why not use that for the best image possible? I use RGB with the PSOne screen I have hooked to one of my Genesis consoles.
The reason he had the Saturn Car company logo instead of the Sega Saturn logo is because he couldn’t get the CNC router to make the Sega Saturn logo correctly.
ew.