I made the unfortunate mistake of buying my first (and only) netbook PC about 2 months before the iPad came out. Once I got my iPad, the little ASUS netbook started gathering plenty of dust, and I’ve been wondering what I’m going to do with it. I think I finally have my answer.
Created by Rasmus Konig Sorenson, the Nanocade is the perfect netbook upgrade, turning your compact PC into a full-fledged mini arcade system. Actually, Rasmus built the first one with a Mini ITX board and a 10″ LCD monitor inside, but says a netbook would work perfectly too (although I’m betting you’d need to separate the screen from the keyboard portion to make it fit). The cabinet comes in kit form, and definitely looks like it would take some work to assemble, but the completed prototype sure looks swell.
When fully outfitted, the Nanocade has real arcade quality buttons and a joystick, and once connected to a netbook loaded up with MAME, you’ll be able to play just about any arcade game you want. The only real downside I see to the Nanocade is that the cabinet itself will cost $300 bucks, and then you still have to buy the joystick and buttons making it more costly than most netbooks themselves.
Oh well, I guess I could always just get one of these and call it a day.
[via The Red Ferret Journal]
