Broken Android Tablet Mini-MAME Cabinet

Everyone’s got an unused or even quasi-broken tablet lying around these days. [sairuk] has three kids, and somehow ended up with three broken tablets in short order. We’re not saying that correlation implies causality…

The digitizers were shattered, and since they were relatively cheap tablets to begin with, [sairuk] started thinking what could be done with a tablet that doesn’t have touch sensing anymore. He tried making an e-book reader for his kids, but somehow the idea of a MAME “cablet” (get it?) won out in the end. We’re not surprised: simple woodworking, gaming, and electronic hacking. What’s not to love?

This writeup goes into a lot more detail, so check that out too. He and his sons built up cardboard prototypes first (we love cardboard!) and then transferred their plans over to wood for the final “rough cut”. A PS1 controller reads out the joystick and buttons, and a PS1 -> USB adapter plus a USB-OTG cable connects that to the tablet. They also removed the batteries and built in a permanent power supply. Everything is simple and cheap, but the results are still impressive. Although they claim their build isn’t finished to the utmost, it looks pretty darn good to us.

We’re all frackers, so it’s satisfying to see a “junk” tablet put to good use. We’re wondering what [sairuk] is going to do with his other two tablets — we’ve got a suggestion for what he should do if he had twenty kids.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUdgNsoNyIA

14 thoughts on “Broken Android Tablet Mini-MAME Cabinet

      1. you find a transgender bsdm dom who is also a surgeon for the criminal underworld and pay “her” $300 bucks to remove your testicles in a fun and exciting way.

        and thats how you avoid broken electronics!

    1. Well then maybe you should stop buying $80 Walmart special tablets. If your willing to spend $200+ you can find some very good Android tablets that most certainly are not broken by default.

      But as another person has already stated, you probably an Apple sheeple.

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