Welcome Fat Mule! (Love the username
)
If you want to start an N64 portable, I suggest taking a look at the N64 megasticky.
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=791
It has a ton of useful info. Since the N64 is a common first portable attempt, there is a ton of support. The best folks to lend help for that system would be ShockSlayer, Bentomo, Mario, and Beta. Others here know plenty, but those four I mentioned produce some pretty good quality work and/or have tons of experience with the N64.
Some nice first projects would be building an audio amplifier (
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1231&start=0 ), building an led flashlight (
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... lashlight/ ), or other various little projects. Feel free to ask in chat, people are very helpful.
If you are new to working with plastics, then I highly suggest buying a pre-made enclosure to house the guts of your portable. A good source of cases would be places like
http://www.polycase.com ,
http://www.okwenclosures.com/ , or a local place light Frys Electronics.
Which reminds me, the cheapest place to buy parts such as resistors, capacitors, potentiometers, or game systems and accessories would be Ebay. Just be wary about purchasing batteries, most stuff from China will not be as capacious as it advertises.
If you plan to immediately make your N64, make a new thread there with your plans like case design, or certain specifications you'd like to have your system meet. Read through all of the completed work logs in the n64 section, to give you a nice idea of how to start.
Welcome to the Forums!
!
